The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

June 25, 2009

FL: Powerful business lobby calls for a halt to prison construction & change in sentencing policies

Change sought in Florida prison system
A movement among powerful Florida leaders to overhaul the state's prison system is gaining steam as lawmakers grapple with shrinking resources.

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
Miami Herald
06.24.09

A call by Florida's most powerful business lobby to halt prison construction and reform the criminal justice system is gaining surprising traction among policymakers in the wake of a deepening budget crisis and growing evidence that building new prison beds will not reduce crime.

Four months after the head of Associated Industries of Florida stunned lawmakers with his plea to slow prison growth, a who's-who of business, religious and political leaders are asking Gov. Charlie Crist to consider alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, particularly drug addicts.

Crist and state lawmakers this week received an ''open letter'' from opinion-makers calling for a ``bold and serious conversation about justice reform.''

The statement was signed by three former Florida attorneys general -- Jim Smith, Bob Butterworth and Richard Doran -- along with retired Department of Corrections secretary James McDonough and the heads of the Florida Association of Counties and the Florida Catholic Conference.

''At a time when Florida is in serious recession and facing a deep state budget crisis, the $2 billion-plus budget of the Florida Department of Corrections has grown larger; and without reform, that budget will continue to grow at a pace that crowds out other mission-critical state services such as education, human service needs, and environmental protection,'' the group wrote.

Calling itself the Coalition for Smart Justice, the group is asking state leaders to bolster education, drug and alcohol treatment and faith-based and character-building programs both within the state prison system and in community settings as an alternative to prison.

Coalition members also want Crist to ''immediately implement'' a bill passed by the Legislature in 2008 that created ''the much needed'' Correctional Policy Advisory Council to offer new directions for criminal justice administration.

Staying the course, coalition members wrote, will lead to ``too many non-violent individuals being incarcerated, too many prisons needing to be built at astounding public cost [and] too many young people moving from the juvenile justice system into the adult justice system.''

BREAKING CYCLE

At the root of the state's failures, the group says, is the unwillingness of lawmakers to invest in programs -- such as job training, education and substance-abuse treatment -- that can break the cycle of crime and reduce recidivism.

McDonough, the state's former drug czar and prisons chief, said Florida can avoid the need to build a new $100 million prison each year by spending one-fifth that amount on drug treatment. ''The math is irrefutable,'' McDonough said. ``That's $100 million right there that you don't have to spend immediately.''

Gretl Plessinger, DOC's spokeswoman, said the equation is far more complicated. Since the prison system runs on a five-year cycle based on ''strategic projections,'' the corrections agency cannot simply ``stop construction on a dime.''

''Several projects are nearing completion,'' Plessinger said. ``We've already spent money, and to stop construction now would cost taxpayers quite a lot of money.''

DOC Secretary Walter McNeil does not favor the early release of inmates, Plessinger said, but does agree with the coalition's goal of increased spending on drug treatment and other programs designed to aid offenders' safe return to their communities. Close to 90 percent of state inmates eventually are released, she said.

''Secretary McNeil knows inmates who receive basic education, job skills training and substance abuse treatment are less likely to commit another crime and return to prison,'' Plessinger said. ``Through re-entry [programs], we can reduce our recidivism rate which will increase public safety and lower our inmate population.''

Sterling Ivey, a Crist spokesman, declined to discuss the letter in depth. ''We have received the letter and we are currently reviewing the information,'' he said.

A driving force in the coalition is J. Allison DeFoor II, an admittedly unlikely prison reform activist as a former Monroe County sheriff, prosecutor, judge and reelection running mate for former Gov. Bob Martinez. Now an ordained Episcopal priest, the colorful politician tends a ministry at Wakulla Correctional Institution near Tallahassee.

Among DeFoor's gripes: though faith-based programs at Wakulla have reduced recidivism among inmates from 33 percent to just 7 percent, Florida's waiting list for such programs has grown to 10,000-strong. ''I've seen everything that doesn't work,'' he says. ``And I've seen what does work.''

''I can flatly tell you that 75 percent of the people in the system -- probably more than that -- have substance abuse and psychological problems,'' and treatment, education and counseling can help many of those men and women stay out of prison, he said.

PREVENTION

Butterworth, a former Broward sheriff, prosecutor and 20-year attorney general, said his two-year stint as secretary of the Department of Children & Families reinforced his belief in the value of prevention dollars -- which are typically the first to be cut during lean years.

''Sometimes the worst dollar we spend,'' Butterworth said, ``pays for bricks and mortar.''

Florida still will need prisons for violent felons, Butterworth said. But spending $1 billion over the next decade to build new prisons for drug addicts and people with mental illness, he added, is ``nuts. There's just got to be a better way.''

Steve Seibert, a former Pinellas County commissioner and secretary of the Deparment of Community Affairs under Gov. Jeb Bush, said he discovered another reason for reform while touring an Overtown community center: Leaders told him 70 percent of the neighborhood's men were ex-felons.

'That was an `Aha' moment for me,'' said Seibert, who as director of policy for the Collins Center for Public Policy is a coalition leader.

``All the affordable housing, economic development, parks, water and infrastructure-type stuff doesn't mean squat when 70 percent of the men in a community are ex-felons.''

And most Americans appear to agree with him. A just-released poll by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency showed that nearly eight in 10 Americans favor probation, restitution and community service over prison for ''nonserious, nonviolent, nonsexual'' offenders.

McDonough, who calls himself a pragmatist, said that ultimately the most powerful winds steering reform are financial.

''I think the recession probably will bring the pendulum swing to its highest point and it will start to swing the other way,'' he said. ``Legislators don't want to spend that much money.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/v-fullstory/story/1111002.html

Posted by lois at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)

Editorial: Rape in Prison

Editorial
Rape in Prison
Published: June 23, 2009
NY Times
Rape accompanied by savage violence has long been part of prison life. Congress finally confronted this horrendous problem by passing the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. In addition to bringing attention to a long overlooked problem, the new law created a commission that has put forth a broad set of rape-prevention standards that deserve to become mandatory in correctional agencies throughout the country.

The commission report, released earlier this week, should come as alarming news. It suggests, for example, that rapes carried out by corrections officers and inmates are widespread, but the actual rates of rape vary widely from place to place.

Drawing on a federal survey of more than 63,000 state and federal inmates, the commission said that about 4.5 percent reported being sexually abused at least once during the previous 12 months. Extrapolating from this data, the commissioners estimate that there were at least 60,000 rapes of prisoners nationally during this period.

Young people in custody are particularly vulnerable. In pilot study of nine youth facilities, nearly 1 in 5 respondents reported one nonconsensual sexual contact during the previous year.

Rape is not inevitable, however. Strong leaders who are committed to fighting the problem can minimize these savage and traumatic assaults. For starters, the commission recommends that all correctional agencies develop explicit, written zero-tolerance policies on this issue.

These agencies, which need to do a better job of screening corrections workers, should adopt the policy that employees who participate in sexual assaults or look the other way while they occur will be fired. Zero-tolerance policies should eventually be integrated into collective-bargaining agreements with unions.

Beyond that, corrections agencies need to make it easier for people in custody to report rape without facing reprisal. The reports need to be promptly and thoroughly investigated. The agencies need to keep publicly accessible records on the reports and investigations. And they need to develop plans for preventing any rape scenarios that continue to recur.

The report represents a strong first step in confronting this problem. The next step lies with Attorney General Eric Holder, who can approve the report’s recommendations and thereby make the standards mandatory for federal prisons and state prisons that accept federal money.
A version of this article appeared in print on June 24, 2009, on page A28 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/opinion/24wed3.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Rape%20In%20Prison%20editorial&st=cse

Posted by lois at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2009

Panel to Issue Standards To Reduce Prison Rapes

Panel to Issue Standards To Reduce Prison Rapes
By SOLOMON MOORE- NY Times
June 22, 2009

A Congressional commission plans to issue recommendations on Tuesday for standards to reduce sexual assaults in the nation’s jails and prisons.

The commission cited an estimate by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that 60,500 state and federal prisoners were sexually assaulted in 2007.

Congress authorized the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to conduct the study and to issue binding standards for corrections agencies that will have the force of law. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will have one year to codify anti-sexual assault procedures, and state governors will have an additional year to signal their compliance with those standards or risk losing up to 5 percent of federal financing for corrections.

The commission recommended that agencies improve training for prison and jail employees for better detection of assaults, do a better job of classifying vulnerable inmates, reduce jail and prison overcrowding, and improve medical and psychological services for victims of sexual abuse.

Although most sexual assaults in prison involve inmates attacking fellow inmates, the commission also recommended stiffer penalties for correctional officials who tolerate or engage in abuse.

The commission said it was particularly concerned about sexual assaults among the rising numbers of juveniles confined in adult institutions and among immigrant detainees, many of whom avoid reporting crimes for fear of deportation.

The commission’s chairman, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., said in an interview Monday that despite a 2003 law intended to provide safeguards against sexual assaults, prison rapes had become almost a cliché in public discourse.

“The sad reality is that there has been indifference by some people associated with the system,” Judge Walton said.

He said a lack of resources and a “get-tough attitude on crime” by some politicians had led to increased penalties without providing for expanding prison and jail populations.

“Seems to me that at the same time we’re increasing penalties we should study the impact those new penalties are going to have and how they’re going to potentially create unsafe environments for people,” Judge Walton said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/us/23prison.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

Posted by lois at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2009

CO: Independent Ideas: Prison spending still shackles state budget Until sentencing laws change, not much can be done

Independent Ideas: Prison spending still shackles state budget
Until sentencing laws change, not much can be done

By By Mike Krause, For the Colorado Daily

Sunday, June 21, 2009

On June 3, Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 228, repealing the statutory spending limitation (the Bird-Arveschoug Act) that held the annual increase in general fund spending in Colorado to 6 percent.

But before anyone gets all teary-eyed -- whether from joy or sorrow -- because the majority Democrats in the Legislature finally will have the budgetary flexibility to spend as they see fit, take a breath.

Recent history shows that prison spending in Colorado, and the sentencing polices that drive that spending, has been constraining state spending for decades, and will continue to do so into the near future.

In 1985, the Legislature doubled the maximum penalties in Colorado's presumptive sentencing range for all levels of felony crimes. The average sentence length quickly increased by two-thirds, and Colorado's inmate population more than doubled in the next five years.

It has more than doubled again since.

In an effort to keep pace with the capacity demands of such unprecedented growth in the prison population, successive legislatures and governors have taken Colorado taxpayers on an extreme prison spending spree that has pushed corrections spending from less than 3 percent to nearly 9 percent of general fund spending.

It is a simple formula, but a dramatic increase in spending for one item as a percentage of the state's general fund (prisons) necessarily means that other spending items (such as health care and higher education) have had to decrease as a percentage of general fund appropriation.

This year's Joint Budget Committee budget briefing notes that in the 16 years since Colorado lawmakers implemented the 6 percent spending limit, prison spending has grown "at a compound annual rate of 9.5 percent." If prison spending had actually been held to the 6 percent growth, then last year's Department of Corrections operating budget would have been around $430 million; instead it was nearly $677 million.

So the current opportunity cost of Colorado's extreme prison spending spree is a quarter billion dollars that could have been spent on health care and higher education.

This year's budget increased prison spending by around 3 percent, and while this is considerably less than the more than 9 percent increase originally requested by, it is likely not nearly enough to allow the Department of Corrections to keep pace with the ever growing prison population. Despite a recent slowing trend, projections still estimate thousands more inmates by 2012, which in turn demands many more millions in new prison spending.

Spending doesn't drive the prison population, rather the prison population drives state spending. So regardless of what lawmakers do with the prison budget next session, inmates will keep showing up at the door. The Legislature's ability to affect prison spending lies in its prerogative to write sentencing law and policy

The fact that the Democrat majority had to take the axe to general fund spending items such as higher education and health care this year had little to do with the 6-percent spending limitation and everything to do with fiscally irresponsible prison spending.

And until such time as Colorado lawmakers find the will to make meaningful sentencing law reforms, this will continue to be the case.

Mike Krause directs the Justice Policy Initiative at the Independence Institute.
http://www.coloradodaily.com/news/2009/jun/21/prison-spending-still-shackles-state-budget/

Posted by lois at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2009

OK: DOC keep food costs low: $2.42 a day for 3 meals

DOC able to keep feeding costs low
By The Associated Press
Saturday, June 13, 2009

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The cash-strapped Oklahoma Department of Corrections has been able to offset the cost of feeding nearly 18,500 inmates daily because of an agricultural program that gives prisoners valuable skills, agency officials said.

In the past fiscal year, the agency's Agriculture Services unit has earned more than $888,000 in profit from the sale of agriculture products such as beef, firewood and pecans, according to a report given to the Board of Corrections on Friday.

Ken Klinger, who oversees the unit, told board members the agency's agriculture services not only makes a profit but gives inmates useful skills and occupies their time during incarceration.

"Making money on this is a side thing," Klinger said. "The true value of this program is that we work with inmates and give them skills and help the agency save money on its food costs."
ADVERTISEMENT

Using vegetables or meat raised and processed within the prison system allows the agency to better control its daily cost of feeding inmates, said Justin Jones, Corrections Department director. It costs the department $2.42 a day to feed inmates three meals a day, the fourth lowest figure in the country, Jones said.

Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina have lower daily rates for feeding inmates.

"I'd say we're feeding our inmates a little better," Jones said. Menus in the state's prison must be approved by a registered dietitian.

The state prisons' agriculture services unit has a budget of $10.6 million and includes dairy and beef cattle operations, a meat processing plant, gardens where vegetables are grown and a facility where those vegetables are processed and frozen for use later in the year or by other facilities.

Jones said while the unit makes a profit, its value is helping to keep food costs low.
___
Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com
http://www.pddnet.com/news-ap-doc-able-to-keep-feeding-costs-low-061309/

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

June 14, 2009

Testimony at Senate Hearing on national prison reform Commission introduced by Jim Webb

Testimony at Senate Hearing on national prison reform
June 13,2009

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs convened a hearing on proposed national prison reform legislation. Virginia Senator Jim Webb introduced bill S.714 in March to create a commission to thoroughly review the entire criminal justice system and make recommendations for reform in several areas of significant concern.

Since being introduced, the bill already has widespread support with 29 cosponsors in the Senate including Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Ranking Member Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Judiciary Committee member Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Numerous organizations, currently numbering 42, now endorse the legislative endeavor with interest continuing to expand as public awareness increases.

Other than Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), Senator Mary L. Landrieu (D-LA), and Senator Mark R. Warner (D-VA), no other senators from the southeastern states, including Georgia and Florida, have as yet expressed their support for this bill as cosponsors.

Speaking at the June 11 hearing, entitled “Exploring the National Criminal Justice Act of 2009,” Senator Webb compared the condition of the criminal justice system to be no less critical than have been the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. and the economic crisis the country faces. The senator asserts, “…the disintegration of this system, day by day and year by year, and the movement toward mass incarceration, with very little attention being paid to clear standards of prison administration or meaningful avenues of re-entry for those who have served their time, is dramatically affecting millions of lives, draining billions of dollars from our economy, destroying notions of neighborhood and family in hundreds of communities across the country….” The proposed legislation is the first major effort to examine and reform the United States criminal justice system in more than forty years.

“We need to take a comprehensive look at our criminal justice system…. As a nation, we can spend our money more effectively, reduce crime and violence, reduce the prison population, and create a fairer system. It is time to take stock of what is broken and what works and modify our criminal justice policies accordingly.” (See related article: ‘Pew “1 in 31” report on corrections: Challenges and opportunities.’)

Collaboration between Senator Webb’s office and more than 100 organizations that represent prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, former offenders, advocacy groups, think tanks, victims’ rights organizations, academics, prisoners, law enforcement, and numerous church organizations has generated significant interest and support for advancing this legislation.

Several experts in the legal, law enforcement, and volunteer services communities testified at the hearing, including Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department, Professor Charles J. Ogletree of Harvard Law School, Pat Nolan, Vice President of the Prison Fellowship, and Brian W. Walsh, Senior Legal Research Fellow at the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies of The Heritage Foundation.

Serving as vice president of the volunteer service organization the Prison Fellowship, Pat Nolan testified, “My work has given me a close up view of our criminal justice system across the country; and I must tell you our prisons are in crisis. Corrections budgets are literally eating up state budgets, siphoning off money that could be going to schools, roads and hospitals. The crisis in our criminal justice system is national in scope; and only a national commission can conduct the type of review that will help guide us into better policies and safer communities.”

Brian W. Walsh with The Heritage Foundation encouraged support in saying, “Reform experts who are serious about criminal-justice reform should draw encouragement from Senator Webb’s efforts to date to reach out to elected officials on both sides of the aisle and to criminal-justice reform advocates across the conservative-to-liberal spectrum.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-7357-Atlanta-Criminal-Rehabilitation-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Testimony-at-Senate-Hearing-on-national-prison-reform

Posted by lois at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2009

FL: Legislature gives OK to send prisoners out of state

FLORIDA PRISONS
Florida Legislature gives OK to ship inmates out of state
Sending criminals to out-of-state prisons is a 'safety valve' for
BY STEVE BOUSQUET
06.08.09
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida, famous for shipping orange juice all over the country, may yet be known for a very different kind of export: criminals.

With the inmate population hovering around 100,000 and the state lacking money to build new prisons, the Legislature has given the corrections department the authority to ship inmates to other states for the first time.

''It's a safety valve,'' says the plan's sponsor, Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who oversees prison spending. ``This is not a mandate. It's a passive safety net.''

Crist said shipping prisoners would be considered only as a last resort to avoid the early release of inmates because of overpopulation. The cost would be agreed upon in talks with the receiving states.

A prison bill (SB 1722) effective July 1 allows the state to ship inmates to state-run or private prisons in other states.

The nation's largest private prison company, Corrections Corporation of America, houses prisoners from eight states, including California, and has long promoted the transfer idea in Florida, without success. Sen. Crist insists he came to this idea himself and not at the behest of the prison industry.

CCA calls itself ''the leader in out-of-state housing'' on its website. It operates 62 prisons and has thousands of surplus beds in other states that it is eager to fill with convicted felons, and Florida has the nation's third-largest prison system.

A year ago, CCA urged the Legislature to follow 15 other states that export inmates, calling it ''cost-effective.'' The idea went nowhere, but that was before the bottom fell out of the economy and the state budget collapsed with a $6-billion shortfall.

''This is not a new issue,'' said CCA's Tallahassee lobbyist, Matt Bryan. ``This just gives the state another option to deal with a potential rapid influx of new inmates.''

Bryan noted that building a new 1,300-bed prison costs about $100 million. Next year's budget will be the first in recent memory with no money set aside for new prison construction.

Exporting inmates may never come to pass because Florida's inmate population has stabilized in recent months and has fallen below earlier projections. In fact, a new, 3,300-bed prison in rural Suwannee County is built but not yet fully open.

The prison population was at about 101,000 this week and the bed capacity is about 106,000. The population fluctuates daily and is constantly affected by the need to move prisoners who have special needs or for disciplinary reasons.

UNENTHUSIASTIC

Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil is not enthusiastic about exporting prisoners. He said it undermines the goal of reducing recidivism by encouraging inmates to build ties to the communities they will return to upon their release from prison.

The new law requires the Department of Corrections to take into account the proximity of an inmate's family before relocating the inmate.

One possible category of exported prisoners is illegal immigrants. As of June 2008, Florida prisons held 5,523 inmates who were undocumented immigrants in the U.S. About 60 percent were in prison for violent crimes.

PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE

The Florida Police Benevolent Association, a large and vocal union representing corrections officers, also opposes exporting inmates, partly because it would help the private prison industry the PBA has long opposed.

''Our preference would be to build public prisons and keep prisoners here in Florida,'' PBA's David Murrell said. ``When you start sending prisoners to other states, you're asking for trouble.''

According to news reports, Idaho officials last year removed about 300 prisoners from a GEO Group-run Texas prison because of understaffing and lax supervision. In Maine, civil rights groups and inmate lawyers said a plan to ship inmates to Oklahoma was a burden to families and would increase recidivism.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/1086743.html

Posted by lois at 09:13 PM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2009

Please act in support of the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter which is about to stop publication after 34 years due to $25,000 debt!

Friends,
Many of you know of the Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter. I found out about it when I started hearing from prisoners and many wrote how important it was for them to receive it. When the Real Cost of Prisons comic books were first published, I naively asked Mara Taub to place a notice about them in the Newsletter, about a month later, I finally stopped filling the first round of requests. Every month, the free Newsletter is read and re-read by tens of thousands of prisoners.

Now the Newsletter will stop publication due to a $25,000 debt accumulated over years. Their monthly mailing has grown to 9,142 prisoners! The Newsletter is a crucial lifeline. To think of it not being published for what is actually a small amount of money is extremely distressing. I hope you will agree with me that it deserves our support.

What can you do:
1) Send money. Checks can be sent to CPR, P.O. Box 1911, Santa Fe, NM 87504-1911. Contributions are tax deductible.
2) If you have contacts with funders, please forward this message to them. Mara Taub, the editor of the Newsletter, can be reached at the CPR address for specifics on their plans for the future and how they will be realized.
3) If you know of others who would want to support the Newsletter, please forward this to them.
4) Other funding ideas should go directly to Mara Taub.
Thank you.
Lois Ahrens

From the June 2009 Newsletter (Vol. 34, No.6)
A DIFFICULT BUT NECESSARY C.P.R. CHANGE

We need to let our readers know of the biggest, and hardest, change that the Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights has ever undergone. With this issue, we are suspending publication of our free, monthly, national eight page newsletter, begun in the fall of 1976. We do this with a great deal of regret, but acknowledgment of its necessity. Over the last 11 years, we have accumulated debt close to the size of our annual budget: $ 25,000. We need to begin to pay it off and not continue to owe more money.

We regret this necessity enormously. We believe in doing what we say we will do and therefore we take great care with what we say we will do. We will continue to send resources and information on request. We will include a one page, updated monthly, abbreviated C.P.R. Newsletter with each such response. And, above all, we will do our best to maintain the accuracy of our mailing list. PLEASE CONTINUE TO SEND US YOUR CHANGES OF ADDRESS. Regretfully we will be unable to add new names to our mailing list, but will keep all such requests on file for the future. You will hear from us as much as we can possibly manage.

Our chances of resuming publication of our full Newsletter will increase if our readers can financially support our debt reduction and fundraising efforts. Stamps, as well as financial contributions, continue to be most welcome.

We want to let you all know a little more about how the Coalition has been doing its work of publishing the Newsletter, responding to correspondence, answering additional requests, and education through a variety of public presentations.

We are an all volunteer group of approximately two dozen people at any one time. Some of us have been imprisoned, some are family members of those who are, all are deeply concerned about the sad state of human rights in our country. We pay no rent because we do our work around a large living room table. We have existed all this time (34+ years) by the thinnest of financial threads and a great deal of determination. We originally sent out Newsletters first class, less than 100 a month. Our May 2009 mailing was 9,142. From the over 500 letters a month we respond to (and will continue to answer), we believe we have a monthly readership of 50,000 or so. We have supported our work with individual donations (both in-kind and cash), contributions from faith communities, and a few grants from progressive foundations. As our work has grown, sources of money for the work have shrunk. This is a part of the changes in our country over the last 30 years in which, consistently, the poor have gotten poorer and the rich have gotten richer. The current world financial crisis has only made this situation worse..

We continue to believe that the U.S. prison system and its subsidiaries make our communities less, rather than more, safe. We will do all we can to continue to work to change this. Please join us!

In Solidarity, The Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights
PLEASE POST * PLEASE SHARE * PLEASE POST JUNE 2009

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

June 09, 2009

Why shouldn't prisoners receive their social security?

David Hinman, a prisoner in Iowa, wrote today and posed this question. He is 65 and when he was in the "free-world" contributed to social security. He is not eligible for parole for a number years. This is what he writes:
"Currently the government will not pay people in prison social security. I am speaking about paying social security to those who paid into the fund. Payment is based on what they paid in. Even though I am now 65 and paid into the fund, since I am in prison I am not allowed to collect unless I am released from prison. By not paying inmates the social security to which they are entitled, I believe this is in some manner, theft.
My question to readers is: should prison inmates who paid into social security and reached 65 be allowed to collected social security while incarcerated or not."
You can reach David Hinman (#25374), Anamosa State Penitentiary, 406 North High Street, P.O. Box 10, Anamosa, IA 52205-0010.
D

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

NH: Prison Recuiting by BOP

Going to prison the hard way

By: By CORIN HIRSCH, Staff Writer
6/5/2009

BERLIN -- Stay off drugs. Take a few more classes. Gain technology experience. Pay your bills.

It isn't advice from parents, a guidance counselor or even a probation officer -- but from a recruitment specialist from the federal Bureau of Prisons.

About 125 people attended a Bureau of Prisons recruitment workshop in this former mill town Wednesday night, and were given the lowdown on what they need to do to ready themselves for a potential career in corrections.

A year from now, the agency will start hiring staff for the 1,280 bed medium-security prison that is under construction north of the Notches (Pinkham, Crawford and Franconia). The $230 million prison is the second largest public works project in New Hampshire's history, and is expected to open in the fall of 2010.

Armed with a PowerPoint presentation, a high-spirited delivery and 18 years of experience recruiting for the agency, regional activation coordinator Cathi Litcher outlined potential positions, salaries and background requirements, and advised potential recruits to take the long view -- spend the next 12 months getting fitter, healthier and more law-abiding.

When FCI-Berlin opens next fall, 341 employees will be hired, from corrections officers to teachers, accountants, plumbers, drug treatment specialists and a chaplain, doctor and dentist. Litcher said that approximately 40 percent of the personnel will come from transfers within the agency, where moving from one institution to another is seen as a way of moving up in rank.

The other 60 percent -- approximately 200 people -- will be hired from the local area, if they can meet the agency's requirements. "Honestly, sometimes I have a hard time getting 60 percent," said Litcher. In addition to a clean background, a federal correctional officer needs to be under 37 at the time they are hired so they can put in the requisite 20 years of service before mandatory retirement at age 57.

The average age of Berlin's unemployed mill workers is 55, and young people leave the city in droves because of a lack of available work.

Some of Litcher's most emphatic advice for potential recruits was to have their credit histories in order, and their bills paid. "Don't let the federal interview be the first time you hear about your credit history. Meet the financial piece of the puzzle."

She said that unpaid bills and financial pressures leave an employee open to exploitation in a prison where a smuggled carton of cigarettes can fetch $800 and a cell phone can garner up to $1,200. "If you aren't paying your bills, don't think an inmate won't try to manipulate you."

Litcher told them to be upfront about past transgressions, because each applicant could expect a full background check. "You'd be surprised what your friends will give up when someone with a badge comes to ask about your background."

She also outlined a stringent interview process that includes a panel interview during which a trained psychologist and others ask "uncomfortable" questions. Applicants will also be required to watch a video of a disturbance and asked to describe it in writing. "You think working in a prison is all fun and games? No, it isn't."

If an applicant is hired, he or she then enters into rigorous training that includes three weeks at a training facility in Glynco, Ga., for courses in self-defense and firearms, as well as physical tests.

The Bureau of Prisons will soon be recruiting for three federal prisons nationwide. In addition to Berlin, federal prisons are being built in Mendota, Calif., and McDowell County, W.Va., and will be activated within the coming year.

All three areas regions share at least one thing in common: unemployment above the national average. Mendota has been called the "unemployment capital of California," where the jobless rate is a staggering 41 percent. In McDowell county, it is 9.9 percent, and In Coös County, unemployment is running at 9.5 percent.

When Litcher asked the crowd how many came from Berlin, most of the hands went up. Since the federal prison was first proposed in 2001, the main reasoning behind its construction has been the economic shot-in-the-arm it might bring to New Hampshire's North Country, which has been devastated in recent years by the shuttering of its paper and pulp mills. Those who are from the local area who work in a prison, and do not want to transfer, said Litcher, are called "homesteaders, and they are a rock-solid piece of our corrections puzzle."

The North Country may be on track for a corrections-based economy. Berlin already has one state prison -- the Northern New Hampshire Correctional Facility, where the gym has been converted to accommodate prisoners from the Lakes Region Facility in Laconia, which is closing.

New Hampshire Department of Corrections Commissioner Bill Wrenn traveled to Berlin last fall to talk to the city council about the possibility of building a state women's prison here, and in a speech earlier this spring, Gov. John Lynch suggested that the North Country could become home to a 2,000-3,000-inmate regional prison that houses inmates from neighboring states. The idea has not taken flight.

A sprinkling of people in the audience were from the neighboring towns of Gorham and Milan, and at least two were from southern New Hampshire. One of those was Jim Colby, 27, who saw a blurb about the event in the Nashua Telegraph and drove up to Berlin from Hollis, N.H. For several years, Colby has been trying to become a police officer, moving throughout southern New Hampshire and as far south as Philadelphia. But a hiring freeze in that city sent him back to the Granite State to look for work.

Colby had never been to Berlin, but is tempted into corrections by the job stability and salary. "It sounds like a good career. Why not?" The starting annual pay for a correctional officer is $37,953, and rises each year.

The seminar for job seekers was part of a series of forums sponsored by the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security. It was designed to inform recruiters, Realtors, contractors, educators and others about the prison's potential impact on the region.

Litcher said she will return to New Hampshire next spring for more recruitment seminars, including some in the southern part of the state, possibly Concord.

http://www.eagletimes.com/ET/LocalNews/story/090604-ch-NHprisonrecruiting

Posted by lois at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2009

In Politics, Fact, Fancy Can Blur in Keystroke,Bogus Claim Linking Jail, School Raised Election After Election: "third grade talking point debunked."

In Politics, Fact, Fancy Can Blur in Keystroke
Bogus Claim Linking Jail, School Raised Election After Election

'Third-grade' Talking Point Debunked
By Maria Glod and Rosalind S. Helderman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 4, 2009

"Imagine if your entire future was determined by what you did in the third grade," says Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in a television advertisement promoting his plan to expand preschool. "Did you know we use the failure rates of third-graders to help predict how many prison spots Virginia will need in 15 years?"

You didn't know? Could be because it's not true -- at least not in Virginia.

The startling claim has been cited by McAuliffe and one of his rivals, Brian Moran, as they seek the Democratic nomination for governor. It is an appealing bit of political rhetoric, providing a cinematic illustration of the benefits of expanding preschool: Society will reap long-term savings by spending money early on education.

In the world of politics, dubious claims can harden into conventional wisdom in a keystroke. Political campaigns now have access to an unlimited catalogue of reports, speeches and essays that swirl on the Internet. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Colin L. Powell and even the organizers of the Alexandria literacy festival have pointed to the link as a frightening example of how children can go astray. The Washington Post and the New York Times have published opinion columns that reference the connection.

"It's catchy," said Peter E. Leone, director of the National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice at the University of Maryland, often cited as the source of the link. "And it's totally bogus."

Campaign trail rhetoric has a tendency to value the emotional impact of a statement first and the facts second. During last year's presidential campaign, Democrat Barack Obama took heat for telling an NAACP forum that there are more young black males in prison than in college. Census data appear to dispute this. Republican Rudolph Giuliani said his chances of surviving prostate cancer were twice as high in the United States as in Britain "under socialized medicine," a claim later debunked. Democrat John Edwards insisted that the North American Free Trade Agreement has cost Americans "millions of jobs" but later was unable to cite a source.

But the effort to link third-grade reading scores and prison population has been particularly persistent -- hopscotching from one campaign season to another.

In Virginia, at least, it is definitely untrue. Barry R. Green, director of Virginia's Juvenile Justice Department, said that when officials draw up six-year plans for how much prison space the state will need, they rely on factors that include arrest and conviction trends, but not test scores or any other education data. A policy group convened at the end of the process discusses general social issues, Green added.

Everyone agrees that children who get a poor start in school are more likely to struggle academically and later fall prey to social ills. It's a point that McAuliffe has been joined in making by Moran, a former delegate, and state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (Bath), another Democratic rival. Each has called for boosting state spending on early childhood education.

Since the ad began airing in Richmond, Norfolk and Roanoke, McAuliffe's campaign has said third-grade scores aren't part of the official formula Virginia uses to plot prison construction. But the campaign says the ad was designed as a tangible and understandable way to bring home the idea that quality preschool is a smart investment.

"We feel comfortable using third-grade reading scores as a way of communicating, in shorthand, the importance of education in predictions of long-term social behavior, including predictions about crime rates, which are then used to determine the number of prison beds that we are constructing," said McAuliffe communications director Delacey Skinner.

'Third-grade' Talking Point Debunked
In these clips, two Democratic candidates for Virginia governor, as well as Hillary Clinton and Colin Powell, each discuss a link between third-grade reading scores and projected prison populations. This talking point has been discredited.

We've made some updates to washingtonpost.com's Groups, MyPost and comment pages. We need you to verify your MyPost ID by logging in before you can post to the new pages. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Moran made a statement similar to McAuliffe's in a radio interview last month: "If you don't have them by third grade, it's hard to get them back. We use our third-grade reading exams to determine potential for prison later on."

Leone has not ruled out the possibility that a state uses elementary test scores this way, but he has not found one.

"It's like an urban legend," Leone said, adding that he has been fielding calls for years from reporters and politicians researching similar assertions. Last year, he said, a member of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's staff called to check it out.

Prison officials in California called the claim "absolutely untrue," saying they must perennially debunk assertions that the state uses elementary reading in prison forecasts. A New York-based education group co-founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton and New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein pulled the information from its Web page in April after an online journalism site labeled it "fiction."

Still, the contention persists, growing more credible with each repetition. Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, former head of the U.S. Education Department's research arm, is sometimes cited as a source of the claim. He said he heard it and repeated it about six years ago in comments that can be found on the Internet. Later, he tried to trace it to its source and came up blank.

"I don't know if it is true or not and regret contributing to the dissemination of what may be an urban legend," Whitehurst said this week.

In campaign literature distributed with the ad, McAuliffe pegged the line to comments made by Norfolk Judge Jerrauld Jones at a teen violence summit he attended last year with another politician. Through his secretary, Jones, former director of the state Juvenile Justice Department, declined to comment.

The campaign also noted a state Department of Criminal Justice Services report that lists failure on third-grade reading tests as a factor that increases the risk of committing a crime.

Where else might McAuliffe have gotten the idea? Robley Jones, lobbyist for the Virginia Education Association, said possibly from him. Jones said he can remember saying something very similar at a recent roundtable discussion on education attended by McAuliffe.
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"If it's an urban legend, I'm probably one of those guilty of keeping it alive, because I thought it was true," Jones said.

Jones said he plans to stop saying that the state uses the scores to plan prison construction -- but he said he believes there is a correlation. "I think it may be almost a meaningless distinction, whether or not Virginia is actually using the figure," he said. "The fact of the matter is that the figure could be used accurately."

Diana Owen, an associate professor of political science at Georgetown University, said that despite the input of experts, future candidates will now have one more source to use to make the same claim. "A factoid like that will have another life in another campaign," she said. "Now that that ad's out there, people will cite the ad. I'm sure of it."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/06/03/ST2009060303653.html

Posted by lois at 05:55 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2009

AZ: Maybe or Maybe NOT? Following death of Marcia Powell from exposure DOC will discontinue the use of outdoor cages until they figure out an alternative

Ariz. prisons discontinue use of outdoor cells
Associated Press - June 2, 2009 8:54 PM ET

PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Department of Corrections has discontinued the use of outdoor holding cells following the death of an inmate in triple-digit heat.

Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson said in an e-mail Tuesday that the decision came "in consultation with the governor." He didn't elaborate.

The corrections department had announced last week that it was halting use of the cells while they were retrofitted to provide shade and water.

Inmate Marcia Powell died from heat-related complications hours after she collapsed May 19. She had been in an outdoor holding cell for nearly four hours, almost twice as long as the maximum allowed under prison rules.

http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=10467740&nav=menu613_2_6

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

Prison inmate policies revised following death

by Casey Newton - Jun. 5, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

State prison officials plan to check on inmates kept in outdoor enclosures every half-hour under policy changes expected to be approved today.

Charles Ryan, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, is revising prison policies in an effort to prevent situations such as the one that led to the death last month of inmate Marcia Powell.

Powell, 48, died after being held in 107-degree temperatures in an outdoor cage for nearly four hours. She collapsed while awaiting transfer to another cell for psychiatric observation.

After consulting with the office of Gov. Jan Brewer, Ryan eliminated the use of outdoor cages for inmates being transferred for observation. But outdoor enclosures will remain in use for some cases, including recreation for prisoners separated from the general population.

Some prisons also have shaded outdoor enclosures that hold prisoners while they await medical treatment.

Under the planned revisions, a corrections officer and a supervisor will be required to check on inmates held in outdoor enclosures every 30 minutes, recording those checks in a log.

The mandated checks are designed to ensure officers do not lose track of any prisoner being held outside temporarily.

Prison officials are still working through where they will hold inmates awaiting transfer. They had been using 233 outdoor enclosures in 10 state prisons.

About 40,000 prisoners are in the state prison system.

"We're going to make do with the space that we have inside," Ryan said.

Powell's collapse occurred at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville in Goodyear. Ryan launched an internal-affairs inquiry and a criminal investigation into possible neglect.

A deputy warden, a captain and the lieutenant in charge of supervising Powell have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

Ryan said the investigation should be completed in two to three weeks. After critics argued that his department should not investigate itself, Ryan said he would refer the results to the state Department of Public Safety for an independent review.

"I absolutely want the investigation to be thorough, to be accurate and to be objective," Ryan said.

Posted by lois at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)

June 02, 2009

AZ: Support for mentally ill is essential to help prevent more people from jail and the streets

Support for mentally ill is essential

by Ann Rider - Jun. 2, 2009 12:00 AM
Special for the Arizona Republic

The tragic death of Marcia Powell, a mentally ill woman who died in an outdoor holding pen at Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville, may be only the beginning. The Arizona Senate, in cutting over $76 million of funding in Senate Bill 1145 and Senate Bill 1188, may sentence people with psychiatric disabilities to the streets or prisons for support.

In this newest round with the budget, the Republican Senate proposes to cut eligibility for services to only individuals below 100 percent of Federal Poverty Level.

One of the proposals is to change the law that supports community services for individuals with mental illness, so that the state "may" provide services.

This means all services statewide will be eliminated for about 67,500 individuals.

Tens of thousands of people won't be able to fill their prescriptions; the medications they need are not cheap. They're not available at Walmart for $4. These tens of thousands of people will quickly become very ill and where will they go?

Already, hospitals deny evaluations because there is no benefit for treatment, so what will happen when your loved one begins to feel despair and considers suicide? Unless you have very good health insurance, there will be no services.

In Maricopa County, approximately 19,000 individuals are class members in the Arnold vs. Sarn lawsuit, which forced the state to provide community services. Because of this lawsuit, thousands of people receive services that help them go back to work, find independent housing, and reclaim a full life in the community. These services allow people to actually recover and become productive citizens.

SB 1145 impacts the possibility of recovery in several ways. First, by changing "shall" to "may," the state "may" dismantle a public behavioral-health system built over decades. This cuts not only services, but thousands of jobs. Second, by denying services to tens of thousands of people, we ensure that instead of creating productive citizens, we create disability for life.

This picture is not just possible; this is what will happen unless this Senate action is stopped. People with mental illness are not lazy; they are not shirking their responsibility. For the most part, they do everything they can to overcome great difficulties and find a meaningful life, just like everyone else. But without services and supports, it's impossible.

The cost down the road is horrendous too, within a few months. Where will thousands of people go? To jail for crimes such as panhandling. Locked in a hospital, if we can find beds. Onto the streets.

We must do better. There will be many more Marcia Powells before this is all over, unless we consider other options for balancing the budget. There are reasonable alternatives to these drastic cuts.

We must support options that keep our state thriving - for everyone.

Ann Rider is director of Recovery Empowerment Network, a statewide coalition of people recovering from psychiatric disabilities.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2009/06/02/20090602rider02.html

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

May 30, 2009

Ariz. halts use of outdoor prison holding cells

Ariz. halts use of outdoor prison holding cells

By JONATHAN J. COOPER 5-30-09

PHOENIX (AP) — The director of Arizona state prisons has suspended the use of unshaded outdoor holding cells in the wake of an inmate's death.

Authorities said Friday that crews will retrofit the cells to provide shade and water.

The move follows the death last week of 48-year-old Marcia Powell. She was left in an unshaded enclosure for nearly four hours May 19 as temperatures topped 100 degrees.

Corrections Director Charles Ryan says Powell, who was serving a sentence for prostitution, should not have been left in the cell for so long. He placed three officers on administrative leave pending a criminal investigation.

The outdoor cells hold inmates temporarily when they are being transferred from one area in a prison to another.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsV8vjqxQYd1axkrcnJIPHOyKSFAD98G29380

Posted by lois at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2009

Santa Barbara CA: Officials Mull Privatizing Mental Health Services by signing contract with Prison Health Services

Prison System for Sale
Officials Mull Privatized Jail Mental Health Services
Thursday, May 28, 2009
By Benjamin Gottlieb

Santa Barbara County’s jail mental health system officially is for sale. The prospective buyer — a private Tennessee-based prison health company — is already lined up with a July 1 move-in date.

This is the way the Sheriff’s Department broke the news at a special meeting of the Santa Barbara County Mental Health Commission on Tuesday, informing the council of the proposed transition of mental health services from county Mental Health to the private company Prison Health Services (PHS). The pitch, helmed by Sheriff Bill Brown, touched on the department’s various budget problems and the need to improve mental health services in County Jail, which oversees the largest number of the mentally ill in the county. “Over the years — with the closure of mental health facilities across the state — County Jail has become the de facto mental health facility,” Brown explained. “The jail is not the best place for people with mental health problems; however, there will always be people in the county’s jail with mental illness because of the nature of the crimes committed.”

According to the proposed plan, PHS would sign a two-year contract to operate its jail mental health services, with an option to extend the contract for an additional two years. A contract with PHS would allow the jail to obtain what officials call crucial mental health objectives currently unmet by county Mental Health: Institute for Medical Quality accreditation, two on-site licensed social workers, 24/7 coverage for mental health assessments, and others. With one out of five incarcerated Americans suffering from mental illness, Sheriff’s officials say the ailing, 38-year-old jail is not only grossly overcrowded — around 50 inmates above capacity each day — but unable to meet its mental health needs.

A decision on transferring jail mental health services to PHS has already been reached on the part of county officials. The plan was received with unanimous support from Mental Health, the Sheriff’s Department, and of course PHS. Additionally, Mental Health officials stated that the new management would operate with no additional cost. Ann Detrick, county Mental Health director, said her office understands how important programs such as the 24/7 coverage for mental health assessments are to the jail. “I support what the Sheriff is planning to do,” Detrick said.

Brown said the PHS contract would save more than $500,000 in a so-called apple-to-apple comparison. In layman’s terms, PHS could provide the services conducted by Mental Health, plus more, $500,000 cheaper. Both Brown and Mental Health officials assured council and community members repeatedly that the plan to privatize jail mental health services is not a reflection of the performance of current county Mental Health staff. However, George Green — a member of SEIU Local 620, representing jail mental health workers — argued that the plan would wrest jobs away from Santa Barbarans. “I respect Sheriff Brown a great deal, [however] I am shocked by this group’s decision,” Green said. “The county must first engage in bargaining with the union before such a plan in finalized.”

Rod Holliman, PHS’s president of community corrections, stated his company could solve the county’s jail mental health problems. “Medical practice behind bars is the most complex,” Holliman said, noting that PHS provides mental health services to 40 facilities and possesses the resources to improve what’s currently being offered. To the company’s credit, PHS’s accreditation record includes the National Commission on Correctional Health Care and the American Correctional Association — one of the oldest and largest correctional associations in the world. The private company made its money in the incarceration business, boasting $576 million in annual revenue for 2009.

Lacking a quorum, the Mental Health Commission was unable to rule on the proposal, however 3rd District Councilmember Ann Eldridge spoke of it confidently. “We cannot take a vote today, but I feel very comfortable about what I heard,” Eldridge said. If Brown has his way, Santa Barbara will welcome PHS in July.
http://www.independent.com/news/2009/may/28/prison-system-sale/

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

May 28, 2009

States and cities attempt to charge prisoners to stay

Debt to society costs some criminals $60 a night
By Tracy Loew, USA TODAY
May 28, 2009
Get arrested in Springfield, Ore., this fall, and you might spend the night in jail — then get a bill for your stay.

The city plans to charge convicted criminals up to $60 a night, depending on their ability to pay, when a new 100-bed lockup opens in October, Springfield Police Chief Jerry Smith says. Thus, the city could recoup most of its cost of about $70 a day.

"These people are the ones who cause the cost to operate a jail, so they ought to be the ones to pay it, not private citizens," Smith says.

The economic recession is spurring several local governments to turn to pay-to-stay programs, says Sara Totonchi, public policy director for the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights, which fights legislation that imposes such fees on inmates.

"In these difficult economic times, policymakers are looking for different options to save money," Totonchi says.

Springfield is one of at least five city and county jails that this year started billing inmates for jail time if they are found guilty.

• In Utah, the Salt Lake County Metro Jail charges inmates $40 each day, Sheriff James Winder says. The Box Elder County Jail in Brigham City, costs $10 per day. Since the plan started April 1, about a third of the inmates have paid the fee, Box Elder's jail commander Sandy Huthman says.

• Missouri's Taney County, which includes Branson, charges $45 for a day at the jail in Forsyth, county prosecuting attorney Jeffrey Merrell says.

•Richmond, Va., began charging inmates $1 per day April 15. The few who can't afford that small amount can work jobs in the jail to earn the money, Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr. says. The city hopes to raise between $60,000 and $200,000 a year, he says.

Woody says Richmond started the fee because taxpayers are tired of footing the bill to house criminals while other vital services are being cut from municipal budgets.

"I'm just getting on board to relieve some of the responsibility off of taxpayers," Woody says.

Not everyone can pay. In Springfield, unpaid accounts will be turned over to a collection service, Smith says, and debtors could end up in small claims court.

The Douglas County Jail in Roseburg, Ore., also uses a collection agency, jail spokesman Dwes Hutson says. The jail has charged inmates $60 per day since 2002 but recently cut the fee to $20.

"We found that inmates got such a huge bill that it was hard for them to pay," Hutson says. "We collect more money charging a more reasonable rate."

In Salt Lake County, indigent inmates are not billed, and some who participate in improvement programs can work off their debt, Winder says.

A few jails have been collecting similar fees for years. Klamath County Jail in Oregon has charged $60 per day since 2003, District Attorney Ed Caleb says. Overland Park, Kan., bills inmates $35 for a day in the county jail, Overland Park Municipal Court Administrator Robin Barnard says. Last year, though, Overland Park collected only 39% of the user fee, Barnard says.

Totonchi says the fee can be a burden on inmates' families, who often end up footing the bill. Jailers acknowledge that the fee can be difficult to collect.

"We're not stupid. We realize we're not going to recover 60 bucks from everybody," Springfield's Smith says.

Loew reports for the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-05-27-payforjail_N.htm

Posted by lois at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)

Ohio to release some very sick prisoners to nursing homes

Some ailing Ohio inmates going to nursing homes
The Associated Press
May 28, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio ‹ Officials say Ohio plans to send as many as 40 ailinginmates to nursing homes to ease prison overcrowding and save money.

Prisons system assistant director Michael Randle says terminally ill orotherwise bedridden prisoners are expensive.

He says the inmates going to homes will be considered released, as if onparole, making them eligible for Medicaid or Medicare.

A law in effect since March allows for early parole for prisoners who meet certain medical criteria.

The head of a group of nursing home operators says the inmates will have to be screened carefully. But Peter Van Runkle of the Ohio Health Care Association says those coming to the homes will essentially be incapacitated, so patients and their families will have nothing to fear.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/some-ailing-ohio-inmates-going
-to-nursing-homes-136729.html

Posted by lois at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)

CA: Valley is the best place for Gitmo prison

Valley is the best place for Gitmo prison
Wednesday, May. 27, 2009
By Bill McEwen / The Fresno Bee

President Barack Obama has a problem, and I've got a solution.

He wants to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center, but most American politicians don't want anything to do with housing suspected terrorists in their backyards.

I say bring them on -- the detainees, not the politicians.

If any region deserves a brand new supermax prison and the opportunity to keep some of the world's most dangerous figures under lock and key, it's the San Joaquin Valley.

Let's face it: the Obama administration -- married as it is to environmental interests -- isn't going to send enough water this way to sustain agriculture, our lifeblood.

But the president can show us some love and inject an estimated $1 billion a year into one of America's poorest economies by letting us help him shutter Gitmo.

If executives at the Regional Jobs Initiative aren't working on this plan -- code name: Operation Gitmo Money for Us -- they should be fired.

Already, we've got competition.

The townsfolk of Hardin, Mont. -- population 3,384 -- have a new $27 million prison sitting empty. The prison was built in belief that the state would send them inmates, but things didn't pan out.

Residents there are clamoring for detainees, but not everyone is keen on the idea.

"We're not going to bring al-Qaida to Big Sky country. No way. Not on my watch," Sen. Max Baucus of Montana told Time magazine.

There's also talk of building a supermax in Michigan for Guantánamo detainees as a way of alleviating the economic crisis triggered by the woes of Detroit's automakers.

But nobody does prisons like us. Minimum security. Medium security. Maximum security. Private. State. Federal.

We've got 'em all.

Plus double-digit unemployment spiking to 40% on the Valley's west side.

It's not like hard-working, God-fearing, gun-toting Valley residents would lose sleep over 240 more hard cases in their ZIP code.

One-third of California's state prisons are in the Valley. One of them -- Corcoran -- is home to both Charles Manson and Juan Corona.

Besides, nobody has escaped a supermax facility, and 347 convicted terrorists already are imprisoned on U.S. soil.

So, how do we turn Operation Gitmo Money for Us into reality?

Our local congressional delegation -- Democrats and Republicans -- must unite and tell Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer that the Central Valley is ready to go into the detainee business.

The senators then relay to the president that they have a win-win proposition. If Obama says that he doesn't think the state will accept the detainees, they can trot out this old maxim: "The Valley isn't part of California; it's another planet altogether."

Who knows? This might be the start of something bigger -- maybe even a temporary suspension of the Endangered Species Act.

How? If he sees the chance to end an international scandal over Guantánamo by putting a new prison in the Valley, there's no way that Obama will let any critter -- be it smelt or kangaroo rat -- stand in the way.
http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/mcewen/story/1431497.html

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

May 26, 2009

Reps. Kenyatta Johnson and Ronald Waters Call for Review of Criminal Justice System in PA

Pa. lawmakers want to examine criminal-justice from all angles
By DANA DiFILIPPO
Philadelphia Daily News
May 23, 2009
Two months after federal lawmakers announced plans for a top-to-bottom study of the nation's criminal-justice system, two state lawmakers from Philadelphia yesterday called for a similar reform-minded review of Pennsylvania's system.

Reps. Kenyatta Johnson and Ronald Waters detailed legislation they recently introduced - now in the Senate Judiciary Committee - during a news conference yesterday outside the Criminal Justice Center in Center City.

"Pennsylvania's criminal justice system is in much need of repair," said Johnson, D-Phila. "Prisons are overcrowded, sentencing policies are uneven and often unfair, ex-convicts are poorly integrated into society, and the growing problem of gang and street violence has not received the attention it deserves."

The lawmakers have ambitious plans for the study, saying it should address the costs of incarceration; crime and gang activity in and out of prison; prison health care; mentally ill inmates; reintegration programs for ex-offenders; jail overcrowding, infrastructure and living conditions; the overrepresentation of minorities in prison; and other issues.

The state remains too focused on housing its swelling population of inmates rather than proactively addressing the problems that landed them behind bars, Waters said. Plans to build four new prisons are under way in a state that already has 26.

"We are preparing for more people to become victims of crime," Waters said. "Taxpayers should be outraged at the amount being spent on corrections, and they still can't feel safe walking down the street. There's something wrong with the way we are responding to crime, and we need to fix it."

The study would be conducted by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, Johnson said.

Bill DiMascio, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, applauded the plan.

"During the past two to three decades, Pennsylvania's population has remained pretty steady, yet the growth in our prison population has almost quadrupled," DiMascio said. "It's not because our people are getting more lawless. It really is an issue of our criminal justice policies."

The federal plan, introduced in March by Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Jim Webb, D-Va., would create a commission charged with conducting an 18-month comprehensive review of the nation's criminal justice system and offering recommendations for reform. *
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/45901367.html

Posted by lois at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2009

Black prison population in Iowa could grow--now 2% of population and 24 % of prisoners

Black prison population in Iowa could grow

By MIKE GLOVER | Associated Press Writer
May 14, 2009
Chicago Tribune
DES MOINES, Iowa - Blacks continue to be incarcerated in Iowa prisons at a number far out of proporation to their overall population in the state, and that disparity is expected to grow over the next 10 years, state prison officials were told Wednesday.

The state began to study the racial breakdown of prison inmates under former Gov. Tom Vilsack, and that initial study found that 24 percent of the state's prison beds are occupied by blacks who make up roughly 2 percent of the population.

The Iowa Board of Corrections was told that those numbers remain unchanged as of last year but are expected to grow.

"The projections are that the percent of African-Americans in prison will slightly increase over the next 10 years," said Lettie Prell, research director for the Iowa Department of Corrections. She said tougher penalties for crimes like robbery will likely lead to the increase.

Prell also said there is a disparity in sentencing practices when sentences are measured by race.

She said 48.3 percent of blacks convicted of serious drug charges receive prison time, compared to 36.5 percent of whites. That same disparity is seen throughout the range of felony drug cases.

Looking at the correctional population as a whole, just over 20 percent of whites in the corrections system are in prison or confined in community facilities, while nearly 40 percent of blacks in the corrections system are in prison or confined in community facilities.

"On the whole, incarceration rates for African-Americans is higher than for whites for the various types of crimes," Prell said.

Prell said studies have shown a broad array of social and economic forces account for the disparity in prison population.

"They go way beyond the scope of corrections itself," she said.

Prell said corrections officials have launched pilot projects in Waterloo and Des Moines that begin before an inmate is released and are designed to closely supervise inmates and offer a variety of counseling programs. Early results are encouraging, though a tight state budget has reduced available funding for those efforts, she said.

"We're doing what we can to grow those initiatives," Prell said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-blacks-prisons,0,4971654.story

Posted by lois at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

May 13, 2009

Justice Policy Institute: 2010 Department of Justice Budget Likely to Increase Incarceration in U.S.

2010 Department of Justice Budget Likely to Increase Incarceration in U.S.
Overspending in law enforcement, prisons and under-spending in prevention, treatment and communities won’t yield long term improvements, will cause increased costs for states
May 13, 2009

WASHINGTON—The President’s Department of Justice (DOJ) budget will likely lead to growing incarceration rates, according to an analysis by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a Washington, D.C.-based public policy organization. JPI’s analysis of the budgets released by the Administration late last week points to increases in spending for law enforcement and decreases in juvenile justice expenditures – what research says is the opposite of what is needed to have a long term impact on public safety and the number of people incarcerated in the United States.

Fact sheet at- http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/09-05_FAC_FY2010%20Budget%20Factsheet_PS.pdf

“Police serve an important role in the United States, but overpolicing can be just as problematic as underpolicing,” said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of JPI. “What we have seen is that the more money spent on law enforcement, the more people are arrested for nonviolent drug offenses. This results in millions of dollars in incarceration costs for states, with little impact on public safety or, for that matter, rates of illicit drug use.”

JPI observed that the Administration itself recognizes that increased law enforcement leads to increased incarceration: the DOJ budget includes funding for two new federal prisons and 1,000 new contracted (private) prison beds. Currently, half of the people locked up in federal prisons were convicted of a drug offense. Velázquez indicated that the lack of investment in juvenile justice programs was especially troubling.

“Back in 2002 we spent over $546 million on programs to prevent and address youth delinquency. Unfortunately, this Administration is choosing to keep juvenile justice funding at the levels of the last eight years – their 2010 budget is less than 60 percent of the 2002 budget, not even taking inflation into account. Getting and keeping kids on the right track is a proven way to improve public safety, and it means more kids going on to become responsible adults that contribute to their communities and the economy.”

JPI did laud the Administration for their investment in the Second Chance Act, a program that provides services for people re-entering the community from prison. JPI noted that the majority of people released from prison are re-arrested within three years; by improving their chances of success, states stand to reduce their incarceration rates substantially. However, Velázquez remarked, “We can’t just focus on ‘re-entry,’ we need to invest in ’no-entry’ policies – those that will keep people out of prison in the first place.”

Recommendations to the Administration and Congress focus on investing in programs and policies that have been shown to have positive and long-lasting effects on individuals and communities. These programs include: community-based substance abuse and mental health treatment; evidence-based prevention programs for youth; employment, job skills, and education resources for underserved communities; diversion programs that keep people from entering the corrections system; and re-entry services for people leaving the criminal justice system.

“We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world, with little to no evidence that these increasing rates are improving public safety,” said Velázquez. “We can’t arrest and incarcerate our way to public safety. We hope the Administration takes a harder look at where they want to spend their money. While politicians may think that ratcheting up law enforcement spending is politically popular, it may not be the best investment if the goal is to build safer, healthier communities rather than more prisons.”

Posted by lois at 01:20 PM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2009

States expand videoconferencing in prisons

"Relying on technology to keep inmates behind bars makes them “disappear more and more from the public consciousness, and I think there’s a (negative) long-term consequence of that,” said Nancy Stoller, a professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz and the coordinator of a jail and prison task force at the American Public Health Association."

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
States expand videoconferencing in prisons
By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer

Faced with the high costs of transporting and escorting sick inmates to the doctor, states are expanding their use of videoconferencing to provide health consultations to prisoners without resorting to costly — and sometimes dangerous — off-site trips.

Illinois is considering joining at least 26 other states that use “telemedicine” to help sick prisoners get advice from doctors, according to Derek Schnapp, a spokesman with the state Department of Corrections. State prison officials recently met with their counterparts from Texas — which has been using telemedicine for years and is considered a national leader — to discuss whether it should be introduced in Illinois, Schnapp said.

Elsewhere, videoconferencing in prisons and jails is replacing inmates’ in-person trips to the courtroom or parole board, and even the way family members visit.

Supporters say the technology saves money when few states have funds to spare; Arizona, for instance, saved $237,000 in 2008 by using telemedicine at nine correctional facilities, according to the state Department of Corrections. But some have criticized the expansion of videoconferencing.

Relying on technology to keep inmates behind bars makes them “disappear more and more from the public consciousness, and I think there’s a (negative) long-term consequence of that,” said Nancy Stoller, a professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz and the coordinator of a jail and prison task force at the American Public Health Association.

Telemedicine is not a new invention, but experts say the recession could drive more states to consider it. Many of those that already rely on telemedicine, meanwhile, are using it for a wider range of purposes.

In Georgia, about 700 of the state prison system’s 1,000 monthly videoconference consultations between doctors and inmates are for psychiatric — not physical — problems, said Alan Adams, director of the Office of Health Services for the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Adams said he is surprised at how popular “telepsychiatry” — as the practice is called — has proven among doctors and inmates alike. Prisoners who might otherwise have reservations about face-to-face psychiatric evaluations, Adams said, tend to speak more openly when they are connected to doctors through a video link.

“It takes some of the personal nature of the contact away and allows the inmate to be more open and free,” Adams said, predicting that more states will use telepsychiatry.

Telemedicine and telepsychiatry work by letting inmates and doctors communicate with each other using interactive, real-time audio and video links.

The practice — which has been praised by the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care — is most often used for consultation, not treatment. Doctors, for example, can check up on inmates after they have had surgery and recommend further action. On-site nurses usually assist the doctors by employing stethoscopes, taking inmates’ blood pressure and carrying out other in-person tasks.

Cost savings can be especially significant when inmates are located in rural prisons that can be hundreds of miles away from specialists. A 2006 California legislative audit, meanwhile, noted that telemedicine also can save taxpayer money because it allows a larger pool of medical providers — not just those in the vicinity of a state prison — to compete for state contracts.

Many states also are using videoconferencing to avoid transporting prisoners to court for arraignments and other initial appearances, according to Greg Hurley, an analyst with the National Center for State Courts, which researches court trends across the nation. Parole hearings also can be conducted by videoconference.

Connecticut last year finished installing videoconferencing equipment at all 18 of its state correctional facilities and the state’s court system is studying ways to expand the practice. The state’s corrections commissioner, Theresa Lantz, noted that videoconferencing saves the state money it would otherwise have to spend on vehicles, gasoline, correctional officers and overtime.

Illinois and other states also are looking at videoconferencing to let prisoners talk with family members who might not be able to make the trip to visit them in person.

Four states — Florida, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin — recently have changed their laws to allow so-called “virtual visitation” as an option in family court, allowing some divorced parents to “visit” their children using Skype and other video communications programs. Now, there is a growing push among prisoner advocates to allow virtual visitation for those behind bars as well.

The Pennsylvania Prison Society, a nonprofit advocacy group, has partnered with the state Department of Corrections since 2001 to allow inmates’ families to come to the organization’s offices and speak on a video link with their loved ones serving time. A 55-minute session costs the family $20, according to the group’s Web site.

While virtual visitation has primarily been hailed for making visitations between inmates and their families easier, some state officials see savings for the taxpayer as well.

When family members don’t come to visit inmates in prison, “that’s one less person that has to be searched. That’s one less person you need to use full-time staff to keep an eye on during visitation,” said Michael Nail, deputy director of the corrections division for the Georgia Department of Corrections. In addition, Nail said, videoconferencing reduces the possibility that contraband material — such as drugs or weapons — will find its way into prison.

Indeed, concerns about public safety have played a major role in the expansion of videoconferencing behind bars. That is particularly true in states that have seen correctional officers, medical professionals or others assaulted — or even killed — during inmate trips away from prison.

In June 2007, for example, a 27-year-old white supremacist doing time at the Utah State Prison stole a gun from a 60-year-old correctional officer who was overseeing him during a trip to a Salt Lake City medical center for an MRI. The inmate, Curtis Allgier, killed the officer before being tracked down and arrested by the authorities at a city fast-food restaurant.

The incident — which rocked Utah and made national headlines — resulted in a series of changes in the Utah’s correctional facilities, said Angie Welling, a spokeswoman with the state corrections department. Utah State Prison now offers MRIs and dialysis on site, and the state has expanded its use of telemedicine to cover specialized areas of medicine: cardiology, dermatology, obstetrics and orthopedics. The aim is to cut down on potentially deadly trips to the hospital.

“It’s sad to think that something of that tragic nature is necessary to kick-start some of these initiatives,” Welling said.

But the proliferation of videoconferencing equipment in prisons and jails has not come without criticism.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a state workers’ union, has criticized Illinois officials for considering using telemedicine — which may cut down on the need for correctional officers in some settings. “At face value, we don’t believe telemedicine in prison settings is a good idea,” an AFSCME spokesman told the Quad-City Times.

Others have questioned the long-term implications of using videoconferencing for health care and other purposes. Stoller, the University of California-Santa Cruz professor, questioned whether the quality of care offered through telemedicine consultations compares to seeing a doctor in person.
Expanded videoconferencing could have long-term consequences on prisoners’ mental health and their ability to interact effectively with others, she said.
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=399298

Posted by lois at 08:57 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2009

"Aging Behind Bars" by James Ridgeway

Aging Behind Bars
April 21, 2009 ·
By James Ridgeway

Among the grotesque realities of modern American life is the exponential rise of geriatric prisoners–men and women in their 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s, who committed crimes decades ago, are feeble and ill, yet remain incarcerated not only as a punitive measure, but on the premise that are a threat to society. Many of these people want to get out of prison only so they can die in what many call the “free world.”

People age faster behind bars faster than they do on the outside: Studies have shown that prisoners in their 50s are on average physiologically 10 to 15 years older than their chronological age, so 55 is old in prison. And even by conventional standards, the United States is experiencing an exponential jump in the number of old people in prison. The causes of this increase go beyond the graying of the population at large: Long mandatory sentences without parole mean that offenders who enter prison while still in their teens or twenties may remain there until they are old–if they don’t die first.

The problem is most acute in states like California, Texas, and Florida, which have large prison systems and strict and harsh sentencing laws. In California, the population of prisoners over 55 doubled in the ten years from 1997 to 2006. This contributes to the overcrowding that has reached crisis proportions. It also yields a sense of utter hopelessness within prison walls. At the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, some 85 to 90 percent of the men who pass through the prison gates will never leave. Angola has its own hospice, mortuary, and graveyard.

Older offenders are of course more likely to suffer from serious medical conditions, and unlikely to receive the care they require. Old people in any institutional setting may find that their health complaints are not taken seriously, due to some combination of dismissive attitudes and cost-cutting. In prison, such factors apply in the extreme. When I spoke with health care providers working in one Southern prison, they described a diabetic man’s illness was misdiagnosed by the prison, resulting in months of excruciating pain and the amputation of toes and part of one foot. Back in prison, the man asked for prosthetic shoes so he could get around by walking; his request was denied. Another man complained of an earache for months. He was given drops, but the pain persisted. Eventually he was sent to a local hospital emergency room, where doctors discovered the earache was in fact brain cancer, which might have been treated if discovered back when he first complained. Now he is terminal.

Brie Williams of the University of California Medical School at San Francisco and Rita Albraldes, an independent researcher, recently completed a study that was published as a chapter in the book Growing Older: Challenges of Prison and Reentry for the Aging Population. They found that the cost for each geriatric inmate came to $70,000 a year. In addition to the chronic diseases that increase with age, these offenders have have problems such as paraplegia because of gunshot wounds, and advanced liver disease, renal disease, hepatitis and HIV from drug and alcohol abuse. Living under prison conditions, they are more likely to get pneumonia and flu.

Many older offenders suffer from serious mental illness–some of it lifelong, and some of it produced by their incarceration. One study revealed depression among male prisoners was 50 percent higher than for those living outside. All in all, 54 percent of older prisoners met standards for psychiatric disorders. Williams and Abraldes write, “In one report from a maximum-security hospital, 75 percent of elderly prisoners were admitted between age 20 and 30 and the majority were schizophrenic.” At Angola, the warden reported that 2,000 of over 5,000 inmates were on psychotropic drugs. Many mentally ill prisoners are simply warehoused and fed drugs to keep them under control. Even worse, some are labeled “discipline” problems, and end up in solitary confinement.

Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor and founder of the Project for Older Prisoners, has written extensively about alternatives for aging offenders: for lower risk prisoners, various forms of supervised release, including electronic bracelet monitoring; and for higher risk prisoners, geriatric units, where the cost of better care could be more than balanced by reducing the number of corrections officers. “Although a geriatric prisoner may still be a risk for a given category of crime,” Turley writes, “he is unlikely to toss his walker over a razor-wire fence or outrun perimeter guards.”

In 2008, the federal government finally launched the Elderly Offender Home Detention Pilot Program, under which old prisoners can be released into a kind of supervised house arrest. As outlined by Families Against Mandatory Mimimums, eligibility guidelines are strict: Offenders must be over 65, and must have served at least 10 years and 75 percent of their sentences; no lifers and no perpetrators of “crimes of violence,” including sex crimes and firearms violations. Total number expected to participate: 80 to 100 nationwide, out of a total federal prison population of over 200,000. In Pennsylvania, after lengthy study conducted by a special Advisory Committee on Geriatric and Seriously Ill Inmates, the state also launched a pilot project. Total prisoners released in one year: eight to ten.

http://unsilentgeneration.com/2009/04/21/aging-behind-bars/

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 GuardianFilms.

Additional information and samples of James Ridgeway’s work can be found on his web site, http://jamesridgeway.net.
He is now writing a blog called: http://unsilentgeneration.com/ and is focusing some of his work on elderly prisoners.

Posted by lois at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)

May 05, 2009

NV: Another "heart-warming" story about the value of exploited priosner labor

When things get tough in Tonopah, residents call on inmates to help fix roofs and fight wildfires. Now state budget cuts threaten to close the prison.
By Ashley Powers
May 5, 2009
Tonopah, Nev. -- Diane Perchetti couldn't pull off the Easter celebration alone. Her to-do list was too lengthy: stack chairs, mop floors and haul out the decorative jail cell from the recent Muckers Ball fundraiser.

She phoned Bob Bottom, who oversees the local minimum-security prison camp. As usual, he sent over the inmates.

In this former boomtown forgotten by much of the state, the small prison is a savior for residents and the cash-strapped town manager. Supervised inmates shovel snowed-in driveways, yank out weeds, clean rain gutters, slash brush and dig graves.

"They do everything but herd cattle," said Perchetti, 63, who runs the Tonopah Convention Center. "Shoot, they fixed my plumbing a few times."

So when state officials proposed mothballing the camp to help narrow Nevada's $3-billion budget gap, residents prepared for battle. They repeatedly car-pooled to the capital -- a 460-mile round trip. To lawmakers and their staff, they handed out save-the-camp pleas written by senior citizens, high school principals, the Salvation Army, students.

If Tonopah, population 2,600, prevails, it will have accomplished something notable in this recession: staving off government cuts with little more than scrappiness.

In recent months, a number of revenue-deficient states, including New Hampshire, New York and New Jersey, have considered closing prisons. Kansas and Michigan have already locked up lockups, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Even communities that once balked at housing prisons are fighting for the jobs and cheap labor they provide. Across the nation, prisoners fix tractors, mow lawns and fish scrap metal from landfills. Their towns -- often remote and economically forlorn -- have staged letter-writing campaigns and rallies on their behalf.

Nevada is saddled with the nation's largest budget gap by percentage, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Some of the budget cuts proposed by Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons target the Nevada Department of Corrections.

The 150-inmate Tonopah camp needs less than $2 million a year, some of which the state Division of Forestry provides. But sitting more than 200 miles from both Las Vegas and Reno, the camp has struggled to hire and retain staff, said Suzanne Pardee, a corrections department spokeswoman.

"If it's just counting dollars and cents, it doesn't make sense to keep it open," said Republican Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea of Eureka, who emerged as one of the camp's top advocates. "But these communities depend on it in so many ways."

Tonopah certainly does. Though it touts itself as the "Queen of the Silver Camps," the town has seen more regal days. The ore discovered in 1900 eventually dried up, and the railroad was dismantled. A modern job provider, the Stealth Fighter plane, was relocated in the 1990s from nearby Nellis Air Force Range to New Mexico.

Now, the town subsists on annual revenue of $750,000. The once-grand Mizpah Hotel is an abandoned stack of stone. Some yards are all car parts and dirt, and on the town's outskirts, mining equipment rusts near pits big enough to swallow buildings.

Still, longtime residents have few complaints. The median home price is about $78,000, and the night sky is a stargazer's dream. In fact, before the camp opened in 1990, some folks worried it would shatter the town's tranquillity.

"I thought a band of criminals were going to be running around," said Perchetti, who wrote a letter to the local newspaper in opposition. "I'm eating my words now."

Bottom, the 42-year-old supervisor of the Tonopah facility and two other camps, started here in 1993. He mostly led inmate crews on wildfires around the West, which remains the prisoners' primary task.

Yet as he moved up the ranks, Bottom realized the inmates could patch up his crumbling hometown. One day he walked into the convention center while Perchetti was shampooing the carpet.

"You know," he told her, "the prisoners can do that for you."

The inmates are paid $1 an hour for firefighting and $2.10 a day for other labor. (Their pay costs the town only $8,400 a year.) They've built an award-winning replica train engine for the Nevada Day parade and carved miles of trails in the Tonopah Historic Mining Park. When a storm tore off the gift shop roof, the prisoners swooped in with tarps.

At the town's sandstone library, librarian Carolina Loncar, 77, praised them for tidying her garage before her husband's funeral.

"They're good little organizers," she said. Loncar pointed out the children's reading nook -- prisoners had installed the white stair-step seating.

A few years back, Marcus Woods, 26, was imprisoned in Tonopah on a robbery conviction. He said there were fights between corrections staff and inmates and occasional food shortages. But working for hours in town made him feel purposeful.

"People would give us hot chocolate and McDonald's," he said. "It felt good because everyone who goes to prison isn't a bad person."

Woods, who spent about four years behind bars, said the camp also helped prepare him for his job as a fundraising coordinator for a Reno halfway house. "It got me ready to get out and not lay in bed all day," he said.

Last year, Tonopah leaders got word of the camp's shaky status. Denise Nelson, the Chamber of Commerce director, had only recently moved from Las Vegas, but she was determined to save it.

"I've seen what happens when people sit on their hands and say, 'There's nothing we can do,' " said Nelson, 55, recalling how her Iowa hometown withered after its slaughterhouse closed.

The e-mails, letters and long drives to hearings -- "No one expected you to show up," they were told -- apparently are paying off.

Last week, a key legislative panel recommended that the camp remain open. Before townsfolk can declare victory, however, they must wait for a final budget. The legislative session is scheduled to end June 1.

Meanwhile, the inmates keep tidying Tonopah.

On a recent morning, a dozen prisoners in denim shirts and ski caps responded to Perchetti's note: "Please move jail and clean."

They carried chairs and wiped stove tops for an hour, their faces blank, their responses limited to "yes" and "no."

As soon as it finished, the crew was whisked away to its next task: picking up trash in a neighborhood park.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-natonopah5-2009may05,0,1320205,full.story

Posted by lois at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2009

OR: Business Group Says Suspend Measure 57 for Two Years

Oregon lawmakers might curb prison spending
5/2/2009, 3:41 p.m. PT
BRAD CAIN
The Associated Press

(AP) — SALEM, Ore. - A business group floated a plan this week aimed at protecting school funding by suspending implementation of a get-tough-on-crime measure endorsed by Oregon voters last fall.

It's a politically charged proposal, though. Opponents say it would thwart the will of voters who approved Measure 57 to lengthen prison sentences for repeat property and drug crimes and mandate drug and alcohol treatment for certain offenders.

However, the idea is gaining some traction at the Capitol as lawmakers and Gov. Ted Kulongoski struggle to find ways to pay for key services at a time of shrinking state revenue and an increasing prison population.

The Oregon Business Association's Ryan Deckert appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to urge lawmakers to set Measure 57 aside at least for the next two years. That could save $75 million and free up the money for other programs, he said.

"If we want to set a floor for education funding, then we have to be willing to take on issues such as Measure 57," Deckert, a former state lawmaker, said in an interview.

Deckert is among those who think a series of tough sentencing laws and other measures adopted by voters over the years has left the state spending a disproportionate amount of money on prisons-at the expense of education, human services and other programs.

Lawmakers traditionally have been reluctant to override the decisions of voters, but these are especially tough times in terms of the state budget. The next state revenue forecast, due out on May 15, is expected to show the state facing a shortfall of $4 billion or more.

That's why the notion of suspending Measure 57 has gotten as far as it has.

Kevin Neely, spokesman for the Oregon District Attorneys Association, said local prosecutors aren't wild about suspending something adopted by voters just last November. But he said that depending on how it's written, district attorneys could sign off on the plan that's aimed at cutting the $1.5 billion prison budget for the coming two years.

"There's no question that Measure 57 is good public policy. But the budget situation has changed since it was approved in the November election," Neely said.

In fact, the districts attorneys have also suggested that lawmakers consider, as a one-time cost-cutting step, some form of early release for certain nonviolent offenders. He said, however, that such a proposal would be no panacea for the state's budget problems.

"Releasing offenders is a complicated notion. There aren't a large number of low-risk offenders that could be immediately released," he said.

The gloomy economic climate at the 2009 Legislature would seem to provide an effective backdrop for critics of Oregon's get-tough-on-crime policies to argue that the state no longer can afford to spend so much money on incarcerating prisoners.

State Rep. Chip Shields, who's been a leading critic of the Measure 11 mandatory sentencing law passed by voters in 1994, said he's hoping this session can take some steps to restore more "balance" to the public safety system to put more emphasis on rehabilitation and prevention.

Shields said, though, that the dire fiscal situation has many lawmakers focused on balancing the next two-year budget and trying to protect key state services from damaging cuts.

"It's going to be a challenge to get people to focus on the long-term issues around public safety, and not just the short-term" budget crunch, the Portland Democrat said.

Kevin Mannix, the former lawmaker and Salem attorney who has sponsored various get-tough-on crime initiatives over the years, said lawmakers should leave Measure 57 alone and find other ways to balance the state prison budget.

"I know they are in tough times. But it will be a violation of the public trust for them to fail to implement Measure 57," said Mannix, who was the sponsor of a more expensive and stringent alternative to the measure that was turned down by voters.
http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/national-11/124130562977490.xml

Posted by lois at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)

CT: Criminal Defense Attorney Suggests a Different Kind of Background for Supreme Court Justice

Pattis Helps Out Senators
New Haven Independent
by Melinda Tuhus | May 4, 2009
A New Haven criminal defense attorney posed the first question for the potential next U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Norm Pattis posed the question not at a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing, but during the closing panel Saturday of a conference called Tools for Ending the Drug War. The event was sponsored by People Against Injustice, a local criminal justice reform group, at Dwight Chapel on the Yale campus.

“Here’s my proposal,” Pattis said. “When the U.S. Senate vets the next appointee for the U.S. Supreme Court [to replace Justice David Souter, who’s retiring], do not confirm any person who cannot answer in the affirmative the following question: ‘Have you ever represented a human being in turmoil who made less than the median family income in this country?’

“If you look at everyone whose name is being circulated, there’s probably not a single person who could answer that question in the affirmative. I want a lawyer like [fellow panelist and local progressive attorney] Mike Jefferson, who knows what it’s like to stand in front of the court and beg for justice long after our client has run out of money and we don’t know how we’re going to pay our employees. I don’t want a justice in the U.S. Supreme Court who’s never stood by a [client] and heard them cry when they’ve lost everything, including hope — hope that only a lawyer who’s in touch with the people can give.”

Pattis said his proposal would “address not only the drug war, but the indifference in the courts to the people I see in my legal practice every day. I’m going to write to the president of the United States and agitate everywhere I go. I’m going to start a campaign that President Obama appoint a trial lawyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. I don’t want a former judge where people have to rise when he enters the courtroom. I don’t want a governor who lives in a mansion. And I don’t want someone with power. I want someone who’s close to powerless people.”

Local participants in the conference included State Sen. Martin Looney, State Rep. Gary Holder-Winfield and Alderman Allan Brison. The event also drew some national heavy hitters, like Ira Glasser, former director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and current president of the board of the Drug Policy Alliance; and Kemba Smith , who was pardoned by President Clinton after serving six years of a 24-year sentence for her boyfriend’s illegal drug business. She now speaks around the country about the failed drug war and its many victims.

LEAP — Law Enforcement Against Prohibition — was also represented at the conference. LEAP members are mostly former or retired police officers (and chiefs), district attorneys, judges, and politicians, but a few members are currently in their criminal justice-related positions.

One is Richard van Wickler, the superintendent of the Cheshire County Department of Corrections in New Hampshire. He said he joined after attending a national drug policy conference in 2007. “I learned so much about the impact of the war on drugs on society, on the citizenry, on the entire global economy and the environment,” he said. “And I had an awakening with respect to the war on drugs and how damaging it is.”

Van Wickler said his new understanding has not affected how he does his job, because he has always treated inmates humanely.

LEAP supports legalization of all drugs. “We are not in favor of decriminalization, because that means the user would not go to jail, but would simply pay a fine and forfeit the drugs,” van Wickler said. “The harm in that is that the criminal element remains alive and well. They would still be battling for turf. Some estimates are that that’s a $500 billion a year industry. So the only way to remove that — remove that profit motive — if there’s no profit, it all goes away. The drugs don’t cause these problems in our country. It’s the prohibition of these drugs that’s the problem.”

Barbara Fair (pictured) of People Against Injustice, a principal organizer of the event, said she was pleased with the conference. “I would have liked, of course, to have had more people from the community, as always, because this was really about educating them,” she said. “But I appreciate people coming from all over the country just to be with us.”

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/05/a_modest_propos.php

Posted by lois at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2009

Federal prisoners travel unescorted from prison to prison by bus

Federal convicts travel unescorted from prison to prison
Monday, April 27, 2009
By JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV
DALLAS – Among the hundreds of bus passengers arriving everyday in downtown Dallas, there are some the government doesn't want the public to know about.

"It's an inherent safety and security risk for the industry as a whole," said Kim Plaskett, a spokeswoman with Greyhound Bus Lines.

German Cruz is one of the passengers at issue.

With a record of felony assault in New York ten years ago, a federal judge recently sentenced him to 41 months in prison for repeatedly sneaking into the United States.

Cruz is now serving that sentence in federal prison.

But, he was recently discovered at a bus stop – ticket in hand – transferring himself from one federal prison in Minnesota to another in Texas.

There wasn’t a guard in sight.

"We don't want our bus system to turn into Con Air, but you would think there would be some safety measures that could be put into place here, which doesn't seem to be the case," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, (D) Minn., who is also a member of the U.S. Senate Transportation Committee and was unaware of the practice of unescorted prisoners.

Our affiliate in Minneapolis tracked Cruz from Rochester, Minn. to Dallas on his way to Houston.

The reporter was the only one watching the convict as he made a 1,400 mile journey – alone.

"Certainly this would be something we would like to have known and we didn't know that," said Charlie Zelle, president of the Jefferson Bus Lines.

While a Jefferson bus carried Cruz, the company never knew he was on board.

Dallas-based Greyhound has carried convicts as well without knowing.

Both companies have urged the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to stop the practice, but have said the prison system refuses to end the practice.

The Bureau of Prisons said unescorted transfers are for convicts moving from one minimum security prison to another, heading to halfway houses or prison camps.

"Inmates assigned to either camps or halfway houses do not present a significant risk to the community," said Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the bureau.

Since April 2006, more than 5,300 federal inmates have transferred themselves to a different prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons. More than 54,000 inmates have taken a bus unescorted to halfway houses.

Still, dozens escape.

Take the case of Dwayne Fitzen. He was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for conspiracy and distribution of cocaine. Fitzen, 60 and a member of a biker gang, took advantage of being unescorted in 2004. He slipped off a bus in Las Vegas and escaped.

U.S. Marshals have yet to apprehend Fitzen and now consider him armed and dangerous.

Between 2003 and 2005, Fitzen was one of more than 77 inmates who escaped during “unescorted transfers,” and one of at least 19 not immediately recaptured.

In a September 2005 letter to Greyhound, the Bureau of Prisons said it allowed for this practice because it was the low-cost option.

"And that's why we are concerned about this,” Plaskett said of Greyhound's concerns. "These are not people who have paid their debt to society."

"Although, I don’t have specific data regarding cost savings, we know the savings is substantial,” Billingsley said. “To transfer these types of inmates using BOP staff, or U.S. Marshals services or contract services would result in a large, unnecessary cost to the government and ultimately the taxpayer, especially given the minimal security requirements of these offenders.”

Federal prison officials defend the practice.

Unescorted inmates haven't caused any type of incidents on buses, the companies said.

They have little recourse in getting the government to end the practice.

The Bureau of Prisons said it mainly uses buses, but sometimes transfers minimum security inmates in taxis and even allows for a convict's own family to move them from prison to prison.

After traveling 30 hours and 55 minutes, Cruz finally arrived in Houston, caught a cab and reported back to federal custody.
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa090427_mo_unescorted.119677c3c.html

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

April 29, 2009

"The Real Cost of Prisons Comix"

"The Real Cost of Prisons Comix"
Lois Ahrens, editor
PM Press of Oakland, Calif.
Book Bag, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA
This book is a collection of three comic books, including accompanying essays, that explore the social, emotional and financial cost the United States faces by keeping approximately 2.3 million people behind bars. The book also includes comments from community organizers around the country discussing how they have used the book in their work.

This country's imprisoned population is a number that has steadily grown. From the end of World War II to 1970, according to Ahrens, there were 200,000 people in prison. Though there are more than 2 million people jailed now, the nation's crime rate, she says, has changed little.

In a recent interview with the Gazette, Ahrens noted that Massachusetts currently spends a larger portion of its budget for prisons than for higher education. "Maybe people would rather pay for higher education than for prisons. Maybe the days of pure punitive policy are not something people still want to pay for, especially now." For change to occur, she said, "It's going to take people saying they think this is a bad idea - and they're tired of paying for it."

Ahrens, who lives in Northampton, edited the volume and is a contributing writer. Other writers include Ellen Miller-Mack, also of Northampton, along with Craig Gilmore, Susan Willmarth and Kevin Pyle. Illustrations are by Kevin Pyle, Sabrina Jones and Susan Willmarth, with an introduction by Craig Gilmore and Ruth Wilson Gilmore.

Last month, the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, a private organization that defines its mission as working for responsive and effective criminal justice, juvenile justice and child welfare systems, named "The Real Cost of Prisons" one of nine winners in the literature category of a PASS award (Prevention for a Safer Society.) Awards were also given in the categories of film, magazine, newspaper, radio, television/video, and the Web.

The council says it grants the awards "in recognition of thoughtful and factual coverage of the issues."
http://www.gazettenet.com/2009/04/29/book-bag

Posted by lois at 08:25 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2009

CA: State prisons chief proposes $400 million in cuts

State prisons chief proposes $400 million in cuts
afurillo@sacbee.com
Published Friday, Apr. 24, 2009

California corrections officials today unveiled $400 million in cost-cutting proposals that would reduce the state prison population by 8,000 inmates by next summer.

Agency Secretary Matt Cate said a proposed change in parole policies would cut the prison population by 4,000.

He said it would result in fewer offenders being returned on technical violations while at the same time lowering parole agent caseloads so they can spend more time supervising more serious and violent parolees when they are released.

The other half of the population reductions would come through expanded good behavior credits for inmates who complete education or job programs and through changes in the dollar value of property crimes, which would turn some thefts now prosecuted as felonies into misdemeanors.

The proposed changes in parole policies, the time credits and the adjustment on property crimes each require approval from the Legislature. Cate said the agency plans to submit a package of bills to the Legislature next week.

Cate said the department also plays to cut 150 of the 2,000 position at its headquarters office in downtown Sacramento. He also said that corrections officials are planning to close down one Division of Juvenile Justice youth prison.

The cuts came in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's open-ended $400 million line-item veto earlier this year on Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spending budget, issued as part of the state's recent resolution to close its $40 billion budget gap.
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/v-print/story/1808030.html

Posted by lois at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2009

The phone rip-off for Massachusetts prison inmates, families

The phone rip-off for Massachusetts prison inmates, families
By Daily Hampshire Gazette- Northampton, MA
Created 04/24/2009

Prison inmates who use the telephone to maintain strong family ties will be better prepared to rebuild their lives upon returning home.

Why then do Massachusetts elected officials allow price gouging phone companies to drive prison telephone rates for interstate calls sky high, isolating state inmates from the outside world?

The cost of long distance calling has dropped drastically for most people in Massachusetts, but not families of inmates. According to the Federal Communications Commission, nationally, domestic interstate calls in 2006 were billed at just six cents per minute.

Yet the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based Campaign to Promote Equitable Telephone Charges, reports that the families of Massachusetts inmates pay Global Tel*Link, Massachusetts' current prison phone service monopoly, much more.

For a 15-minute call, including per-call and usage charges, the campaign calculates that inmate families in Massachusetts pay a very reasonable 15 cents per minute for intra-state long distance collect calls, but a whopping 89 cents per minute for interstate collect calls. A similar interstate call using a debit, or pre-paid, card would cost a lot less but Massachusetts prisons do not permit the use of debit cards.

In other states inmate families pay less per minute for 15-minute collect interstate calls: Florida, 12 cents; Michigan and New York, 15 cents; Missouri, 17 cents and 18 cents in New Hampshire.

These Massachusetts rates include "commissions" (a.k.a. kickbacks) negotiated during the contracting process and paid to state prison operators as a percentage of prison phone revenues. Eager to win lucrative contracts competing phone companies in the U.S. sweeten their bids by offering generous kickbacks, some as high as 65 percent. Only seven states - Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma and Rhode Island - do not accept such commissions from phone companies and pass the savings on to inmates.

While competition among phone companies in the open market drives long distance calling rates down, competition in the prison telephone market, with help from greedy phone companies and uncaring prison operators, actually drives rates up for inmates and their families.

Studies on file with the FCC show that nationally, including special security features attached to prison phones, it costs phone companies between 12 and 17 cents per minute to provide interstate collect calling, and between six and 12 cents per minute to provide interstate debit calling. These estimates include transport and termination costs and six cents for collect calls to cover billing and uncollectible costs.

Using these cost estimates, in Massachusetts Global Tel*Link is making a profit on collect interstate calls in the 80-86 percent range. Nationally, estimates are that prison phone companies make similar profits on these calls.

It's not that no one has noticed the prison telephone rip-off. The 2006 Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons reported that inmate phone rates are "extraordinarily high" and that lower rates will "support family and community bonds." Even the American Bar Association has formally called for inmate calls to be set at the "lowest possible rates." And the American Correctional Association says sound correctional management includes reasonably priced phone services.

Perhaps the low rates in Florida, Michigan and New York will shame phone companies and prison operators in Massachusetts and many other states into ending their abuse of prison inmates and their families. But just in case these phone companies and prison officials are, in fact, shameless, Martha Wright and other inmate family members have filed a formal proposal asking the FCC to use its authority under the federal Communications Act to impose a reasonable interstate phone rate in all U.S. prisons.

Following a review of industry costs and the low rates now charged in several states, the proposal asks the FCC to mandate that inmates making interstate collect calls are charged no more than 25 cents per minute, and interstate debit calls no more than 20 cents per minute. The proposal also asks that the debit calling card option be provided in all U.S. prisons.

The FCC proposal only addresses interstate long distance calls. However, if the FCC does set lower interstate rates, this will pressure states from coast-to-coast to also adjust downward their intra-state long distance, inmate calling rates.

It is time to end telephone price gouging in U.S. prisons. If phone companies in Florida, Michigan, New York and Missouri can provide inmates with reasonable rates, so can Massachusetts. Doing so will help strengthen prisoners' family ties, and make our communities safer.

Ronald Fraser writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. He can be contacted at fraserr@erols.com.
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2009/04/24/phone-ripoff-massachusetts-prison-inmates-families

Posted by lois at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

MT: ACLU says CCA discriminates against Native American Prisoners

ACLU says private Montana prison discriminates
By LEN IWANSKI --AP
April 23, 2009
A spokesman for the Montana Corrections Department says they're investigating allegations that Native American inmates were mistreated and discriminated against at the Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby.

The private prison operates under a contract with the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday that Crossroads violated the rights of Native American inmates. The ACLU of Montana filed a complaint with the state Human Rights Bureau alleging the inmates were subjected to en-masse strip searches, were denied the ability to properly celebrate sweat-lodge ceremonies and were retaliated against when they complained about the mistreatment.

The complaint says the strip searches took place between mid-August and mid-October 2008.

"While the en masse strip searches appear to have been suspended ... there is no assurance that they will not resume, and reports indicate that the searches could readily continue," the complaint says.

Bob Anez, spokesman for the state Corrections Department, said the department "is aware of these allegations against Corrections Corporation of America ( CXW - news - people ) and took appropriate action with CCA to resolve these claims, as indicated in the complaint."

"As with all such allegations, the Department of Corrections takes these accusations seriously," Anez said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "The department is investigating the allegations and will respond to the ACLU complaint."

Crossroads spokeswoman Christine Timmerman referred questions about the complaint to Anez.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/04/23/ap6328394.html

Posted by lois at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2009

Supreme Court Cuts Back Officers’ Searches of Vehicles

Supreme Court Cuts Back Officers’ Searches of Vehicles
By ADAM LIPTAK- NY Times
Published: April 21, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday significantly cut back the ability of the police to search the cars of people they arrest.

Police officers have for a generation understood themselves to be free to search vehicles based on nothing more than the fact that they had just arrested an occupant. That principle, Justice John Paul Stevens acknowledged in his majority opinion, “has been widely taught in police academies” and “law enforcement officers have relied on the rule in conducting vehicle searches during the past 28 years.”

The majority replaced that bright-line rule with a more nuanced one, and law enforcement officials greeted it with dismay. “It’s just terrible,” William J. Johnson, the executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said of the decision. “It’s certainly going to result in less drug and weapons cases being made.”

In a dissent, four justices said the majority had effectively overruled an important and straightforward Fourth Amendment precedent established by the court in a 1981 decision, New York v. Belton.

Justice Stevens denied that. The precedent of Belton had often been applied too broadly, he said. Vehicle searches should be allowed only in two situations, he wrote: when the person being arrested is close enough to the car to reach in, possibly to grab a weapon or tamper with evidence; or when the arresting officer reasonably believes that the car contains evidence pertinent to the very crime that prompted the arrest.

In the case decided Tuesday, Rodney J. Gant, an Arizona man, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for driving with a suspended license. He was handcuffed in the back of a patrol car while his car was searched.

The police found cocaine and a gun, and Mr. Gant was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to three years. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the search of Mr. Gant’s car had violated the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and suppressed the evidence against him. The United States Supreme Court affirmed that decision on Tuesday.

Justice Stevens, joined by the unusual alliance of Justices Antonin Scalia, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said the court had agreed to hear the case because the conventional view of the Belton decision had been widely criticized. “The chorus that has called for us to revisit Belton,” Justice Stevens wrote, “includes courts, scholars and members of this court who have questioned that decision’s clarity and fidelity to Fourth Amendment principles.”

Police officers and lower courts, Justice Stevens wrote, had failed to take adequate account of the two rationales that animated Belton: protecting the safety of arresting officers and safeguarding evidence of crimes. Those rationales only make sense, he said, “when the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance” of the car.

At the same time, the majority announced a new justification for a search in connection with an arrest, one drawing on a 2004 concurrence questioning Belton from Justice Scalia. Searches of vehicles are permissible, Justice Stevens said, “when it is reasonable to believe evidence relevant to the crime of arrest might be found in the vehicle.”

As a practical matter, that means many arrests for traffic offenses will not by themselves allow police officers to search vehicles. Arrests for other kinds of crimes, though, may well supply a basis for a search.

The decision, Arizona v. Gant, No. 07-542, was the last to be issued from among the cases the court heard in its October sitting, and it was marked by an uneasy compromise that probably explains the delay.

Justice Scalia said he would have overruled Belton outright and substituted a rule that allowed searches of vehicles in connection with arrests only where the search seeks evidence of the crime for which the arrest was made or another one for which there is probable cause. He added that he joined the majority opinion to avoid a 4-1-4 decision “that leaves the governing rule uncertain.”

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined in full by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and for the most part by Justice Stephen G. Breyer, said the broad Belton rule was sensible and easy to apply.

On the other hand, the new rule allowing searches for evidence of the crime that prompted the arrest, Justice Alito said, “is virtually certain to confuse law enforcement officers and judges for some time to come.”

And the part of the majority opinion allowing searches only when the person arrested can reach the car “may endanger arresting officers,” Justice Alito wrote.

Mr. Johnson of the police association explained the problem. “The case creates a temptation,” he said, “for police to leave the occupant of a vehicle unsecured in the belief that they are now operating within the Fourth Amendment in terms of being able to search the vehicle.”

Though Justice Stevens did not concede that Tuesday’s decision overruled Belton, he did say that fidelity to precedent was no reason to allow constitutional violations to continue.

“Countless individuals guilty of nothing more serious that a traffic violation,” he wrote, “have had their constitutional right to the security of their private effects violated” by the broad rule struck down on Tuesday.

A version of this article appeared in print on April 22, 2009, on page A12 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/22scotus.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=U.S.%20Supreme%20Court&st=cse

Posted by lois at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2009

Florida lawmakers weigh overhauling system for mentally ill prionsers

THE LEGISLATURE
Florida lawmakers weigh overhauling system for mentally ill criminals
Florida lawmakers, pushed by a Miami judge, are considering an overhaul of the system for handling mentally ill criminals.
BY SHANNON COLAVECCHIO
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- The current system for dealing with mentally ill people who commit crimes is, by all accounts, broken. And expensive: It costs Florida taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year.

People with schizophrenia or other mental illnesses who get arrested are sent to expensive mental health facilities, where they're stabilized for the sole purpose of appearing in court. Most get released on time served, only to get sick again for lack of medication and treatment. They commit more crimes and the process starts all over.

Florida spends $140,000 apiece for 1,700 of these mental health beds, for a total of $250 million every year. That represents a third of all mental health funding in Florida.

''It's the worst money we spend,'' Department of Children & Families Secretary George Sheldon said.

Miami-Dade Judge Steven Leifman, tapped by the Florida Supreme Court to help reduce the number of mentally ill in Florida's corrections system, calls it ``the insanity of all insanities.''

SAVING MONEY

Now, nearly three years after Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger sued DCF over its lack of mental health beds for criminals, the Legislature is close to overhauling Florida's treatment of the mentally ill. If the proposed legislation becomes law, Florida would become the first state to take such an innovative approach, Leifman said.

And in a recession year when saving money is at the top of lawmakers' priority list, the changes could save the state tens of millions in taxpayer dollars.

''This will save us money, and it will help these people,'' bill sponsor Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said. ``Because they're not going to get the services they need sitting in the county jail.''

The Department of Corrections, DCF and the Agency for Health Care Administration all support the proposal (HB7103, SB2018), which would treat and rehabilitate some of Florida's mentally ill in more comprehensive but affordable community facilities.

AHCA and DCF would develop a plan for long-term services for the mentally ill who are at risk of ending up in the corrections system. A mentally ill inmate would first go to a locked facility for stabilization, then to a step-down facility that provides job skill training, drug and psychological treatment, and a case manager.

Leifman said the treatment would cost just $25,000 per patient. But it would cost Florida less than that because the bill allows the state to apply for Medicaid money to pay for about two-thirds of the costs, which now have to be covered by general revenue.

NEEDED TREATMENT

The changes also would help some 4,000 or so people with mental illnesses who are sentenced to Florida's prisons each year. About half of those prisoners reoffend after they're released, so the new system would provide the treatment they need to be healthy, functioning citizens.

The Pinellas-Pasco Circuit has already changed the way it deals with the mentally ill, and Sheldon considers the success there a model for what the proposed statewide overhaul can achieve.

Dillinger a couple of years ago used $80,000 from the DCF to expand its jail diversion program for the mentally ill. Now in its fifth year, the program has diverted over 2,000 people from county jails into community facilities that provide housing, transportation, job transportation and therapy. The sites cost $800 a month per person, compared to $3,000 a month to house them in the jail, Dillinger said.

The proposed legislation would create three pilot sites, including one in South Florida and one in Central Florida, to serve up to 1,000 people in ways similar to what Dillinger's program does.

''If you divert 1,000 people this year, you're talking about saving tens of millions of dollars,'' Leifman said. ``This is serious bucks. And you're going to improve public safety because these people are much less likely to reoffend.''

The legislation, sponsored by Fasano and Rep. William Snyder, is based on recommendations issued by the Florida Supreme Court in a 2007 report commissioned after Dillinger sued then-DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi for not moving mentally ill jail inmates to hospitals.

''This is the most important mental health bill since the Baker Act in the 1970s,'' assistant DCF secretary Col. Bill James said. ``We are talking about changing the system.''

The proposal is making its way through the House and Senate, but even supportive lawmakers have expressed concern over costs of the pilot sites. Sheldon said the savings are worth any investment. And he said he can gradually get the pilots going by using money that would have been budgeted for new mental health beds.

''Some say, don't do something innovative in a tight budget year,'' Sheldon said. ``I think this is the perfect time. Otherwise, this population is going to bust the bank.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/1007813.html

Posted by lois at 10:02 PM | Comments (0)

Three book reviews: Abolishing The Prison Industrial Complex and Freeing All Political Prisoners

Abolishing The Prison Industrial Complex and Freeing All Political Prisoners
Sunday, April 19 2009
By Hans Bennett
Prisons Above all, these three highly-recommended books (available online at www.akpress.org) argue that prison-related issues are inseparable from racism, classism, sexism, and all oppression, so the more we know about prisons, the better informed multi-issue activist strategies will be. They conclude that in working to abolish all oppression, we must also work to abolish the PIC and free all political prisoners.
Abolishing The Prison Industrial Complex and Freeing All Political Prisoners
A Book review of:

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix, edited by Lois Ahrens, PM Press, 2008.

Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free US Political Prisoners, edited by Matt Meyer, PM Press, 2008.

Abolition Now! Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against The Prison Industrial Complex, edited by the CR10 Publications Collective, AK Press, 2008.

2008 marked the ten-year anniversaries of both the prison abolitionist Critical Resistance (CR) conference in Oakland, CA that coined the phrase "prison industrial complex" (PIC) and the National Jericho Movement’s march in Washington DC that demanded the release of all US political prisoners and prisoners of war. To commemorate the 1998 events, the CR10 conference was held in Oakland in September, and Jericho organized a march to the United Nations in October.

These two important events in 1998 successfully re-energized the prison-activist and political prisoner support movements rooted in the 1960s and 1970s. However, while recognizing this accomplishment, three new books document how the prison industrial complex has actually grown bigger and stronger since 1998, while the post-911 climate has further escalated political repression. While recognizing this frustrating reality, these new books look honestly at both the accomplishments and shortcomings of the last ten years.

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix

The new book The Real Cost of Prisons Comix, reprints three comic books published as part of the Real Costs of Prisons Project (RCPP), which began in 2000. So far, 125,000 comic books have been printed, with over 100,000 distributed for free to community groups and college classes alike. Featuring artwork by Kevin Pyle, Sabrina Jones and Susan Willmarth, all three comic books can be freely downloaded at www.realcostofprisons.org.

Prison abolitionists Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore write in the book’s introduction that the RCPP’s value "has been to show us how the system of mass incarceration permeates our lives, who is paying the costs of that system and the many ways the system is vulnerable to people who put their thought and effort into organizing to shrink it." Significantly, the RCPP’s comics "demonstrate that the ideas we need to change the world can be explained simply enough and packaged attractively enough to be used by all kinds of readers." Prisoners and their families can "understand material usually circulated only among academics and those who focus on policy."

Editor Lois Ahrens writes that "a central goal of the comic books is to politicize, not pathologize." She argues that the "deregulation and globalization" of the last 30 years has "resulted in impoverishing urban economies, limiting opportunities for meaningful work and slashing funding for quality education, marginalizing the poor, and creating more inequality. The comic books place individual experience in this context and challenge a central message of neo-liberal ideology: the myth that people can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. In this paradigm, racism, sexism, classism, and economic inequality are not part of the picture. Most people now believe that change happens through personal transformation rather than political struggle and change."

The recent growth of the PIC and mass incarceration is staggering. Ahrens writes that "every year from 1947 through the beginning of the 1970s, approximately 200,000 people were incarcerated in the US. Today, there are more than 2.3 million men and women incarcerated, with more than 5 million more on parole and probation."

The 'Prison Town' comic book debunks the myth that building a new prison actually helps to revitalize a town with an ailing economy, and instead illustrates the many negative costs that a new prison can impose. Importantly, Prison Town also documents how many towns learned by example and cited the prisons’ negative impact in successful campaigns to stop prison construction in their community.

'Prisoners of the War on Drugs' is a heart-wrenching look at the victims of the so-called "war on drugs." At least according to its official purpose, the "war on drugs" has been a total failure, resulting in the mass incarceration of non-violent drug offenders at a huge, inefficient expense to tax-payers. Prisoners emphasizes "harm reduction" and treatment as a better solution, stating that the "war on drugs locks up more users than dealers. Most want to quit, but can’t. A year of treatment costs much less than a year of incarceration, plus: the person can work, pay taxes & take part in family life." While drug laws may seem insane, they appear to have unofficial motives that are highly rational. For example, they have served to accelerate mass imprisonment, the criminalization of poverty, and the erosion of civil-liberties.

'Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women & Their Children' concludes the three-comic book series. The stories presented here are mostly fictional, but are based on the writers’ research and personal experience working with women prisoners. Therefore, Ahrens explains that the stories "represent the lives of hundreds of thousands of people suffering as a result of the war on drugs." Perhaps most outrageous is the true story of Regina McKnight, the first woman in the US to be convicted of murder because of behavior while pregnant. When McKnight’s baby was delivered stillborn and an autopsy found traces of cocaine in the fetus she was arrested and convicted of murder with a 20-year sentence. In 2008, following several appeals and eight years in prison, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously reversed her conviction, after concluding that there is no medical evidence of cocaine causing stillbirths.

Let Freedom Ring

Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free US Political Prisoners, is an epic 877-page compilation of both pre-existing documents and original articles. Explaining the context of its release, editor Matt Meyer cites the recent persecution of the San Francisco Eight, who are former Black Panther Party (BPP) members being charged with a 30-year old crime. Beginning with the 2006 grand jury, "the state threw down a gauntlet. When it became clear that the investigations were reopening cases based on evidence obtained primarily through torture, the message was unmistakable: Be afraid, be very afraid, and don’t even think of fighting back. When these same men stood strong, firm on the principle that they would not take part in a new, government sponsored witch-hunt, they sent a counter-message on behalf of us all: we will not allow our communities, our struggles, our communities, our very lives to be criminalized by a corrupt and racist criminal justice system." This spirit of resistance to state repression flows throughout Let Freedom Ring.

The book’s many sections focus on a wide range of US political prisoners, featuring both facts about their case, and actual writing from the prisoners themselves. One particularly interesting section is titled Resisting Repression: Out and Proud, which includes the classic 1991 interview "Dykes and Fags Want to Know: Interview with Lesbian Political Prisoners," featuring Laura Whitehorn (released in 1999), a well as Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg, who were both pardoned by President Clinton in 2001. Also notable is a 1991 speech given by former BPP political prisoner Dhoruba Bin-Wahad, who was released after 19 years. Considered a groundbreaking speech from a Black Muslim revolutionary, Bin-Wahad declared that "we can not build a new society if we premise that society on the oppression of other people." Continuing the legacy of BPP co-founder Huey P. Newton, he argued that fighting the oppression of women and GLBTs is inseparable from the fight against capitalism, racism, and all oppression. Also featured is a tribute to the late Kuwasi Balagoon, who died in prison of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1986. In the words of poet Walidah Imarisha, Balagoon "was an anarchist in a Black nationalist movement, he was queer in a straight dominated movement, he was a guerrilla fighter after it was ‘chic,’ and he...demanded to be seen not as a revolutionary icon, but as a person, beautiful and flawed."

Abolition Now!

Abolition Now! was published to coincide with the CR10 conference. The introduction explains that Critical Resistance (CR) is not only "struggling to tear down the cages" of the prison industrial complex (PIC), but "also to abolish the actions of policing, surveillance, and imprisonment that give the PIC its power. We are also reminded that abolition is the creation of possibilities for our dreams and demands for health and happiness—for what we want, not what we think we can get."

The book features reflections and constructive criticism from a variety of CR organizers and activists. For example, Mills College professor Julia Sudbury emphasizes the "need for healing as an abolitionist practice. Many of us come to this work with our own wounds," and while "many of us draw energy and inspiration from these wounds," we are "also drained by these traumas...As a result our movement can be very ‘head’ oriented—talking, planning, thinking, writing—and not body and emotion oriented." Sudbury concludes that a "movement against a violent and violating phenomenon like the PIC cannot hope to be successful if we don’t directly address and heal the effects of that violence."

Former political prisoner Bo Brown argues that the movement should have more "street awareness" and not be limited to "legislative" goals and actions. "You have to do both. I think you can get lost in that and you can stay there and consider yourself a good person and never really get your hands dirty in a human kind of way...I’d like to see us come up with some kind of support group for families with prisoners that’s real. We need to figure out how to support the prisoners when they’re coming home. We need to understand post-traumatic shock on an ongoing, day-to-day basis."

Andrea Smith, co-founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence argues that "the criminalization approach proffered in the mainstream anti-violence movement doesn’t work. And, also, this criminalization approach obfuscates the role of the state in perpetrating gender violence. At the same time, we have to deal with the practical concerns for safety for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Thus, we are working on developing community accountability strategies that do not rely on the state, and also do not depend on a romanticized version of ‘community’...This intersects with work in indigenous rights movements, which have concepts of indigenous nationhood that are not based on nation-state forms of governance that rule through violence, domination, and control."

Abolition Now! also spotlights examples of organizations putting abolitionist strategy into practice, like with the LEAD Project’s group of transition homes for women returning from imprisonment in the Watts District of Los Angeles, called "A New Way of Life." Also, the UBUNTU Coalition in Durham, NC, works at responding to violence without reinforcing the PIC.

Prisons Are Everywhere

Above all, these three highly-recommended books (available online at www.akpress.org) argue that prison-related issues are inseparable from racism, classism, sexism, and all oppression, so the more we know about prisons, the better informed multi-issue activist strategies will be. They conclude that in working to abolish all oppression, we must also work to abolish the PIC and free all political prisoners.

--Based out of the SF Bay Area, Hans Bennett is an independent multi-media journalist (www.insubordination.blogspot.com) and co-founder of Journalists for Mumia (www.abu-jamal-news.com).

Posted by lois at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

TX: UNICOR continues to use prisoners to recycle electornics

Prison inmates dismantle Ark. recycled electronics
© 2009 The Associated Press
April 19, 2009, 7:41PM

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Some federal prison inmates spend their days tearing apart cellular phones and dismantling computers recycled in Arkansas.

The prisoners, working as part of the Federal Prison Industries, salvage copper and other materials later sold to metal dealers. Last year alone, the prison industry had $10.5 million in net sales.

Unicor, a part of the Federal Prison Industries, uses 876 inmates in seven federal prisons to do the electronic recycling work, according to a company financial statement. Most of northwest Arkansas' recycled electronics go to the federal prison in Texarkana, Texas.

The work is part of a voluntary program and pays well above the standard wage for an inmate, said Steve Wentzel, an executive assistant at the Texarkana prison. Wentzel said the work is so popular, there's a waiting list to take on a spot.

However, using prison labor has drawn the ire of private companies in the recycling business. Barbara Kyle of Electronics TakeBack Coalition in San Francisco said the practice undercuts companies that are more environmentally responsible.

Within the last two years, states such as Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington have banned the practice of using prisoner labor to recycle in most cases, she said.

"You may want to consider why Arkansas has such a good deal," Kyle told the Morning News newspaper of Springdale.

The Justice Department has investigated some Unicor operations, finding that lead exposure at an Elkton, Ohio, prison was as much as 15 times higher than the federally accepted level for a job site. The recycling center at the prison was shut down last year as a result.

Lead poisoning can lead to severe nerve damage.

Several people sued Unicor in Marianna, Fla., last year because they claim they were exposed to dangerous chemicals while working near the computer recycling program in the federal prison. The pending lawsuit includes both inmates and workers in the prison.

Unicor has consistently defended its practices as safe. The newspaper said it was unable to reach company officials for comment.

Despite those concerns, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality encourages local governments to work with Unicor because it usually costs them nothing. Nearly 3,000 tons of electronic waste were recycled in Arkansas last year, and estimates indicate that number will grow each year.

"They take everything and don't charge anything," ADEQ spokesman Aaron Sadler said. "We operate basically as a coordinating entity. We get them in touch with Unicor to get the waste moved."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6381623.html

Posted by lois at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

April 18, 2009

F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases

"As in Britain, expanding genetic sampling in the United States could exacerbate racial disparities in the criminal justice system, according to Hank Greely, a Stanford University Law School professor who studies the intersection of genetics, policing and race. Mr. Greely estimated that African-Americans, who are about 12 percent of the national population, make up 40 percent of the DNA profiles in the federal database, reflective of their prison population. He also expects Latinos, who are about 13 percent of the population and committed 40 percent of last year’s federal offenses — nearly half of them immigration crimes — to dominate DNA databases."

F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases
By SOLOMON MOORE
Published: April 18, 2009
NY Times

Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants.

The F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its growth rate from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs — which now stand at more than 500,000 cases — to increase.

Law enforcement officials say that expanding the DNA databanks to include legally innocent people will help solve more violent crimes. They point out that DNA has helped convict thousands of criminals and has exonerated more than 200 wrongfully convicted people.

But criminal justice experts cite Fourth Amendment privacy concerns and worry that the nation is becoming a genetic surveillance society.

“DNA databases were built initially to deal with violent sexual crimes and homicides — a very limited number of crimes,” said Harry Levine, a professor of sociology at City University of New York who studies policing trends. “Over time more and more crimes of decreasing severity have been added to the database. Cops and prosecutors like it because it gives everybody more information and creates a new suspect pool.”

Courts have generally upheld laws authorizing compulsory collection of DNA from convicts and ex-convicts under supervised release, on the grounds that criminal acts diminish privacy rights.

DNA extraction upon arrest potentially erodes that argument, a recent Congressional study found. “Courts have not fully considered legal implications of recent extensions of DNA-collection to people whom the government has arrested but not tried or convicted,” the report said.

Minors are required to provide DNA samples in 35 states upon conviction, and in some states upon arrest. Three juvenile suspects in November filed the only current constitutional challenge against taking DNA at the time of arrest. The judge temporarily stopped DNA collection from the three youths, and the case is continuing.

Sixteen states now take DNA from some who have been found guilty of misdemeanors. As more police agencies take DNA for a greater variety of lesser and suspected crimes, civil rights advocates say the government’s power is becoming too broadly applied. “What we object to — and what the Constitution prohibits — is the indiscriminate taking of DNA for things like writing an insufficient funds check, shoplifting, drug convictions,” said Michael Risher, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

This year, California began taking DNA upon arrest and expects to nearly double the growth rate of its database, to 390,000 profiles a year from 200,000.

One of those was Brian Roberts, 29, who was awaiting trial for methamphetamine possession. Inside the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles last month, Mr. Roberts let a sheriff’s deputy swab the inside of his cheek.

Mr. Roberts’s DNA will be translated into a numerical sequence at the F.B.I.’s DNA database, the largest in the world.

The system will search for matches between Mr. Roberts’s DNA and other profiles every Monday, from now into the indeterminate future — until one day, perhaps decades hence, Mr. Roberts might leave a drop of blood or semen at some crime scene.

Law enforcement officials say that DNA extraction upon arrest is no different than fingerprinting at routine bookings and that states purge profiles after people are cleared of suspicion. In practice, defense lawyers say this is a laborious process that often involves a court order. (The F.B.I. says it has never received a request to purge a profile from its database.)

When DNA is taken in error, expunging a profile can be just as difficult. In Pennsylvania, Ellyn Sapper, a Philadelphia public defender, has spent weeks trying to expunge the profile taken erroneously of a 14-year-old boy guilty of assault and bicycle theft. “I’m going to have to get a judge’s order to make sure that all references to his DNA are gone,” she said.

The police say that the potential hazards of genetic surveillance are worth it because it solves crimes and because DNA is more accurate than other physical evidence. “I’ve watched women go from mug-book to mug-book looking for the man who raped her,” said Mitch Morrissey, the Denver district attorney and an advocate for more expansive DNA sampling. “It saves women’s lives.”

Mr. Morrissey pointed to Britain, which has fewer privacy protections than the United States and has been taking DNA upon arrest for years. It has a population of 61 million — and 4.5 million DNA profiles. “About 8 percent of the people commit about 70 percent of your crimes, so if you can get the majority of that community, you don’t have to do more than that,” he said.

In the United States, 8 percent of the population would be roughly 24 million people.

Britain may provide a window into America’s genetic surveillance future: As of March 2008, 857,000 people in the British database, or about one-fifth, have no current criminal record. In December, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain violated international law by collecting DNA profiles from innocent people, including children as young as 10.

Critics are also disturbed by the demographics of DNA databases. Again Britain is instructive. According to a House of Commons report, 27 percent of black people and 42 percent of black males are genetically registered, compared with 6 percent of white people.

As in Britain, expanding genetic sampling in the United States could exacerbate racial disparities in the criminal justice system, according to Hank Greely, a Stanford University Law School professor who studies the intersection of genetics, policing and race. Mr. Greely estimated that African-Americans, who are about 12 percent of the national population, make up 40 percent of the DNA profiles in the federal database, reflective of their prison population. He also expects Latinos, who are about 13 percent of the population and committed 40 percent of last year’s federal offenses — nearly half of them immigration crimes — to dominate DNA databases.

Enforcement officials contend that DNA is blind to race. Federal profiles include little more information than the DNA sequence and the referring police agency. Subjects’ names are usually kept by investigators.

Rock Harmon, a former prosecutor for Alameda County, Calif., and an adviser to crime laboratories, said DNA demographics reflected the criminal population. Even if an innocent man’s DNA was included in a genetic database, he said, it would come to nothing without a crime scene sample to match it. “If you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear,” he said.
This and other news relating to mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/
A version of this article appeared in print on April 19, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/us/19DNA.html?hp

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

April 17, 2009

African American Prison Disparity Grows in Iowa

Blacks' prison disparity grows in Iowa
Des Moines Register
By LEE ROOD • April 15, 2009
African-Americans currently account for quarter of admissions, data show

The proportion of blacks being admitted to Iowa prisons has reached its highest point in at least 14 years, in spite of efforts by Gov. Chet Culver to bring more balance to one of the most pronounced disparities in the country.

A state analyst confirmed Tuesday that the proportion of blacks being sent to prison is worsening again. Blacks account for 24.3 percent of all new Iowa prison admissions in fiscal year 2009.

The percentage of prisoners incarcerated for drug crimes who are black is 28.4 percent in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. That's the highest level since 1996.

"It's distressing," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project in Washington, D.C.

"We know drug enforcement, to a certain extent, is discretionary," Mauer said. "Depending on what decisions you make, you're going to see very different outcomes in the prison system."

Tuesday's news was discouraging for drug policy officials and black leaders in Iowa, where disproportionate minority confinement has been a problem for at least the last 25 years.

The new findings come as Iowa's long-growing prison population is leveling off, in part because new prison admissions for drug-related crimes are declining for the fifth straight year.

"If drug offenses are on the decline in general, you have to wonder why that is" that the percentage of blacks being admitted to Iowa's prisons is rising, said state Rep. Deborah Berry, D-Waterloo. "I certainly want to find out more."

A decade ago, a Des Moines Register investigation found at least 1 in 12 black Iowans was in prison, on parole or probation - a ratio higher than anywhere else in the country except the District of Columbia. The ratio for whites was 1 in 110, the analysis found.

In 2007, a Sentencing Project study found the state’s black incarceration rate was 13.6 times that of whites — again the greatest among all states.

That year, Culver got a standing ovation from attendees at a Des Moines conference when he pledged to address the disparity and appointed a task force. Mauer praised efforts by Iowa legislative leaders and Culver on the issue but said more major work needs to be done.

One policy change, among several proposals for state leaders, was to do a minority impact statement on all proposed laws that could affect Iowa's prison population. Culver also proposed spending more state money last year for prison re-entry programs, although the Legislature did not approve all that funding, according to Carlos Jayne, a lobbyist for the Justice Reform Consortium.

A state law that passed in 2005 greatly altered Iowa's prison admissions. From 2000 to 2004, the numbers of whites behind bars had shot up substantially. But the new law restricted sales of the cold medicine used to make methamphetamine, and subsequently led to a sharp decline in arrests of meth makers, who were primarily white.

"Now that the meth manufacturing has dropped, the African-American percentage is rising again," said Phyllis Blood, an analyst who tracks the prison population for Iowa's Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning. "Not necessarily as much in raw numbers, but as a percentage of the total prison population."

In fiscal year 2009, 2,212 people have been admitted to Iowa prisons. Of those, 1,603 were white and 537 were black, state figures show.

Blacks made up 2.6 percent of Iowa's population in 2007, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Blood did not break out numbers for Hispanics.

Abraham Funchess, administrator of Iowa's Commission on the Status of African-Americans, said he hopes changes will be made next year in Iowa's criminal code to address issues that affect blacks at sentencing. He said his agency is trying to highlight cases where blacks have been given excessive mandatory sentences that don't match the crimes.

"Some of those mandatory minimums are just killing our kids," he said.

State studies have shown that many factors influence the number of minorities involved in Iowa's justice system. But the strongest factors are legal variables, such as the type of offense committed or a person's prior record.

State research also has found that even with legal and other variables being held constant, there are sometimes different court outcomes for persons of different races, according to Iowa's Department of Human Rights.

Legislative leaders plan to hold a meeting next month as part of a more than yearlong effort to rewrite parts of the criminal code.

Funchess said he is more optimistic that state leaders are willing to implement changes than in years past. "People are just a little more politically engaged now," he said. "I'm hoping that translates into more concrete, practical changes."

Gary Kendall, who heads Iowa's Office on Drug Control Policy, said that while those convicted deserve punishment, blacks lack community support and social equality.

"You also have to deal with poverty, education and social justice issues," he said. "There's no quick fix."
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090415/NEWS10/904150364/-1/ENT05

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

April 14, 2009

NV: "Centers" proposed for parole violaters and people with drug & alcohol convictions

Centers proposed for low-risk offenders
By RACHELLE GINES Associated Press Writer
04/13/2009

CARSON CITY, Nev.—The Nevada Senate's top Democrat told lawmakers Monday that a new program for low-risk parole violators and drug and alcohol offenders would reduce the state's prison population and save millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, told Finance Committee members that SB398 would create a two-year pilot program of "intermediate sanction" centers for low-risk probation violators as well as people whose crimes are linked to alcohol or drug addictions.

Life skill and rehabilitative programs would be offered to about 400 participants a year, who would stay an average of six months.

Centers proposed for low-risk offenders
By RACHELLE GINES Associated Press Writer
04/13/2009

CARSON CITY, Nev.—The Nevada Senate's top Democrat told lawmakers Monday that a new program for low-risk parole violators and drug and alcohol offenders would reduce the state's prison population and save millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, told Finance Committee members that SB398 would create a two-year pilot program of "intermediate sanction" centers for low-risk probation violators as well as people whose crimes are linked to alcohol or drug addictions.

Life skill and rehabilitative programs would be offered to about 400 participants a year, who would stay an average of six months.

Horsford said the program could save the state more than $34 million over the next five years. He noted that it costs the state about $22,000 a year to incarcerate a prisoner, and a quarter of the new arrivals at Nevada prisons every year are parole violators returning to custody.

"Clearly there is a new and more innovative approach we can take that would ensure public safety and require the offender to go through their sentence, but also do it in a way that doesn't cost the state what we're spending now," Horsford said.

The program would use existing facilities and wouldn't require new beds. Horsford added that program participants wouldn't mix with other inmates and that a little more than half of the beds would be concentrated in southern Nevada.

Drug and alcohol treatment programs for
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the centers would be provided through the Department of Health and Human Services, who would work with community service providers, DHH director Mike Willden said.

Willden told lawmakers an additional $2.2 million per year would be required to provide such programs, at a ratio of one staff person for every 27 inmates.

Bernie Curtis, chief of the Division of Parole and Probation, spoke in support of the bill, saying, "It's not going to cost us anything in parole and probation, frankly, to use these intermediate sanctions. We think it's a good start for a program that is needed in this state."

Maurice Lee, senior vice president of the WestCare Foundation, also favored the bill and said he has enjoyed success as an ex-offender who participated in a similar program. WestCare is a nonprofit organization that currently provides programs similar to those touted in SB398 both in Nevada and other states.

"I offer myself as an example personally. I have been incarcerated and went through a similar system of care that has helped me turn my life around," Lee said. "I now have 20 years outside of the system and I live in a state where I pay taxes, tithes in church and take care of six kids."

Lee told lawmakers, "Your investment goes a lot further than what is being stated here on paper." He said later that the prison population is expected to keep growing.

"Other states have learned quickly that they cannot build their way out of their criminal justice situation. There is no way to build enough prisons to continue housing people," Lee said.

Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, praised the program, but said it's important to know all program costs before starting it.

"I question the cost. We don't want to find out in the haste to get it approved we haven't funded it properly," Raggio said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12133087

Posted by lois at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2009

ID: Getting smart on crime does not mean more prisons beds

Monica Hopkins: Getting smart on crime does not mean more prisons beds
BY MONICA HOPKINS - Idaho Statesman
04/12/09

Idaho's current budget deficit poses a crisis for decision makers. While prison spending increases, vital public services like Medicaid and education face cuts. Like all crises, this is also an opportunity. What better time to question the diminishing returns on the millions of dollars Idaho invests annually on corrections, probation and parole?

Unfortunately, our country leads the world in incarceration. Nearly one person in every 99 is behind bars. Between 1987 and 2007, the U.S. prison population tripled. A recent Pew Center on the States report ranked Idaho second in the nation for adults under correctional control, at one in every 18 Idahoans. This growth has serious implications for our state budget. Last year, the Idaho Legislature set aside $207 million, or 7.3 percent of total general fund expenditures, for corrections.

The Pew Center study also found states were not increasing their spending for community supervision in proportion to their growing caseloads. About $8.70 out of $10 spent on corrections in Idaho goes to incarceration and prison financing. This was evidenced by the Canyon County Jail requesting $48 million of economic stimulus monies to build a new facility.

Instead, Canyon County could address fixing the conditions at the current facility, which are inhumane for inmates, jail employees and the general public. Issues such as inadequate jail staffing could be better resolved by decreasing the current inmate population and increasing funding for probation, parole and alternatives to incarceration. Building a new facility does not tackle the bigger issue of our society's over-reliance on incarceration.

Incarceration is a shortsighted solution that is hard on families, social services and taxpayers. We must fund better solutions, such as community-based sentencing alternatives that preserve Idaho families, strengthen communities and rehabilitate individuals while reducing prison and jail costs.

We need reforms that will not only reduce the costs of incarceration, but also help ensure our communities are safe. If we're smart on crime, we can do both.

How? For starters, Idaho should carefully review the wisdom of mandatory minimum sentences and the enhancement of sentences for repeat substance-abuse offenses. Community-based programs, such as the successful Idaho Drug and Mental Health Courts, and those that offer substance abuse treatment and skill-training, are more effective and should be available to qualified individuals. Published reports indicate offender participation in Idaho felony drug courts achieved a 20 percent reduction in recidivism.

Minor violations of parole or probation should not automatically return the offenders to prison; instead, authorities should be permitted to impose alternate, rehabilitative sanctions.

We also need to ensure that our young people are given opportunities to succeed. Currently 15.9 percent of Idaho children live in poverty, and Idaho ranks 49th in the nation on education spending. The $62 million cut in education funding proposed by Superintendent Tom Luna will deprive our children of the education and support they need, and increase corrections costs later. The cost of housing a prisoner for one year is 3.6 times that of educating one pupil.

These are not soft-on-crime arguments; they are hard facts.

Idaho communities need our support. We can address our budget problems without sacrificing public safety. It is possible to be both tough and smart on crime, and the state has a responsibility to take action now to become both.

Monica Hopkins is the executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/readersopinion/story/729393.html

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

April 10, 2009

CA: Coalinga state prison still falls short, grand jury reports

Coalinga state prison still falls short, jury reports
Thursday, Apr. 09, 2009
By Eddie Jimenez / The Fresno Bee

Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga is still plagued with crowding, inadequate medical care and concerns that inmates could be exposed to Valley fever, according to a Fresno County grand jury report issued Thursday.

A grand jury report last year addressed the same problems and also issued the same recommendations.

The most recent report said a visit by grand jurors in late September revealed that the prison, designed to hold 2,200 inmates, housed 5,191 inmates -- including some in a gymnasium.
In addition, the Coalinga Regional Medical Center still does not have a secure medical wing for prisoners. Therefore, when inmates require hospitalization, they are driven a hour away to the Bakersfield Community Medical Center, where the prison contracts for 20 beds.

Taking inmates to Bakersfield for hospital care stretches the Coalinga prison's staff and budget, the report said.
Lack of state funding is stalling efforts to create a secure wing for prisoners at the Coalinga medical center, the grand jury said.
Valley fever -- widespread in the Coalinga area, according to the report -- remains an ongoing threat for inmates and staff. Prison officials have taken steps to address the problem, such as transferring inmates who have asthma and emphysema to other prisons.
Doctors also do not have adequate office space, the grand jury said.

State prison officials have alleviated some crowding by transferring inmates to out-of-state prisons, said Seth Unger, spokesman for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Health care in the state prison system was taken over by a court-appointed federal receiver after a class-action lawsuit was filed.
The receiver is well aware of the health care issues raised in the grand jury report, said Luis Patiño, receiver spokesman.
"We are working diligently to remedy those problems," he said.
Pleasant Valley State Prison houses minimum-, medium- and maximum-security inmates.

Note from someone familiar with the distances mentioned: "I'm not sure how fast prison ambulances drive, but to get from Coalinga to Bakersfield in an hour requires averaging something over 100 mph."

Posted by lois at 05:47 PM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2009

SF: Poverty Court Opens

NEWSOM IGNORES VOTERS: $2.7 MILLION POVERTY COURT OPENS IN SAN FRANCISCO BRINGING THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO A NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR YOU!

Notwithstanding a blistering defeat at the polls and strong opposition by the SF Board of Supervisors Newsom's Community Justice Center (CJC) defers several million dollars to incarcerate poor people for the sole act of being poor.

The Poverty Court (CJC) with a price tag of 2.7 million dollars serving the Tenderloin, South of Market, Civic Center, and Union Square neighborhoods was soundly defeated by voters ( Proposition L), with strong opposition from the Board of Supervisors as well. Mayor Newsom vetoed the loss, and the Center opened for business on March 4th, 2009.

"The Poverty Court (CJC) model formerly merges the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) with the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC) to become "the Complex"- a new form of criminalized service provision brought to a neighborhood near you," said Lisa Gray-Garcia, executive director of POOR Magazine and author of Criminal of Poverty; Growing Up Homeless in America.

The CJC, borrowed from a model delivered originally by former New York mayor Rudy Guiliani and his push to rid Manhattan of its "peddlers, panhandlers, and prostitutes," creates a courtroom - equipped with holding cells and a space allocated for administrative, health, social, and community services for the defendant - designated specifically for misdemeanors, or as Mayor Newsom puts it - as did Guiliani - "quality of life" crimes. Many, if not most, of these infractions - loitering, shoplifting, panhandling, urban camping, etc - are crimes of poverty, crimes committed out of circumstance. Rather than addressing the circumstance, the Community Court addresses the action, sentencing the defendant to community service hours and providing vague links to social services, such as drug or alcohol counseling.

After a lengthy and heated debate in the Board of Supervisors Newsom managed to garner full funding for the court in July, allocating approximately $1,980,000 for start-up costs, lease costs, and personnel costs. Newsom requested a further $771,885 to keep operations going for a full year, all this during a $350 million deficit with a proposed city budget that devastatingly slashes funds from life-saving social and health services city-wide. It's a good thing the Board of Supervisors and voters saw right through the gimmick. Too bad their opinions did not matter.

Newsom, with the support of the District Attorney Kamala Harris, went ahead with the court, siphoning a grand total of $2.7 million for the project, some in federal grants and some from the city budget. It's now open for the public on 575 Polk St. None of the first five offenders summoned showed on opening day.

Contrary to the misleading messages used to fund the CJC San Francisco's poverty crisis is not being perpetuated by the houseless people that will be sentenced in the CJC . It is perpetuated by a lack of affordable housing, budget cuts in life-saving services, and the social stigma surrounding the poor. Spending vital funds on the CJC, a system that does nothing to address the systemic roots of poverty and homelessness, that does not offer any new solution other than to temporarily busy worn-out hands with free labor and anger management classes, precious time spent away from earning enough money for food, is a criminal act in and of itself, ESPECIALLY since it is against the will of the voters.

Posted by lois at 04:49 PM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2009

TX: Phone system for prisoners begins - last state to bar routine phone access for prisoners

Texas inmate phone system begins
By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
April 3, 2009, 12:10PM

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas prison inmates are making routine phone calls for the first time.

The Texas prison board was told Friday the first of a planned systemwide program of telephone service to be available to most inmates began working this week at the Henley State Jail in Dayton, east of Houston. The system is being phased in this year throughout the 112 units of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the nation's second-largest corrections agency.

Under terms of a contract with a Kansas telecommunications firm, the country's most restrictive telephone policy for state prisoners is ending for an estimated 120,000 inmates who will be allowed up 120 minutes of prepaid and collect calls each month.

Three more prisons — Vance, in Fort Bend County; Luther, in Grimes County; and Hobby, in Falls County — are to have phone service next week and should be among 13 brought up in April.

Another 31 become active in May and the entire system should be up by the end of September, said Paul Cooper, director and general manager of corrections markets for Embarq Corp., the Overland Park, Kan.-based company that last year was awarded a seven-year contract with the Texas prison agency.

Texas is the last state to bar routine phone access for inmates. Most Texas prisoners now are allowed one five-minute collect call every 90 days, and only with a warden's permission and only with a prison officer present to monitor the call.

The new system will allow inmates up to 15 minutes per call to friends and family on an approved list of visitors. Calls to crime victims or the victims' families will be barred.

Inmates and their families can prepay for telephone calls at rates of about 23 cents a minute for in-state calls and 39 cents for out-of-state calls. Collect calls within Texas will be about 26 cents a minute and 43 cents for outside the state. International calls and calls to cell phone aren't allowed.

Phone privileges won't extend to about 36,000 inmates with disciplinary problems, gang affiliations or those on death row.

A few weeks before the system becomes active at a unit, Embarq makes voice prints of each eligible inmate as a security check for phone access. Cooper said so far 65,000 inmates have enrolled.

"We educate offenders on how the system is going to work so they know and write letters to friends and families," he said.

Friends and relatives of inmates can register on a Web site — http://www.texasprisonphone.com — and the company is working on an automated system for people who don't have Internet access, Cooper said.

People on an inmate's visitors list submit a copy of their telephone bill and a copy of their driver's license and their names are verified against the visitors list names.

"There are multiple layers of checks that occur," Cooper said, saying the phone system had security features and "a ton" of investigative capabilities.

"In terms of getting into the system, there are some checks," he said. "They are not perfect."

People who register and are approved are notified by a phone call from the firm.

The new phone privileges come in the wake of a crackdown by the agency on illegal cell phone use. Hundreds of contraband phones, chargers and phone components have been seized in recent months and security has been tightened for those entering and leaving the prisons after a death row inmate last year, using a smuggled phone, made threatening calls to a state senator.

State prison officials long had opposed expanded phone access, fearing inmates could maintain their criminal connections to the outside world. But officials say technology has improved so the calls can be monitored, recorded and limited to those on the list of approved contacts.

State lawmakers in 2007 overwhelmingly approved the measure allowing the project.

Embarq handles state prison telephone contracts in a half dozen states and will keep the first 60 percent of revenues. The remaining money, up to $10 million, will go to the Crime Victims Compensation Fund. Proceeds beyond that will be split evenly between the state's general revenue and the victim's fund.

The Legislative Budget Board has estimated annual revenue at about $5.8 million.

Embarq spokesman Tom Matthews said the installation has been a "massive project" made even more challenging at the state's prisons.

"There was no infrastructure anywhere," he said, saying the work involved basic things like stringing wire. "None of the facilities ever had that."

Some corrections experts believe the availability of phone communication allows inmates to keep in regular touch with relatives and that continued phone access can be used as an incentive for a convict to behave. Phones also are seen as a way to ease the financial strain on relatives who want to visit an inmate in a prison far from them.

Approximately one phone is being installed for each 30 inmates, meaning about 4,000 phones will be put in common areas of prisons like day rooms.

Calls to an inmate's lawyer of record, protected under attorney-client privilege, would not be monitored or recorded.

Posted by lois at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)

OH: Mental health care burdens prisons

Mental health care burdens prisons
By Lou Grieco
Staff Writer
Monday, April 06, 2009

DAYTON — Ohio prisons projected spending $64 million on inmates' mental health care in 2006 — or $8.7 million more than prison officials planned to spend on meals.

Instead, mental health costs reached $68.4 million. Last year, they climbed to $70.2 million.

"Prison has become a de facto mental health hospital," Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton said Thursday, April 2, at the University of Dayton.

Stratton was at UD to talk to a senior seminar of criminal justice students about mental health courts, which deal with treating and rehabilitating mentally ill offenders.

Ohio leads the nation in the number of courts that have mental health dockets, and should have more than 40 by the end of this year, Stratton said.

Dayton Municipal Court started one in 2003, and county officials are trying to expand that program countywide. Fairborn Municipal Court also has one, and Miami County Municipal Court started one last month.

The mentally ill often are arrested repeatedly for misdemeanors, such as public intoxication or trespassing, but don't get treatment they need to stay out of the system. Some stop taking their medications and become violent. Many complicate their problems by self-medicating with drugs or alcohol.

Mental health docketers are designed to get these people intense, supervised probation, which includes psychiatric help, medication, drug testing if needed, as well as regular court appearances. Proponents say it's tougher than regular probation.

Stratton, who was introduced by former Gov. Bob Taft, said the escalating prison populations and costs, coupled with the state's budget problems, are forcing officials to look at different ways to handle crime issues. She noted that she was nicknamed the "Velvet Hammer" when she was a prosecutor.

"I have never been accused of being soft on crime," she said.

Stratton also talked about the need for crisis intervention training for police officers. She said a Broward County, Fla., study showed that on 25 percent of all calls, the police arrested the mentally ill person on charges of resisting arrest or assaulting a police officer, instead of charges dealing with the original incident.

Those types of arrests can be avoided with proper training, and mental health dockets can turn troubled people into productive taxpayers who work and are reunited with their families, she said.

"It makes pure economic sense," Stratton said.
ttp://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2009/04/06/ddn040609stratton.html

Posted by lois at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2009

Prisons, Drugs in America: A Turning Point?

Prisons, Drugs in America: A Turning Point?
Neal Peirce / Apr 02 2009
For Release Sunday, April 5, 2009
© 2009 Washington Post Writers Group

An historic turning point in criminal justice and drug policy in America?

The fourth week of March was arguably just that:

On the way to Mexico City, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the first senior U.S. official to accept co-responsibility for the cartel-driven drug violence now ravaging Mexico. Clinton acknowledged that “our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” and that our three-decade long war on drugs has simply “not worked.”

In Albany, New York Gov. David Paterson and the Democratic legislative majority announced they’d reached agreement to roll back the punitive “Rockefeller drug laws” of the 1970s, starting with then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s insistence on mandatory minimum prison sentences for first-time, non-violent drug offenders.

But the biggest breakthrough of all may have come in the U.S. Senate, where Virginia’s Jim Webb (D), joined by two Republican and 13 Democratic colleagues, sponsored legislation for a high-level “National Criminal Justice Commission.”

This could be the official eye-opener, the crucial reexamination of America’s penal and drug policies that the nation has so sorely needed for years.

Why?

First, its chair would be appointed by the president–and President Obama has called Webb twice to commend his effort. A commission-endorsed reform agenda would provide Obama cover for major changes in this politically charged area.

Second, the Senate Democratic leadership is enthusiastically in favor and there’s smaller but significant Republican cosponsorship–Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter, ranking GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, and South Carolina’s Lindsay Graham, ranking member on the Crime and Drugs subcommittee.

A third positive: Jim Webb–highly decorated Marine combat veteran, Navy Secretary under President Reagan–can hardly be labeled a “softie” on crime. He and his staff have spent two years researching the prison and drug issues, hearing from prosecutors, judges, crime victims, former offenders, inmates and police. “It was like tapping a nerve,” Webb declares– “all are saying we have a real mess on our hands.”

Webb defines the base problem: with just 5 percent of world population, the U.S. has 2.3 million people behind bars–25 percent of all prisoners worldwide. “Either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States, or we are doing something dramatically wrong.”

Webb contends that our prisons, many seriously overcrowded, have become “places of violence, physical abuse and hate,” costing federal, state and local governments a tough-to-justify $68 billion a year.

We’re “warehousing” the mentally ill in our prisons where, the senator notes, they get scant professional treatment. Then he focuses on “the elephant in the bedroom” –the rise in drug incarcerations. In 1980, the U.S. incarcerated 41,000 drug offenders; today the figure tops 500,000–a 1,200 percent increase.

The commission, says Webb, would have to wrestle with the fact that more than half of Americans age 12 and over have at some time used an illegal drug. “In talking of legality and illegality, what does that do to the fiber of our society? I saw more drug use at Georgetown Law School than anywhere else I’ve been. A lot of those people went on to be judges.”

Yet what’s the answer? Should we be arresting people for recreational drug use–or, Webb asks, for addiction?

Then there’s race: African-Americans, he observes, comprise 12 percent of our population, use drugs at close to the national average, but represent 37 percent of drug arrests and 74 percent of drug offenders sentenced to prison. How’s that to be explained?

Conversely, Webb underscores how seriously gangs are impacting American society. Some, though not all, ride on the back of the drug trade. Mexican drug cartels, the most violent and visible, are operating in 230 American cities, not simply along the border. MS-13 gangs, notorious for drug smuggling, gun running and hits for hire, have spread across the U.S., even recruiting 2,000, Webb notes, in Northern Virginia across the Potomac from Washington.

Then there’s the problem of rural towns, hard hit by globalization, actively seeking prisons as a source for jobs.

Many American guards receive only brief on-the-job training. Webb contrasts this with Japan, where guards have a year’s preparation and inmates legitimately regard them but “mentors, disciplinarians, and friends.”

Bottom line: Webb’s commission, if Congress approves it, will have a massive, complex agenda. Yet its findings could prove a vital turning point, not only for the federal government (which holds just 10 percent of prisoners) but state and local governments nationwide. Many might be inspired to create their own commissions.

Some say Webb, representing historically conservative Virginia, is threatening his own political future. But if Webb can get us off the dime, thinking and acting afresh on critical prison and drug issues, he’ll be serving America as vitally as the bravest of his erstwhile Marine colleagues.
http://citiwire.net/post/831/

Posted by lois at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2009

16 States Report Declines in the Number Of Prisoners. 34 states report increases. Federal prisons and jails grow . Incarceration of women increases.

Growth in Prison and Jail Populations Slowing: 16 States Report Declines in the Number Of Prisoners

WASHINGTON, March 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As of June 30, 2008, state and federal correctional authorities had jurisdiction or legal authority over 1,610,584 prisoners. Additionally, 785,556 inmates were held in custody in local jails, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, announced today.

During the six months ending June 30, 2008, the prison population increased by 0.8 percent, compared to 1.6 percent during the same period in 2007. The local jail population increased by 0.7 percent during the 12-month period ending June 30, 2008, accounting for the slowest growth in 27 years.

Sixteen states reported decreases in their prison populations. California (down 962 prisoners) and Kentucky (down 847) reported the largest decreases since yearend 2007.

While the prison populations in the remaining 34 states increased, growth slowed in 18 of these states. For these 18 states, prison populations increased by 1.6 percent in the first half of 2008 as compared to the increase of 3.1 percent in the first half of 2007. Minnesota experienced the largest growth rate (up 5.2 percent) in the first six months of 2008, followed by Maine (up 4.6 percent) and Rhode Island and South Carolina (both up 4.3 percent).

The federal prison system added 1,524 prisoners in the first six months of 2008, reaching a total of 201,142 prisoners. The 0.8 percent growth represented the smallest increase in the first six months since 1993 (when BJS began collecting data at midyear).

State and federal prisoners in private facilities increased 6.8 percent during the 12-month period, reaching 126,249 at midyear 2008. The federal system (32,712), Texas (19,851), and Florida (9,026) reported the largest number of prisoners in private facilities.

As of June 30, 2008, over 2.3 million inmates, or one in every 131 U.S. residents, were held in custody in state or federal prisons or in local jails, regardless of sentence length or conviction status. Since yearend 2000, the nation's prison and jail custody populations have increased by 373,502 inmates (or 19 percent).

Over one-third of inmates held in custody at midyear 2008 were in local jails. More than half (52 percent) were housed in the 180 largest jail facilities, with average daily populations of 1,000 inmates or more. Overall, an estimated 13.6 million inmates were admitted to local jails during the 12-month period ending June 30, 2008.

Local jails operated at about 95 percent of their rated capacity as of June 30, 2008. During the preceding 12 months, the nation's jail capacity increased by 14,911 beds, while the number of inmates increased by 5,382 persons.

Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of all jail inmates were awaiting court action or had not been convicted of their current charge, up from 56 percent in 2000. Based on jail jurisdictions that reported data, non-U.S. citizens made up 9.0 percent of their total jail population in 2008, up from 7.7 percent in 2007 and 6.1 percent in 2000.

Among inmates held in custody in prisons or jails, black males were incarcerated at 6.6 times the rate of white males. One in 21 black males was incarcerated at midyear 2008, compared to one in 138 white males. At midyear 2008, black males (846,000) outnumbered white males (712,500) and Hispanic males (427,000) among inmates in prisons and jails. About 37 percent of all male inmates at midyear 2008 were black, down 41 percent from midyear 2000.

Female incarceration rates were substantially lower than male incarceration rates at every age. Black females (with an incarceration rate of 349 per 100,000) were more than twice as likely as Hispanic females (147 per 100,000) and over 3.5 times more likely than white females (93 per 100,000) to have been in prison or jail on June 30, 2008. An estimated 207,700 women were held in prison or jails at midyear 2008, up 33 percent since midyear 2000.

The accompanying standardized tables, Prison Inmates at Midyear 2008 - Statistical Tables (NCJ 225619) and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2008 - Statistical Tables (NCJ 225709), were prepared by BJS statisticians Heather C. West, Todd D. Minton, and William J. Sabol. Following publication, the tables can be found at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/pim08st.htm and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/jim08st.htm.

For additional information about the Bureau of Justice Statistics' statistical reports and programs, please visit the BJS Web site at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs.

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), headed by Acting Assistant Attorney General Laurie O. Robinson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation's capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims. OJP has five component bureaus: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; and the Office for Victims of Crime. In addition, OJP has two program offices: the Community Capacity Development Office, which incorporates the Weed and Seed strategy, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). More information can be found at http://www.ojp.gov.

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-31-2009/0004998232&EDATE=

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

March 30, 2009

Real Cost of Prisons Comix wins National Council on Crime and Delinquency PASS Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The National Council on Crime and Delinquency
Announces
The 2008 PASS Award Winners
Oakland, CA, March 20, 2009

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency is pleased to announce the 2008 Winners of its respected PASS Awards (Prevention for a Safer Society). NCCD honors the media’s success and vital role in illuminating the people and programs that uncover the root causes of crime and those that promise to protect our most precious resource—our youth—against involvement in crime.

A critical link in successful policies related to youth and justice is the education of the public. The media is uniquely positioned to be this link, and we gratefully acknowledge their efforts to fulfill that responsibility. Each year the PASS Awards honor media professionals in the fields of print, literature, broadcast media, television, and film in recognition of thoughtful and factual coverage of the issues. Special consideration is given to those stories that highlight solutions to criminal and juvenile justice and child welfare problems.

NCCD is the nation's oldest private organization working to attain responsive and effective criminal justice, juvenile justice, and child welfare systems. For over 100 years, NCCD has been committed to promoting criminal justice strategies that are fair, humane, cost-effective, and uncompromising in public safety. The issues that have defined NCCD since its inception are the need for a separate and humane justice system for children, alternatives to incarceration, and the fundamental connection between social justice and public safety.

For more information on NCCD, please visit our website at www.nccd-crc.org

FILM
Ice T Presents “25 to Life” Deloss Pickett, Michael Dallum
“At the Death House Door” Steve James, Peter Gilbert

LITERATURE
American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment by Sasha Abramsky

Chasing Justice by Kerry Max Cook, Sandra Kaye Pressey, Kerry Justice Cook, Peter Hubbard

From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King by Robert Hillary King and Andrea Gibbons

I’ll Fly Away: Further Testimonies from the Women of York Prison by Walley Lamb

Letters From the Dhamma Brothers by Jenny Phillips, Pariyatti Press, Ron Cavanaugh

Maximum Security: The True Meaning of Freedom by Alan Gompers

Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration by Paul Wright, Tara Herivel and Dianne Wachtel

Stanley Tookie Williams Street Peace Series by Stanley Tookie Williams and Barbara Becnel

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix by Lois Ahrens, Kevin Pyle, Sabrina Jones, Susan Willmarth, Ellen Miller-Mack and Craig Gilmore

MAGAZINE
San Jose Mercury News
“A Painful Choice for Moms in Prison” Edwin Garcia, Karen Borchers, Miller-McCune
“Is This the Future of the War on Drugs?” by Vince Beiser,John Mecklin

NEWSPAPER
East Valley Tribune “Reasonable Doubt” by Ryan Gabrielson, Paul Giblin, Patti Epler
Long Beach Press-Telegram “Lots of Answers, but No Easy Fixes” byWendy Thomas Russell andTracy Manzer
Seattle Weekly “Neverminded” by Laura Onstot and Mike Seely
The Daily Review “Educate to Break Cradle-to-Prison Pipeline” by Tammerlin Drummond
The Sacramento Bee “Unprotected” Marjie Lundstrom, Sam Stanton, Autumn Cruz, Mitchell Brooks
The Village Voice “Teen Murders at Rikers Jail” by Graham Rayman, Tony Ortega
The Washington Post “Rehabilitating Juvenile Offenders” by Robert Pierre, Carol Morello Westword
“Stand and Deliver” byAdam Cayton-Holland, Patricia Calhoun, Anthony Camera

RADIO
American Radioworks -“Gangster Confidential" Michael Montgomery and Catherine Winter
KALW Radio “Prisons in Crisis: A State of Emergency in California” JoAnn Mar, Alyne Ellis
KQED/Forum “Prisoner Health” by Scott Shafer, Nick Vidinsky andDan Zoll

TELEVISION/ VIDEO
HBO - “The Wire, Season 5” by David Simon, Nina Kostroff Noble, Ed Burns, Joe Chappelle.Karen L.Thorson
SoCal Connected/KCET -“Inside Locke High” Angela Shelley andAlexandria Gales, Brett Wood, Michael Bloecher,Bret Marcus
NBC/Wolf Films “Law and Order: SVU - Confession” Dick Wolf, Neal Baer, Ted Kotcheff, Peter Jankowski, Arthur Forney, Judith McCreary

WEB
AlterNet -“Meet Gus Puryear” by Silja J.A. Talvi and Jan Frel
City Limits -“A Ballot’s Breadth Away from Rejoining Society” by Karen Loew, Curtis Stephen, Rosie McCobb
City Limits “Debating How to Police a Challenging Population” Karen Loew, Tram Whitehurst

Posted by lois at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2009

MA: Freedom watch: Jailhouse bloc The real reason law-and-order types love mandatory-minimum sentencing? It's money in their pockets.

News Features, The Boston Phoenix
Freedom watch: Jailhouse bloc
The real reason law-and-order types love mandatory-minimum sentencing? It's money in their pockets.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | December 9, 2008

With aromatic puffs of change, Bay State stoners rejoiced on Election Day. But even the haziest of revelers may have missed the full significance of Question 2, a statewide ballot initiative to decriminalize marijuana possession in small amounts. Not only will this bring more humane and responsible marijuana laws, it will also suppress — however slightly — an insidious, contemporary offshoot of what President Dwight Eisenhower famously referred to as the "military-industrial complex": the idea that if private industry and government joined in promoting ever-increasing defense spending, war as well as national bankruptcy were more likely.

Almost a half-century later, that mindset has extended to both the local and federal law-and-order sectors, which have argued for, and experienced, virtually unabated growth. Today, law-enforcement groups regularly lobby against criminal-punishment reforms, and for the creation of new criminal statutes and overly harsh prison sentences. While these efforts are cloaked as calls for public safety, they are essentially creating more business for themselves.

The problem has become so widespread that some private correctional corporations — companies that subcontract services, and even privately owned jails and prisons, to all levels of government — have even lobbied the government to enact and maintain ever broader criminal laws and higher sentences. Those private prisons are now rolling in the profit, and taking on more prisoners every day as federal and state prisons run out of room to house their inmates.

But these lobbyists' success — and that of various law-enforcement groups — has given rise to a veritable "prison-industrial complex" that not only uses fear to suppress these groups' true intentions — it leaves taxpayers footing the bill.

Bleak house of detention
It was with these self-aggrandizing interests in mind that the Massachusetts Districts Attorneys' Association (MDAA) and other tough-on-crime groups fiercelyopposedthe marijuana-decriminalization referendum.

After all, if the penalties for minor marijuana possession were to remain on the statute books, more police, prosecutors, prison guards, and parole officers — and their lucrative overtime — would also be retained.

To their dismay, however, Question 2 passed by an overwhelming 65 to 35 percent voter margin, and will be implemented 30 days after election results are certified. As a result, many law-enforcement officials may soon be without an important source of job security and additional revenue — namely, the $30 million a year (as one study by a Harvard economics professor estimated) spent enforcing the soon-to-be-history current marijuana-possession laws.

Never mind that the forthcoming statutory reform is, from even a moderate law-and-order perspective, relatively benign. According to Question 2, anyone caught with less than one ounce will forfeit the substance and pay a $100 fine, while minors will additionally have to complete a drug-awareness program (including group sessions and community service). Current penalties for growing and trafficking in marijuana, as well as the prohibition against driving while high, will remain exactly as they are.

These facts were conveniently left out of the MDAA's efforts to "inform" voters.The group could not legally make direct contributions to ballot campaigns — publicly funded groups are unable to do so, thanks to a 1978 Supreme Judicial Court decision — yet in opposing Question 2, it still managed to fuel a whisper campaign and add misleading info to its Web site (hosted, by the way, on the state's ".gov" domain).

Thus, these law-enforcement officials were able to avoid any technical wrongdoing while lobbying for an increased legislative arsenal — feathering their own nests at the expense of liberty and sensible public policy.

Bear in mind, though, that our First Amendment protects not only speech, but also "the right of the people . . . to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." So state and local law-enforcement personnel, like other citizens, do have the right to lobby voters and even members of the legislature to promote more expansive criminal laws and stricter penalties. But self-serving lobbying and public-relations offensives, disguised as seeking protections for society, should be treated with exceptional scrutiny and skepticism.

Though disheartening, their actions are an age-old fact of life best described by Charles Dickens in his classic 1853 novel Bleak House: "The one great principle of the English law is to make business for itself."

Coke vs. crack
A similar battle waged in Massachusetts last summer, when law-enforcement groups sought once again to thwart criminal-justice reform. At the time, a legislative effort to help nonviolent offenders find employment opportunities by changing Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) laws was brought before the State House of Representatives — and, thanks to the efforts of state Attorney General Martha Coakley and other law-enforcement officials, essentially squashed.

The proposed bill would have restricted the type of personal information that some employers receive, thereby assisting the many individuals saddled with CORI records who struggle to find employment and end up back behind bars.

Massachusetts's recidivism rates are nearly 40 percent, according to a study by the Urban Institute Justice Policy Center. And the CORI law's branding of even the most innocuous offender is, by all accounts, partly responsible for this dismal situation. So advocates of the bill asserted that changing CORI could ease the massive overcrowding at the state's prison system, which the Department of Corrections recently estimated to be operating at "144 percent of capacity." (Currently, there are 12,000 inmates imprisoned — a disgraceful state record.)

Another aspect of that same failed bill would have reduced mandatory-minimum sentences for certain drug offenses, which advocates said also contribute to overcrowding.

As the law stands, anyone convicted of selling drugs within 1000 feet of a school zone automatically receives a two-year prison term — leaving no room for judicial discretion. That means a first-time offender with no record could receive more prison time than, say, an armed robber. And the mandatory nature of these sentences eliminates the possibility of parole.

Because of the numerous schools in dense urban areas, poor, black, and Hispanic populations are at a greater risk of facing the mandatory-minimum measures, according to a recent Prison Policy Initiative study.

Yet despite the clear inequalities in the current law, as well as the benefits that reform holds out to both taxpayers and public safety — not to mention liberty — the legislative term ended in July with no action taken on the reform legislation.

This problem with drug sentencing is nothing new. For more than two decades, prison-reform supporters have condemned the federal sentencing disparities for the mostly middle and upper-class defendants caught using cocaine, and the mostly lower-class, inner-city habitants caught with cheaper crack cocaine.

Part of the now-infamous war on crime, a 100-to-1 ratio was implemented in sentencing for crack cocaine. So, a person caught selling five grams of crack received the same prison sentence as someone dealing 500 grams of powder cocaine.

The mandatory-minimums were harsh, too. That same person caught selling five grams of crack received a five-year minimum sentence; 50 grams or more and the minimum was 10 years.

Despite clear racial, economic, and cultural disparities, cries from constituents fell on deaf ears while law-enforcement lobbyists successfully cajoled and frightened congressional leaders.

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey, for one, strongly opposed reducing the crack-cocaine minimums. The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), a 325,000 member national organization that bills itself as "the voice of our nations' law-enforcement officers," also spent $550,000 lobbying Congress over the past three years. Among their interests: stopping the Powder-Crack Cocaine Penalty Equalization Act, along with promoting a litany of other Draconian measures.

Prison business
To be fair, government employees weren't the only ones to lobby against crack-cocaine sentence equalization. A little-recognized subset of this vast prison-industrial complex lobbying community is composed of private correctional corporations, which sign lucrative contracts with governments to house inmates for profit, often shipping them to facilities out of state.

It is, of course, in these private prisons' economic interests to see more people in prison serving longer sentences. And with current facilities bursting at the seams, times for this burgeoning industry are good. The country's largest private prison provider, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), spent more than $2.7 million from 2006 through September 2008 on lobbying for stricter laws. Last year alone, the company, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, generated $133 million in net income.

For the past 25 years, the CCA has built itself into a corrections powerhouse — it operates nearly 70 facilities housing more than 75,000 detainees. As it does for, say, contractors in Iraq, though, privatization comes with an inevitable lack of oversight. The CCA has been involved in numerous wrongful-death lawsuits, and it has been a constant target of prison-reform groups who claim the private facilities are understaffed and their detainees abused.

Yet another private prison provider, the GEO Group, which has annual revenue topping $1 billion, has come under intense scrutiny for dozens — if not hundreds — of inmate deaths in the past decade. One such prisoner death led to the recent indictment of Vice-President Dick Cheney on November 18, in which a rather ornery Texas state prosecutor claimed that Cheney's substantial investments in the GEO Group made him partly responsible for prisoner abuse — a dubious prosecutorial theory (in fact, it was dismissed this Monday), but with a grain of practical truth.

Nonetheless, states facing prison overcrowding turn to these corporations to outsource inmates. California, for example, has commissioned the CCA to ship convicts as far away as Tennessee (where financially strapped relatives and friends frequently cannot visit). The CCA has exported nearly 4000 California prisoners to states across the country under a $115 million contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Over the next three years, 8000 more are planned to be shipped out of the Golden State.

The societal costs — both human and financial — of these policies and practices are enormous, and growing. California — which carried a $15.2 billion deficit into this fiscal year — spends $10 billion per year on more than 170,000 inmates. Like the Bay State, California also faces high recidivism rates; state records show that more than two-thirds of released inmates return to prison within three years. In this context, a ballot battle — possibly more contentious than Massachusetts's Question 2 scuffle — raged this past election season. Two separate initiatives, each from vastly different perspectives, concerned the state's approach to criminal justice.

The first, Proposition 5, would have expanded treatment programs for those convicted of drug-related and nonviolent crimes. While the costs for more rehabilitation were estimated at $1 billion a year, analysts said $2.5 billion would have been saved from the reduction in prison costs. But, much like what transpired in Massachusetts, the California District Attorney's Association, along with other law-enforcement agencies, vehemently opposed the initiative. These agencies raised nearly $400,000 and, through the Web site of their umbrella group, People Against Proposition 5, issued "facts" such as "Proposition 5 creates an 'Express Lane' for drug dealers to get back on the streets and peddling dope to our kids."

Conversely, nearly $1 billion would have been added to the cops' coffers under Proposition 6, which proposed new laws for prosecutors to fight gang activity. Many of the same law-enforcement agencies that opposed Prop 5 supported Prop 6, joined by some "tough-on-crime" lawmakers who slashed $3 billion in education from the state's 2008 budget. Included among the Prop 6 supporters was — you guessed it — the CCA.

The CCA's lobbying efforts, as well as those of publicly funded law-enforcement agents, wasn't enough to convince Californians, as nearly 70 percent of voters opposed Prop 6. Yet similarly high numbers opted against Prop 5.

Maybe the cops' Prop 6 push for more crime-fighting money and power were too transparent for voters. Interestingly, though, their appeals to public safety in opposing Prop 5 seemed to work. California voters were quite possibly unaware that, by maintaining strict criminal laws and closing off alternatives to incarceration, law-enforcement agencies maintained their strength.

The 1 percent solution?
From Niccolò Machiavelli to Rudy Giuliani, fear has been the foundation of ever-expanding political power (and, for some, job status and security). And it continues to drive the prison-industrial complex.

Just as the United States Department of Justice was able to pressure Congress to enact the infamous USA-Patriot Act in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, here in the Bay State, an appeal to fear ("protect the children") prevailed in stampeding the legislature. In late July, Governor Deval Patrick signed into law "An Act Further Protecting Children," a bill providing stricter mandatory-minimum sentences for sex offenders who target children.

The way this legislation was presented made opposition appear callous and irresponsible. Who, after all, wouldn't want to keep child predators off the streets?

Yet tucked away in this bill are provisions that do far more than simply protect the young. The proposal enables prosecutors to obtain private records from Internet and telephone providers by issuing an "administrative subpoena." Prosecutors, having only to assert that records are "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation," were granted ever-expanding access into otherwise personal data. The telecoms, in turn, were granted blanket immunity from claims of privacy violation. There was no mass protest from the customers.

But at least one person did object. Newton's Democratic state senator Cynthia Creem voiced skepticism in a July 29 Newton TAB op-ed. Mindful that the most egregious provisions of the Patriot Act have been used to target not just terrorists but journalists, activists, and Muslim charities, she wrote: "I cannot support this attack on privacy rights when less-invasive and equally effective means are available. Our liberties should never be sacrificed in the name of prosecutorial convenience." A few other scattered voices in the State Senate echoed Creem. But perhaps Creem's reference to "convenience" missed the point — prosecutorial power appears to have been the more likely goal.

When the bill was passed by the Massachusetts House and presented to the Senate, Coakley, having learned that other politicians were questioning the bill's scope, lobbied hard so that no language would be changed (which would have required passage again through the House). With robust MDAA support, as well as the backing of key legislative leaders, 11 different role-call votes for amending provisions of the bill were voted down. Less than two weeks after this truncated debate, the bill became law. Experienced observers of the legislative process marveled at the ability of Coakley and her allies to forestall changes to the legislation.

The United States — "land of the free" — has five percent of the world's population, but it also, thanks to the lobbyists and officiants behind the prison-industrial complex, shamefully holds 25 percent of the world's incarcerated. It has a higher rate of imprisonment than the planet's most notorious despotisms. One in 100 Americans is in jail.

These citizens are not only unproductive, they cost the public $45 billion a year, according to a June report by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. And yet they also keep a small army of officers and other law-enforcement support personnel on the job. The monumental taxpayer's tab that would be unnecessary with saner criminal-justice laws is virtually incalculable.

It is long past the time to re-think how much credence we should give to those who claim to be experts in law enforcement, but who, in reality, have simply discovered a steady and ever-increasing source of job security.

Their First Amendment right to lobby for endless new criminal laws and ever-tougher prison sentences is indeed constitutionally protected, but this does not mean that these law-enforcement officials' criminal "expertise" should endow them with a free pass from critical scrutiny. Legislators and the public need not sit by idly as their fellow citizens are unjustly arrested, prosecuted, and often incarcerated for increasingly lengthy periods of time as the law-enforcement industry's wallet grows fat. The next time prison-industrial-complex adherents tell us we need tougher laws and sentences for our own good, we should point out precisely whose good is being served.

Harvey Silverglate is a criminal defense and civil-liberties lawyer and writer. Kyle Smeallie, former associate editor of the Boston College Heights, is Silverglate's research assistant and paralegal. Silverglate's next book, Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent, is forthcoming next year from Encounter Books.
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/73092-Freedom-watch-Jailhouse-bloc/
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Posted by lois at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

"Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians" by Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald
Saturday March 28, 2009
Jim Webb's courage v. the "pragmatism" excuse for politicians
Salon.com

There are few things rarer than a major politician doing something that is genuinely courageous and principled, but Jim Webb's impassioned commitment to fundamental prison reform is exactly that. Webb's interest in the issue was prompted by his work as a journalist in 1984, when he wrote about an American citizen who was locked away in a Japanese prison for two years under extremely harsh conditions for nothing more than marijuana possession. After decades of mindless "tough-on-crime" hysteria, an increasingly irrational "drug war," and a sprawling, privatized prison state as brutal as it is counter-productive, America has easily surpassed Japan -- and virtually every other country in the world -- to become what Brown University Professor Glenn Loury recently described as a "a nation of jailers" whose "prison system has grown into a leviathan unmatched in human history."

What's most notable about Webb's decision to champion this cause is how honest his advocacy is. He isn't just attempting to chip away at the safe edges of America's oppressive prison state. His critique of what we're doing is fundamental, not incremental. And, most important of all, Webb is addressing head-on one of the principal causes of our insane imprisonment fixation: our aberrational insistence on criminalizing and imprisoning non-violent drug offenders (when we're not doing worse to them). That is an issue most politicians are petrified to get anywhere near, as evidenced just this week by Barack Obama's adolescent, condescending snickering when asked about marijuana legalization, in response to which Obama gave a dismissive answer that Andrew Sullivan accurately deemed "pathetic." Here are just a few excerpts from Webb's Senate floor speech this week (.pdf) on his new bill to create a Commission to study all aspects of prison reform:

Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have 5% of the world's population; we have 25% of the world's known prison population. We have an incarceration rate in the United States, the world's greatest democracy, that is five times as high as the average incarceration rate of the rest of the world. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice. . . .

The elephant in the bedroom in many discussions on the criminal justice system is the sharp increase in drug incarceration over the past three decades. In 1980, we had 41,000 drug offenders in prison; today we have more than 500,000, an increase of 1,200%. The blue disks represent the numbers in 1980; the red disks represent the numbers in 2007 and a significant percentage of those incarcerated are for possession or nonviolent offenses stemming from drug addiction and those sorts of related behavioral issues. . . .

In many cases these issues involve people’s ability to have proper counsel and other issues, but there are stunning statistics with respect to drugs that we all must come to terms with. African-Americans are about 12% of our population; contrary to a lot of thought and rhetoric, their drug use rate in terms of frequent drug use rate is about the same as all other elements of our society, about 14%. But they end up being 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of those sentenced to prison by the numbers that have been provided by us. . . .

Another piece of this issue that I hope we will address with this National Criminal Justice Commission is what happens inside our prisons. . . . We also have a situation in this country with respect to prison violence and sexual victimization that is off the charts and we must get our arms around this problem. We also have many people in our prisons who are among what are called the criminally ill, many suffering from hepatitis and HIV who are not getting the sorts of treatment they deserve.

Importantly, what are we going to do about drug policy - the whole area of drug policy in this country?

And how does that affect sentencing procedures and other alternatives that we might look at?

Webb added that "America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace" and "we are locking up too many people who do not belong in jail."

It's hard to overstate how politically thankless, and risky, is Webb's pursuit of this issue -- both in general and particularly for Webb. Though there has been some evolution of public opinion on some drug policy issues, there is virtually no meaningful organized constituency for prison reform. To the contrary, leaving oneself vulnerable to accusations of being "soft on crime" has, for decades, been one of the most toxic vulnerabilities a politician can suffer (ask Michael Dukakis). Moreover, the privatized Prison State is a booming and highly profitable industry, (GEO Group, Inc.: Despite a Crashing Economy, Private Prison Firm Turns a Handsome Profit...Corp Watch. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15308) with an army of lobbyists, donations, and other well-funded weapons for targeting candidates who threaten its interests.

Most notably, Webb is in the Senate not as an invulnerable, multi-term political institution from a safely blue state (he's not Ted Kennedy), but is the opposite: he's a first-term Senator from Virginia, one of the "toughest" "anti-crime" states in the country (it abolished parole in 1995 and is second only to Texas in the number of prisoners it executes), and Webb won election to the Senate by the narrowest of margins, thanks largely to George Allen's macaca-driven implosion. As Ezra Klein wrote, with understatement: "Lots of politicians make their name being anti-crime, which has come to mean pro-punishment. Few make their name being pro-prison reform."

For a Senator like Webb to spend his time trumpeting the evils of excessive prison rates, racial disparities in sentencing, the unjust effects of the Drug War, and disgustingly harsh conditions inside prisons is precisely the opposite of what every single political consultant would recommend that he do. There's just no plausible explanation for what Webb's actions other than the fact that he's engaged in the noblest and rarest of conduct: advocating a position and pursuing an outcome because he actually believes in it and believes that, with reasoned argument, he can convince his fellow citizens to see the validity of his cause. And he is doing this despite the fact that it potentially poses substantial risks to his political self-interest and offers almost no prospect for political reward. Webb is far from perfect -- he's cast some truly bad votes since being elected -- but, in this instance, not only his conduct but also his motives are highly commendable.

* * * * *

Webb's actions here underscore a broader point. Our political class has trained so many citizens not only to tolerate, but to endorse, cowardly behavior on the part of their political leaders. When politicians take bad positions, ones that are opposed by large numbers of their supporters, it is not only the politicians, but also huge numbers of their supporters, who step forward to offer excuses and justifications: well, they have to take that position because it's too politically risky not to; they have no choice and it's the smart thing to do. That's the excuse one heard for years as Democrats meekly acquiesced to or actively supported virtually every extremist Bush policy from the attack on Iraq to torture and warrantless eavesdropping; it's the excuse which even progressives offer for why their political leaders won't advocate for marriage equality or defense spending cuts; and it's the same excuse one hears now to justify virtually every Obama "disappointment."

Webb's commitment to this unpopular project demonstrates how false that excuse-making is -- just as it was proven false by Russ Feingold's singular, lonely, October, 2001 vote against the Patriot Act and Feingold's subsequent, early opposition to the then-popular Bush's assault on civil liberties, despite his representing the purple state of Wisconsin. Political leaders have the ability to change public opinion by engaging in leadership and persuasive advocacy. Any cowardly politician can take only those positions that reside safely within the majoritiarian consensus. Actual leaders, by definition, confront majoritarian views when they are misguided and seek to change them, and politicians have far more ability to affect and change public opinion than they want the public to believe they have.

The political class wants people to see them as helpless captives to immutable political realities so that they have a permanent, all-purpose excuse for whatever they do, so that they are always able to justify their position by appealing to so-called "political realities." But that excuse is grounded in a fundamentally false view of what political leaders are actually capable of doing in terms of shifting public opinion, as NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen explained when I interviewed him about his theories of how political consensus is maintained and manipulated:

GG: One of the points you make is that it's not just journalists who define what these spheres [of consensus, legitimate debate and deviance] encompass. You argue that politicians, political actors can change what's included in these spheres based on the positions that they take. And in some sense, you could even say that that's kind of what leadership is -- not just articulating what already is within the realm of consensus, which anyone can do, but taking ideas that are marginalized or within the sphere of deviance and bringing them into the sphere of legitimacy. How does that process work? How do political actors change those spheres?

JR: Well, that's exactly what leadership is. And I think it's crippling sometimes to our own sense of efficacy in politics and media, if we assume that the media has all of the power to frame the debate and decide what consensus is, and consign things to deviant status. That's not really true. That's true under conditions of political immobilization, leadership default, a rage for normalcy, but in ordinary political life, leaders, by talking about things, make them legitimate. Parties, by pushing for things, make them part of the sphere of debate. Important and visible people can question consensus, and all of a sudden expand it. These spheres are malleable; if the conversation of democracy is alive and if you make your leaders talk about things, it becomes valid to talk about them.

And I really do think there's a self-victimization that sometimes goes on, but to go back to the beginning of your question, there's something else going on, which is the ability to infect us with notions of what's realistic is one of the most potent powers press and political elites have. Whenever we make that kind of decision -- "well it's pragmatic, let's be realistic" -- what we're really doing is we're speculating about other Americans, our fellow citizens, and what they're likely to accept or what works on them or what stimuli they respond to. And that way of seeing other Americans, fellow citizens, is in fact something the media has taught us; that is one of the deepest lessons we've learned from the media even if we are skeptics of the MSM.

And one of the things I see on the left that really bothers me is the ease with which people skeptical of the media will talk about what the masses believe and how the masses will be led and moved in this way that shows me that the mass media tutors them on how to see their fellow citizens. And here the Internet again has at least some potential, because we don't have to guess what those other Americans think. We can encounter them ourselves, and thereby reshape our sense of what they think. I think every time people make that judgment about what's realistic, what they're really doing is they're imagining what the rest of the country would accept, and how other people think, and they get those ideas from the media.

We've been trained how we talk about our political leaders primarily by a media that worships political cynicism and can only understand the world through political game-playing. Thus, so many Americans have been taught to believe not only that politicians shouldn't have the obligation of leadership imposed on them -- i.e., to persuade the public of what is right -- but that it's actually smart and wise of them to avoid positions they believe in when doing so is politically risky.

People love now to assume the role of super-sophisticated political consultant rather than a citizen demanding actions from their representatives. Due to the prism of gamesmanship through which political pundits understand and discuss politics, many citizens have learned to talk about their political leaders as though they're political strategists advising their clients as to the politically shrewd steps that should be taken ("this law is awful and unjust and he was being craven by voting for it, but he was absolutely right to vote for it because the public wouldn't understand if he opposed it"), rather than as citizens demanding that their public servants do the right thing ("this law is awful and unjust and, for that reason alone, he should oppose it and show leadership by making the case to the public as to why it's awful and unjust").

It may be unrealistic to expect most politicians in most circumstances to do what Jim Webb is doing here (or what Russ Feingold did during Bush's first term). My guess is that Webb, having succeeded in numerous other endeavors outside of politics, is not desperate to cling to his political office, and he has thus calculated that he'd rather have six years in the Senate doing things he thinks are meaningful than stay there forever on the condition that he cowardly renounce any actual beliefs. It's probably true that most career politicians, possessed of few other talents or interests, are highly unlikely to think that way.

But the fact that cowardly actions from political leaders are inevitable is no reason to excuse or, worse, justify and even advocate that cowardice. In fact, the more citizens are willing to excuse and even urge political cowardice in the name of "realism" or "pragmatism" ("he was smart to take this bad, unjust position because Americans are too stupid or primitive for him to do otherwise and he needs to be re-elected"), the more common that behavior will be. Politicians and their various advisers, consultants and enablers will make all the excuses they can for why politicians do what they do and insist that public opinion constrains them to do otherwise. That excuse-making is their role, not the role of citizens. What ought to be demanded of political officials by citizens is precisely the type of leadership Webb is exhibiting here.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/28/webb/

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

March 26, 2009

The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009- will undertake a top-to bottom review of our entire criminal justice system and offer recommendations for reform"

Senator Jim Webb of VA has introduced The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009 today.

I encourage you to take a few minutes and read the full-bill http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/CriminalJusticeReform_Legislation.pdf

Here is a fact sheet on the Bill (http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/FactSheeti.pdf), which according to Senator Webb will be "undertake a top-to-bottom review of our entire criminal justice system" and to offer recommendations for reform."

Please encourage your Senators and Congresspeople to support passage of the Act.

Here is part of Webb's statement:

The National Criminal Justice Act of 2009 that I introduced in the Senate on March 26, 2009 will create a blue-ribbon commission to look at every aspect of our criminal justice system with an eye toward reshaping the process from top to bottom. I believe that it is time to bring together the best minds in America to confer, report, and make concrete recommendations about how we can reform the process.

Why We Urgently Need this Legislation:
With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses 25% of the world's reported prisoners.
Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1200% since 1980.
Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals.
Approximately 1 million gang members reside in the U.S., many of them foreign-based; and Mexican cartels operate in 230+ communities across the country.
Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard and often nonexistent, undermining public safety and making it extremely difficult for ex-offenders to become full, contributing members of society.

America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.

We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration.

Posted by lois at 05:31 PM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2009

CA: Judge rejects returning prison care to state

Judge rejects returning prison care to state
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
(03-24) 12:33 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's request to return health care in California prisons to state control Tuesday, ruling that a court-appointed overseer is still needed to restore basic medical treatment in the overcrowded and understaffed prisons.

Judge Thelton Henderson ruled in 2006 that the state was ...Clark Kelso, standing outside Folsom State Prison, retain... View Larger
U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson in San Francisco said that although health care has improved under federal management since 2006, he has "no confidence that such improvements would continue, or even be maintained," if the state regained control now.

Federal management "is not and was never intended to be a permanent solution," and will end as soon as the state shows it is able to run the system, the judge said.

Henderson appointed a receiver to run the prison health system in 2006, saying evidence in an inmate lawsuit showed that inadequate medical care at the state's 33 prisons was killing at least one inmate a week. State officials had shown themselves incapable of complying with the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the judge said.

The current receiver, law Professor Clark Kelso, has submitted an $8 billion plan to build seven health centers for 10,000 prisoners and improve some existing medical centers. He said last month that only 5,000 new beds may be needed, at about half the cost.

After the Legislature refused last year to approve bond funding for prison hospitals, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat, asked Henderson to remove Kelso, arguing that his plan was too lavish and costly and that his appointment had been illegal.

In response to Tuesday's ruling, Kelso issued a statement saying he looks forward to "working collaboratively with state officials and agencies to achieve our shared goal of improving prison medical and health care to constitutional levels" and returning management to the state.

State officials said they would ask an appeals court to overrule Henderson.

"The federal receivership has become its own autonomous government, operating outside the normal checks and balances of state and federal law," Brown said in a statement. "It is time for a dose of fiscal common sense."

The state has also appealed Henderson's order requiring it to spend $250 million to renovate prison health centers under Kelso's plan.

In separate proceedings, a three-judge panel, including Henderson, has ruled that overcrowding at the prisons - now filled at twice their designed capacity of 80,000 - was the primary cause of inadequate health care, and has tentatively ordered the release of between 37,000 and 58,000 inmates to local custody, treatment programs or parole. Schwarzenegger plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

At a hearing in Henderson's court last week, a state lawyer argued that federal law prohibits judges from appointing managers to take over state prison operations and also forbids judges from requiring prison construction.

Attorney Paul Mello also said the state was spending $14,000 per inmate on health care each year, the most in the nation, and more than $2 billion on the system overall. Citing a reduction in inmate deaths, Mello said federal management was no longer needed.

In Tuesday's ruling, Henderson said federal law does not restrict judges' authority to temporarily remove prison operations from state officials who have mismanaged them. He also noted that the state consented to the appointment of a receiver as early as 2005 and never objected until last summer.

Kelso's plan is expensive, Henderson said, but providing adequate health care in the nation's largest prison system is costly, "and it is even more costly when the receivership must make up for the years of neglect by the state."

He noted, for example, what court experts found at San Quentin State Prison in 2005. A nursing office was located in a filthy room without medical equipment, an examination table, a sink or a telephone. A clogged shower drain outside the office left standing water outside the door. The previous nursing office had been in a broom closet.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/25/BAI316M314.DTL

Posted by lois at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2009

How PA handles prison medical care

How Pa. handles prison medical care
By: JO CIAVAGLIA The Intelligencer

In the Pennsylvania state prison system, men diagnosed with cancer could be transferred to Graterford Prison, where a chemotherapy suite was installed in 2005.

The prison in Montgomery County is only one of five state prisons with specialized medical units that can treat prisoners with complicated, chronic medical needs, a population whose numbers are growing, according to corrections experts.

As of last July, 42 percent of state prisoners had at least one chronic illness, up from 39 percent in 2006, according to Prison Health Services,

a for-profit company responsible for prison health care. The number of inmates requiring infirmary or surgical care soared from 75 to 453 between 2006 and July, 2008.

Taxpayers pay an average of about $32,000 per year to house a state prison inmate, including an average of almost $4,500 in health care costs. The average inmate health care cost has not increased significantly in the last four years, despite an overall rise in prison population, statistics show. Where costs have increased significantly is among prisoners requiring intensive, long-term medical care.

At Laurel Highlands Prison in southwestern Pennsylvania's Somerset County, which houses the state's oldest and sickest inmates, the population increased 15 percent between 2003-04 and 2007-08 - but the average medical costs nearly doubled from $8,704 to $15,346 per inmate. The estimated rate of confirmed HIV and AIDS patients in Pennsylvania prisons was more than 2 1/2 times higher than the general population in 2005, according to Prison Health Services. The monthly treatment costs ranged from $1,200 to $2,500 per inmate.

In 2007, cancer, coronary artery disease and end-stage liver disease primarily due to infectious hepatitis were responsible for almost 70 percent of inmate deaths. HIV ranked sixth, between suicide and gastrointestinal bleeding.

The cost of treating chronic illnesses among prisoners varies, state prison officials said.

Kidney disease has experienced "modest" cost increases in large part due to new medication for management of dialysis patients, Roberts said.

Diabetes and hypertension management costs have been flat or decreased due to wider availability of generic drugs, and a once daily dosing regimen, which improved patient compliance with medications. Hospitalization rates for cardiac and diabetic patients also remained stable, Prison Health Services spokesman Ronald Roberts said.

HIV and AIDS management has experienced a nearly 50 percent increase in medication costs.

The need to add a fourth HIV drug to the previous three-drug therapy is responsible for most of the "significant" cost increases with HIV treatment, Roberts said. New costly lab testing is often required as resistant strains of HIV virus continue to increase among prison populations.

Cancer-related costs alone have risen "substantially" - 16 percent annually - according to Prison Health Services. Prostate cancer is the most common diagnosis among male prisoners.

The state Department of Corrections' tumor registry has listed more than 600 patients since 1994 with either a diagnosis or history of cancer.

The vast majority of those patients are diagnosed while incarcerated, said Susan McNaughton, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.

State prisoners can be monitored and treated for chronic diseases at in-house prison medical units using video teleconferencing for pre- and post-operative consultations.

Prisoners requiring more intensive care can be transferred to a state prison with a specialized medical unit. These units save taxpayer money because they can provide medical care cheaper than hospitals, and save costs related to transportation and security.

Prisoners with unstable health are treated in outside hospitals, said Dr. Nicholas Scharff, assistant medical director of the bureau of health care services. For extraordinary cancer care, such as bone marrow transplants or leukemia induction, prisoners are treated at a state-contracted, outside medical center.

Cancer care is overseen by a staff oncologist who develops individual treatment plans and oversees treatment, which has resulted in earlier diagnosis, saving money through less invasive and prolonged treatment.

Installing a chemotherapy suite at Graterford has provided greater uniform care under National Comprehensive Cancer Network standards. Financially, it also has provided an "enormous" cost savings since chemotherapy is among the more expensive and lucrative medical specialties, McNaughton said.

But she added that a "significant" number of cancers, such as acute leukemia, still require outside hospital treatment.

"We are obligated to provide inmates with medical care and we provide the same care that someone in the community would get," McNaughton said.

Cancer, coronary artery disease and end-stage liver disease are responsible for most inmate deaths in state prisons.

Specialized medical units within the Pennsylvania State Prison system

Laurel Highlands: long-term nursing, assisted care and personal care units, dialysis units

Graterford: chemotherapy suite

Forest: hepatitis C treatment

Somerset: elective day surgery program (elective procedures include port removal, ACL repair, cataract surgery, biopsies, colonoscopy and hernia repair)

Smithfield: diagnostic medical imaging program

A healthy cost for Pennsylvania

Monthly cost for health care services per state inmate in 2003-04: $127.77

Monthly cost for health care services per state inmate in 2007-08: $166.86

For the 2007 calendar year, 8,805 dialysis treatments were provided to state prisoners.

Source: Prison Healthcare Services, Pennsylvania Department of Correction

March 22, 2009
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/262/2009/march/22/how-pa-handles-prison-medical-care.htm

Posted by lois at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2009

Louisiana’s prison telephone rip-off

Louisiana’s prison telephone rip-off
Ronald Fraser
Guest Columnist
Published: Friday, March 20, 2009

Prison inmates who use the telephone to maintain strong family ties will be better prepared to rebuild their lives upon returning home.
Why then do Louisiana elected officials allow price gouging phone companies to drive prison telephone rates sky high, isolating state inmates from the outside world?

The cost of long distance calling has dropped drastically for most people in Louisiana, but not families of inmates. According to the Federal Communications Commission, nationally, domestic interstate calls in 2006 were billed at just six cents per minute.

Yet the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Campaign to Promote Equitable Telephone Charges, reports that the families of Louisiana inmates pay Global Tel*Link, Louisiana’s current prison phone service monopoly, much more.

For a 15-minute call, including per-call and usage charges, the Campaign calculates that inmate families in Louisiana pay 35 cents per minute for intra-state long distance collect calls, and a whopping 47 cents per minute for interstate collect calls. A similar interstate call using a debit, or pre-paid, card would cost a lot less but Louisiana prisons do not permit the use of debit cards.

In other states inmate families pay less per minute for 15-minute collect interstate calls: Florida, 12 cents; Michigan and New York, 15 cents; Missouri, 17 cents and 18 cents in New Hampshire.

These Louisiana rates include “commissions” (a.k.a. kickbacks) negotiated during the contracting process and paid to state prison operators as a percentage of prison phone revenues. Eager to win lucrative contracts competing phone companies in the U.S. sweeten their bids by offering generous kickbacks, some as high as 65%.

Only seven states -- Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma and Rhode Island -- do not accept such commissions from phone companies and pass the savings on to inmates.

While competition among phone companies in the open market drives long distance calling rates down, competition in the prison telephone market, with help from greedy phone companies and uncaring prison operators, actually drives rates up for inmates and their families.

Studies on file with the FCC show that nationally, including special security features attached to prison phones, it costs phone companies between 12 and 17 cents per minute to provide interstate collect calling, and between six and 12 cents per minute to provide interstate debit calling. These estimates include transport and termination costs and six cents for collect calls to cover billing and uncollectible costs.

Using these cost estimates, in Louisiana Global Tel*Link is making a profit on collect interstate calls in the 63-74% range. Nationally, estimates are that prison phone companies make similar profits on these calls.

It’s not that no one has noticed the prison telephone rip-off. The 2006 Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons reported that inmate phone rates are “extraordinarily high” and that lower rates will “support family and community bonds.” Even the American Bar Association has formally called for inmate calls to be set at the “lowest possible rates.” And the American Correctional Association says sound correctional management includes reasonably priced phone services.

Perhaps the low rates in Florida, Michigan and New York will shame phone companies and prison operators in Louisiana and many other states into ending their abuse of prison inmates and their families. But just in case these phone companies and prison officials are, in fact, shameless, Martha Wright and other inmate family members have filed a formal proposal asking the FCC to use its authority under the federal Communications Act to impose a reasonable interstate phone rate in all U.S. prisons.

Following a review of industry costs and the low rates now charged in several states, the proposal asks the FCC to mandate that inmates making interstate collect calls are charged no more than 25 cents per minute, and interstate debit calls no more than 20 cents per minute. The proposal also asks that the debit calling card option be provided in all U.S. prisons.

The FCC proposal only addresses interstate long distance calls. However, if the FCC does set lower interstate rates, this will pressure states from coast-to-coast to also adjust downward their intra-state long distance, inmate calling rates.

It is time to end telephone price gouging in U.S. prisons. If phone companies in Florida, Michigan, New York and Missouri can provide inmates with reasonable rates, so can Louisiana. Doing so will help strengthen prisoners’ family ties, and make our communities safer.

Ronald Fraser writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. Write him at: fraserr@erols.com.
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20090320/ARTICLES/903209963/-1/OPINION?Title=Louisiana-s-prison-telephone-rip-off

Posted by lois at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2009

Delano CA: Guards fire rounds during fatal Kern Valley State Prison riot

CALIFORNIA BRIEFING
Guards fire rounds during fatal Kern Valley State Prison riot
March 20, 2009 LA Times
DELANO

Guards fire rounds during fatal prison riot

Prison guards fired live rounds, pepper spray and rubber bullets to quell a riot at Kern Valley State Prison in which one inmate was stabbed to death and 17 others injured, state corrections officials disclosed Thursday.

The deadly melee in the maximum-security section of the overcrowded prison involved 38 inmates, four of whom suffered bullet wounds after guards moved in to contain the riot that began at 3:20 p.m. Wednesday, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported.

The riot occurred in the general population yard of Kern Valley's Facility B at the prison 180 miles north of Los Angeles. Four inmate-made weapons were recovered from the scene, reported Lt. Xavier Cano of the prison's public information office.

"Correctional officers used lethal munitions, pepper spray and multiple direct impact rubber rounds to quell the incident. A correctional officer also discharged five rounds from the mini-14 rifle," Cano's statement said, referring to a military-style rifle used in some prisons.

Inmate Oscar Cruz, serving a 37-year sentence for first-degree armed robbery and gang activity in Los Angeles County, received multiple stab wounds before being treated at the prison medical center. He was then taken to an outside hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 8:26 p.m.

Kern Valley, one of two state prisons in Delano, houses more than 4,700 prisoners, nearly twice its designed capacity of 2,448, a problem plaguing all of California's 33 adult prisons.

The cause of the riot was still under investigation by the prison's Investigative Services Unit in conjunction with the Kern County district attorney, the state Office of Inspector General and the corrections department's Deadly Force Investigation Team.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-briefs20-2009mar20,0,1654407.story

Posted by lois at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2009

Plan Would Limit Prison Chapel Books

Plan Would Limit Prison Chapel Books

By SOLOMON MOORE
NY Times
Published: March 17, 2009

A broad swath of religious organizations and civil liberties groups — often on opposite sides of contentious issues — have joined together to condemn a proposed rule that they say would prohibit some religious texts in federal penitentiary libraries.

The Bureau of Prisons in January proposed that “materials that could incite, promote, or otherwise suggest the commission of violence or criminal activity” may be excluded from chapel libraries. An alliance of groups — Christian, Muslim and Jewish, conservative and liberal — opposed the rule during the open comments period, which ended Tuesday.

The word “could” is at the center of a two-year dispute between the agency and these groups over which religious texts should be banned from prison libraries.

The American Civil Liberties Union and several other civil rights and religious groups argue that the agency is going beyond the provision of the Second Chance Act of 2007, which included a restriction on materials that “seek” to incite violence.

They argue that the act was meant to prohibit only books that intend to suggest violence, and that the agency’s new rule would expand that ban to all books that could possibly lead to violence.

“Those one or two words have incredibly broad significance because of what they do to the scope of what books can be taken away,” said David Shapiro, an A.C.L.U. lawyer. “They could remove texts that are critical to prisoners’ ability to practice their religion.”

Bureau officials did not respond Tuesday to calls or e-mail messages seeking comment.

In its proposal, the agency cited a 2004 report on prison religious services by the Justice Department inspector general that suggested censoring certain materials to prevent the radicalization of inmates.

In 2005, the authorities in Los Angeles uncovered a plot by three Muslim men, at least one of whom was believed to have been radicalized in a California state penitentiary, to carry out attacks on National Guard recruitment centers in the state.

Afterward, bureau officials compiled a list of about 150 books for each of about 20 religious categories in a plan called the Standardized Chapel Library Project.

At the time, critics of the plan said it omitted important religious texts and violated the First Amendment rights of prisoners. The bureau scrapped the list.

Tuesday was the second time in two years that civil liberties and religious groups joined in opposition to officials’ plans to restrict prison library books.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian lawyers who litigate religious rights cases, joined its arch foe, the A.C.L.U., in opposing the new rule. The groups are usually on opposite sides of thorny issues like the role of religious expression in schools and same-sex marriage.

The A.D.F.’s Web site is promoting a publication called “The A.C.L.U. vs. America.” The A.D.F. accuses the group of “attacking religious expression” and “protecting child pornographers and pedophiles.”

On the matter of religious texts in prison libraries, however, Kevin Theriot, a lawyer with the A.D.F., said the group had little disagreement with its rival.

“We’re with the A.C.L.U. on this particular issue because it’s very important for religious freedom that these texts be available,” Mr. Theriot said. “Somebody could take offense with the Bible, which teaches that Jesus is the only way to the Father. That’s an offensive idea to people who are not Christians. They could say that’s inciting trouble.”

Other groups opposing the rule change include Muslim Advocates, the Seventh-day Adventists and various Jewish organizations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/us/18prison.html?_r=1&ref=us

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

March 15, 2009

Calif. fight over inmate care may go to high court

Calif. fight over inmate care may go to high court
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writer
Posted: 03/14/2009
San Jose Mercury News
SACRAMENTO—When the quality of health care in California's sprawling prison system was first challenged in court, it seemed only a matter of time before major reforms would take hold.

Nearly two decades later, the desires of the federal courts and inmate advocates have run into a wall of political inertia.

Legislative stonewalling, California's mounting financial problems and legal counterpunches by the state have conspired to stall the most ambitious of the overhaul plans. The result is a showdown over whether federal judges can take control of California's inmate population and order the state to make costly changes to its corrections system.

The dispute seems headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the state appeals to the high court, the justices will face a clash between two constitutional amendments: one that shields inmates from cruel and unusual punishment, and another protecting state sovereignty.

"How far can you go to require officials to expend money to avoid violations?" said John Oakley, a University of California, Davis law school professor who specializes in the power and jurisdiction of the courts. "It's an extremely complex situation. You've got these touchy issues of state sovereignty."

The legal challenges over California's inmate medical and mental health care systems date back to 1991 and initiated studies that found the system was indeed failing prisoners.

Some doctors, for example, reused tongue depressors,
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passing them from patient to patient. More recently, court-appointed medical officials say poor care contributed to the death in January 2008 of a 36-year-old developmentally disabled inmate who had the IQ of a 9-year-old. His medical records and medication were left behind during repeated transfers between prisons.

Ultimately, the courts ruled that negligence or malfeasance in the prison health care system was leading to the death of an inmate at the rate of roughly one a week.

Finding the level of care unconstitutional, a federal judge in San Francisco in 2005 appointed a receiver to oversee the medical and mental health systems and implement reforms. Improvements have followed.

The receiver has gone on a hiring binge and ordered higher salaries to fill vacancies, with many prison doctors now making about $250,000 a year. A private company runs prison pharmacies, while hundreds of millions of dollars have been redirected from the state general fund to pay for new prison medical buildings and equipment.

At California State Prison, Corcoran, kidney patients receive dialysis treatment inside a new center that costs $4 million a year to operate.

At the same time, the state has taken steps to reduce inmate overcrowding, a condition that a federal judicial panel found was the central cause of the prison system's poor medical care.

But those changes are just the beginning of the reform efforts conceived by the court-appointed receiver. What is to follow is at the heart of the legal conflict between that office and the state.

Relations began to deteriorate last June after state lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger balked at the receiver's demand for billions of dollars to revamp California's inmate medical system.

The plan called for seven new medical facilities to treat 10,000 ailing inmates, creating a "holistic" environment that would include indoor basketball and handball courts, electronic bingo boards, stress-reduction rooms, music therapy, kitchens to teach cooking skills and outdoor gardens where inmates could relax in private.

Total cost: $8 billion, plus another $6 billion with interest over the bonds' 25-year payback period. The receiver's office has argued that if the governor and Legislature fail to approve the spending, the court could demand the money from the state treasury.

It didn't help that the receiver's plan came to light at the same time California was grappling with a $42 billion deficit and facing the prospect of massive budget shortfalls for years to come.

The result was a pushback from the Schwarzenegger administration and Attorney General Jerry Brown.

"This thing has escalated out of control. It's the most extravagant proposal for inmate health care we've ever seen in the United States," Brown, a Democrat, said in an interview. "This is a down payment on an endlessly escalating prison budget, and we've got to put a stop to it."

Brown said the receiver's plan would create a system that coddles inmates with "Cadillac care" not afforded to many California taxpayers. He calculated that the scope of the receiver's original proposal for new medical facilities would be "the equivalent of 70 Wal-Mart stores."

The state refused to approve the bonds and even a $250 million down payment to begin construction planning. Schwarzenegger went a step further in the two-year budget he signed last month, cutting $181 million from the medical receiver's office.

In addition, Brown and Schwarzenegger filed court papers seeking to abolish the receivership and wrest control of the prison medical system from the courts. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Monday in federal court in San Francisco.

"The receiver will never get that money," the Republican governor said in a January appearance before the Sacramento Press Club. "It is outrageous, when we are seeing that programs for kids are being cut and where we have to make severe cuts in education and in health care."

The receiver, facing a public outcry over his spending plan, responded by submitting less expensive alternatives to the court.

One revision calls for building three medical facilities to treat 5,000 inmates at a cost of $2.5 billion. Operating those centers would cost a projected $480 million per year, or $96,000 per ailing inmate.

The receiver, J. Clark Kelso, said his plan is the only way to bring the state to constitutional standards of care within five years. He described his proposals as the most cost-effective way to meet the court's mandate.

"We're not building a Cadillac," he said. "We are not wasting taxpayers' dollars."

In the main legal case, a federal three-judge panel last month tentatively ruled that overcrowding was the main cause of the poor medical care. The judges are expected to order the state to release up to a third of its inmate population, but state officials promise an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court once the ruling is made final.

The state argues that the court's release order will compromise public safety and violates federal law and state sovereignty.

Adding to the growing circus-like atmosphere over prison medical care, Kelso dismissed three top aides this week, citing philosophical differences.

California has been struggling for years with escalating prison costs. The corrections department consumes nearly 10 percent of the state's annual general fund, and the cost to treat, house and guard sick and mentally ill inmates will be $2.2 billion this year.

Annual health care spending has soared from $2,714 in 1995 to $13,778 this year for each of the state's 171,000 inmates, according to the state Department of Finance.

While the receiver's office disputes the state's cost figure, California's inmate health care costs are high compared to other states.

University of Texas researchers found California averages $6,935 annually on each inmate's direct care, while Ohio and Texas each spend less than $4,300. New York spends $5,813, while Florida averages $4,330 on inmate health care, about the same as the federal prison system.

Even with new medical equipment, improved health care centers and higher salaries, Kelso says care overall continues to be inadequate.

A visit to two Central Valley prisons, between Fresno and Bakersfield, revealed crowded and sometimes makeshift conditions in the medical wards.

At the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, patients' records were stacked on gurneys and examination tables. A triage nurse sat at a tiny desk in the middle of a hallway. A chart for eye examinations was duct-taped to a door.

If Kelso is unable to get the money he wants from the state, he says the alternative is transferring about 7,000 sick inmates from four remote Central Valley prisons to prisons near urban areas, where he said they can get better care.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11913756?nclick_check=1

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

March 14, 2009

A Nation of Jailers by Glenn Loury

A Nation of Jailers
by Glenn Loury
Lead Essay- Cato Unbound
March 11th, 2009

The most challenging problems of social policy in the modern world are never merely technical. In order properly to decide how we should govern ourselves, we must take up questions of social ethics and human values. What manner of people are we Americans? What vision would we affirm, and what example would we set, before the rest of the world? What kind of society would we bequeath to our children? How shall we live? Inevitably, queries such as these lurk just beneath the surface of the great policy debates of the day. So, those who would enter into public argument about what ails our common life need make no apology for speaking in such terms.

It is precisely in these terms that I wish to discuss a preeminent moral challenge for our time — that imprisonment on a massive scale has become one of the central aspects of our nation’s social policy toward the poor, powerfully impairing the lives of some of the most marginal of our fellow citizens, especially the poorly educated black and Hispanic men who reside in large numbers in our great urban centers.

The bare facts of this matter — concerning both the scale of incarceration and its racial disparity — have been much remarked upon of late. Simply put, we have become a nation of jailers and, arguably, racist jailers at that. The past four decades have witnessed a truly historic expansion, and transformation, of penal institutions in the United States — at every level of government, and in all regions of the country. We have, by any measure, become a vastly more punitive society. Measured in constant dollars and taking account of all levels of government, spending on corrections and law enforcement in the United States has more than quadrupled over the last quarter century. As a result, the American prison system has grown into a leviathan unmatched in human history. This development should be deeply troubling to anyone who professes to love liberty.

Here, as in other areas of social policy, the United States is a stark international outlier, sitting at the most rightward end of the political spectrum: We imprison at a far higher rate than the other industrial democracies — higher, indeed, than either Russia or China, and vastly higher than any of the countries of Western Europe. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies in London, there were in 2005 some 9 million prisoners in the world; more than 2 million were being held in the United States. With approximately one twentieth of the world’s population, America had nearly one fourth of the world’s inmates. At more than 700 per 100,000 residents, the U.S. incarceration rate was far greater than our nearest competitors (the Bahamas, Belarus, and Russia, which each have a rate of about 500 per 100,000.) Other industrial societies, some of them with big crime problems of their own, were less punitive than we by an order of magnitude: the United States incarcerated at 6.2 times the rate of Canada, 7.8 times the rate of France, and 12.3 times the rate of Japan.

The demographic profile of the inmate population has also been much discussed. In this, too, the U.S. is an international outlier. African Americans and Hispanics, who taken together are about one fourth of the population, account for about two thirds of state prison inmates. Roughly one third of state prisoners were locked up for committing violent offenses, with the remainder being property and drug offenders. Nine in ten are male, and most are impoverished. Inmates in state institutions average fewer than eleven years of schooling.

The extent of racial disparity in imprisonment rates exceeds that to be found in any other arena of American social life: at eight to one, the black to white ratio of male incarceration rates dwarfs the two to one ratio of unemployment rates, the three to one non-marital child bearing ratio, the two to one ratio of infant mortality rates and the one to five ratio of net worth. More black male high school dropouts are in prison than belong to unions or are enrolled in any state or federal social welfare programs. The brute fact of the matter is that the primary contact between black American young adult men and their government is via the police and the penal apparatus. Coercion is the most salient feature of their encounters with the state. According to estimates compiled by sociologist Bruce Western, nearly 60% of black male dropouts born between 1965 and 1969 had spent at least one year in prison before reaching the age of 35.

For these men, and the families and communities with which they are associated, the adverse effects of incarceration will extend beyond their stays behind bars. My point is that this is not merely law enforcement policy. It is social policy writ large. And no other country in the world does it quite like we do.

This is far more than a technical issue — entailing more, that is, than the task of finding the most efficient crime control policies. Consider, for instance, that it is not possible to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of our nation’s world-historic prison buildup over the past 35 years without implicitly specifying how the costs imposed on the persons imprisoned, and their families, are to be reckoned. Of course, this has not stopped analysts from pronouncing on the purported net benefits to “society” of greater incarceration without addressing that question! Still, how — or, indeed, whether — to weigh the costs born by law-breakers — that is, how (or whether) to acknowledge their humanity — remains a fundamental and difficult question of social ethics. Political discourses in the United States have given insufficient weight to the collateral damage imposed by punishment policies on the offenders themselves, and on those who are knitted together with offenders in networks of social and psychic affiliation.

Whether or not one agrees, two things should be clear: social scientists can have no answers for the question of what weight to put on a “thug’s,” or his family’s, well-being; and a morally defensible public policy to deal with criminal offenders cannot be promulgated without addressing that question. To know whether or not our criminal justice policies comport with our deepest values, we must ask how much additional cost borne by the offending class is justifiable per marginal unit of security, or of peace of mind, for the rest of us. This question is barely being asked, let alone answered, in the contemporary debate.

Nor is it merely the scope of the mass imprisonment state that has expanded so impressively in the United States. The ideas underlying the doing of criminal justice — the superstructure of justifications and rationalizations — have also undergone a sea change. Rehabilitation is a dead letter; retribution is the thing. The function of imprisonment is not to reform or redirect offenders. Rather, it is to keep them away from us. “The prison,” writes sociologist David Garland, “is used today as a kind of reservation, a quarantine zone in which purportedly dangerous individuals are segregated in the name of public safety.” We have elaborated what are, in effect, a “string of work camps and prisons strung across a vast country housing millions of people drawn mainly from classes and racial groups that are seen as politically and economically problematic.” We have, in other words, marched quite a long way down the punitive road, in the name of securing public safety and meting out to criminals their just deserts.

And we should be ashamed of ourselves for having done so. Consider a striking feature of this policy development, one that is crucial to this moral assessment: the ways in which we now deal with criminal offenders in the United States have evolved in recent decades in order to serve expressive and not only instrumental ends. We have wanted to “send a message,” and have done so with a vengeance. Yet in the process we have also, in effect, provided an answer for the question: who is to blame for the maladies that beset our troubled civilization? That is, we have constructed a narrative, created scapegoats, assuaged our fears, and indulged our need to feel virtuous about ourselves. We have met the enemy and the enemy, in the now familiar caricature, is them — a bunch of anomic, menacing, morally deviant “thugs.” In the midst of this dramaturgy — unavoidably so in America — lurks a potent racial subplot.

This issue is personal for me. As a black American male, a baby-boomer born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, I can identify with the plight of the urban poor because I have lived among them. I am related to them by the bonds of social and psychic affiliation. As it happens, I have myself passed through the courtroom, and the jailhouse, on my way along life’s journey. I have sat in the visitor’s room at a state prison; I have known, personally and intimately, men and women who lived their entire lives with one foot to either side of the law. Whenever I step to a lectern to speak about the growth of imprisonment in our society, I envision voiceless and despairing people who would have me speak on their behalf. Of course, personal biography can carry no authority to compel agreement about public policy. Still, I prefer candor to the false pretense of clinical detachment and scientific objectivity. I am not running for high office; I need not pretend to a cool neutrality that I do not possess. While I recognize that these revelations will discredit me in some quarters, this is a fate I can live with.

So, my racial identity is not irrelevant to my discussion of the subject at hand. But, then, neither is it irrelevant that among the millions now in custody and under state supervision are to be found a vastly disproportionate number of the black and the brown. There is no need to justify injecting race into this discourse, for prisons are the most race-conscious public institutions that we have. No big city police officer is “colorblind” nor, arguably, can any afford to be. Crime and punishment in America have a color — just turn on a television, or open a magazine, or listen carefully to the rhetoric of a political campaign — and you will see what I mean. The fact is that, in this society as in any other, order is maintained by the threat and the use of force. We enjoy our good lives because we are shielded by the forces of law and order upon which we rely to keep the unruly at bay. Yet, in this society to an extent unlike virtually any other, those bearing the heavy burden of order-enforcement belong, in numbers far exceeding their presence in the population at large, to racially defined and historically marginalized groups. Why should this be so? And how can those charged with the supervision of our penal apparatus sleep well at night knowing that it is so?

This punitive turn in the nation’s social policy is intimately connected, I would maintain, with public rhetoric about responsibility, dependency, social hygiene, and the reclamation of public order. And such rhetoric, in turn, can be fully grasped only when viewed against the backdrop of America’s often ugly and violent racial history: There is a reason why our inclination toward forgiveness and the extension of a second chance to those who have violated our behavioral strictures is so stunted, and why our mainstream political discourses are so bereft of self-examination and searching social criticism. An historical resonance between the stigma of race and the stigma of prison has served to keep alive in our public culture the subordinating social meanings that have always been associated with blackness. Many historians and political scientists — though, of course, not all — agree that the shifting character of race relations over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries helps to explain why the United States is exceptional among democratic industrial societies in the severity of its punitive policy and the paucity of its social-welfare institutions. Put directly and without benefit of euphemism, the racially disparate incidence of punishment in the United States is a morally troubling residual effect of the nation’s history of enslavement, disenfranchisement, segregation, and discrimination. It is not merely the accidental accretion of neutral state action, applied to a racially divergent social flux. It is an abhorrent expression of who we Americans are as a people, even now, at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

My recitation of the brutal facts about punishment in today’s America may sound to some like a primal scream at this monstrous social machine that is grinding poor black communities to dust. And I confess that these facts do at times leave me inclined to cry out in despair. But my argument is intended to be moral, not existential, and its principal thesis is this: we law-abiding, middle-class Americans have made collective decisions on social and incarceration policy questions, and we benefit from those decisions. That is, we benefit from a system of suffering, rooted in state violence, meted out at our behest. Put differently our society — the society we together have made — first tolerates crime-promoting conditions in our sprawling urban ghettos, and then goes on to act out rituals of punishment against them as some awful form of human sacrifice.

It is a central reality of our time that a wide racial gap has opened up in cognitive skills, the extent of law-abidingness, stability of family relations, and attachment to the work force. This is the basis, many would hold, for the racial gap in imprisonment. Yet I maintain that this gap in human development is, as a historical matter, rooted in political, economic, social, and cultural factors peculiar to this society and reflective of its unlovely racial history. That is to say, it is a societal, not communal or personal, achievement. At the level of the individual case we must, of course, act as if this were not so. There could be no law, and so no civilization, absent the imputation to persons of responsibility for their wrongful acts. But the sum of a million cases, each one rightly judged fairly on its individual merits, may nevertheless constitute a great historic wrong. This is, in my view, now the case in regards to the race and social class disparities that characterize the very punitive policy that we have directed at lawbreakers. And yet, the state does not only deal with individual cases. It also makes policies in the aggregate, and the consequences of these policies are more or less knowable. It is in the making of such aggregate policy judgments that questions of social responsibility arise.

This situation raises a moral problem that we cannot avoid. We cannot pretend that there are more important problems in our society, or that this circumstance is the necessary solution to other, more pressing problems — unless we are also prepared to say that we have turned our backs on the ideal of equality for all citizens and abandoned the principles of justice. We ought to be asking ourselves two questions: Just what manner of people are we Americans? And in light of this, what are our obligations to our fellow citizens — even those who break our laws?

Without trying to make a full-fledged philosophical argument here, I nevertheless wish to gesture — in the spirit of the philosopher John Rawls — toward some answers to these questions. I will not set forth a policy manifesto at this time. What I aim to do is suggest, in a general way, how we ought to be thinking differently about this problem. Specifically, given our nation’s history and political culture, I think that there are severe limits to the applicability in this circumstance of a pure ethic of personal responsibility, as the basis for distributing the negative good of punishment in contemporary America. I urge that we shift the boundary toward greater acknowledgment of social responsibility in our punishment policy discourse — even for wrongful acts freely chosen by individual persons. In suggesting this, I am not so much making a “root causes” argument — he did the crime, but only because he had no choice — as I am arguing that the society at large is implicated in his choices because we have acquiesced in structural arrangements which work to our benefit and his detriment, and yet which shape his consciousness and sense of identity in such a way that the choices he makes. We condemn those choices, but they are nevertheless compelling to him. I am interested in the moral implications of what the sociologist Loïc Wacquant has called the “double-sided production of urban marginality.” I approach this problem of moral judgment by emphasizing that closed and bounded social structures — like racially homogeneous urban ghettos — create contexts where “pathological” and “dysfunctional” cultural forms emerge, but these forms are not intrinsic to the people caught in these structures. Neither are they independent of the behavior of the people who stand outside of them.

Several years ago, I took time to read some of the nonfiction writings of the great nineteenth century Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Toward the end of his life he had become an eccentric pacifist and radical Christian social critic. I was stunned at the force of his arguments. What struck me most was Tolstoy’s provocative claim that the core of Christianity lies in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: You see that fellow over there committing some terrible sin? Well, if you have ever lusted, or allowed jealousy, or envy or hatred to enter your own heart, then you are to be equally condemned! This, Tolstoy claims, is the central teaching of the Christian faith: we’re all in the same fix.

Now, without invoking any religious authority, I nevertheless want to suggest that there is a grain of truth in this religious sentiment that is relevant to the problem at hand: That is, while the behavioral pathologies and cultural threats that we see in society — the moral erosions “out there” — the crime, drug addiction, sexually transmitted disease, idleness, violence and all manner of deviance — while these are worrisome, nevertheless, our moral crusade against these evils can take on a pathological dimension of its own. We can become self-righteous, legalistic, ungenerous, stiff-necked, and hypocritical. We can fail to see the beam in our own eye. We can neglect to raise questions of social justice. We can blind ourselves to the close relationship that actually exists between, on the one hand, behavioral pathology in the so-called urban underclass of our country and, on the other hand, society-wide factors — like our greed-driven economy, our worship of the self, our endemic culture of materialism, our vacuous political discourses, our declining civic engagement, and our aversion to sacrificing private gain on behalf of much needed social investments. We can fail to see, in other words, that the problems of the so-called underclass — to which we have reacted with a massive, coercive mobilization — are but an expression, at the bottom of the social hierarchy, of a more profound and widespread moral deviance — one involving all of us.

Taking this position does not make me a moral relativist. I merely hold that, when thinking about the lives of the disadvantaged in our society, the fundamental premise that should guide us is that we are all in this together. Those people languishing in the corners of our society are our people — they are us – whatever may be their race, creed, or country of origin, whether they be the crack-addicted, the HIV-infected, the mentally ill homeless, the juvenile drug sellers, or worse. Whatever the malady, and whatever the offense, we’re all in the same fix. We’re all in this thing together.

Just look at what we have wrought. We Americans have established what, to many an outside observer, looks like a system of racial caste in the center of our great cities. I refer here to millions of stigmatized, feared, and invisible people. The extent of disparity in the opportunity to achieve their full human potential, as between the children of the middle class and the children of the disadvantaged — a disparity that one takes for granted in America — is virtually unrivaled elsewhere in the industrial, advanced, civilized, free world.

Yet too many Americans have concluded, in effect, that those languishing at the margins of our society are simply reaping what they have sown. Their suffering is seen as having nothing to do with us — as not being evidence of systemic failures that can be corrected through collective action. Thus, as I noted, we have given up on the ideal of rehabilitating criminals, and have settled for simply warehousing them. Thus we accept — despite much rhetoric to the contrary — that it is virtually impossible effectively to educate the children of the poor. Despite the best efforts of good people and progressive institutions — despite the encouraging signs of moral engagement with these issues that I have seen in my students over the years, and that give me hope — despite these things, it remains the case that, speaking of the country as a whole, there is no broadly based demand for reform, no sense of moral outrage, no anguished self-criticism, no public reflection in the face of this massive, collective failure.

The core of the problem is that the socially marginal are not seen as belonging to the same general public body as the rest of us. It therefore becomes impossible to do just about anything with them. At least implicitly, our political community acts as though some are different from the rest and, because of their culture — because of their bad values, their self-destructive behavior, their malfeasance, their criminality, their lack of responsibility, their unwillingness to engage in hard work — they deserve their fate.

But this is quite wrongheaded. What we Americans fail to recognize — not merely as individuals, I stress, but as a political community — is that these ghetto enclaves and marginal spaces of our cities, which are the source of most prison inmates, are products of our own making: Precisely because we do not want those people near us, we have structured the space in our urban environment so as to keep them away from us. Then, when they fester in their isolation and their marginality, we hypocritically point a finger, saying in effect: “Look at those people. They threaten to the civilized body. They must therefore be expelled, imprisoned, controlled.” It is not we who must take social responsibility to reform our institutions but, rather, it is they who need to take personal responsibility for their wrongful acts. It is not we who must set our collective affairs aright, but they who must get their individual acts together. This posture, I suggest, is inconsistent with the attainment of a just distribution of benefits and burdens in society.

Civic inclusion has been the historical imperative in Western political life for 150 years. And yet — despite our self-declared status as a light unto the nations, as a beacon of hope to freedom-loving peoples everywhere — despite these lofty proclamations, which were belied by images from the rooftops in flooded New Orleans in September 2005, and are contradicted by our overcrowded prisons — the fact is that this historical project of civic inclusion is woefully incomplete in these United States.

At every step of the way, reactionary political forces have declared the futility of pursuing civic inclusion. Yet, in every instance, these forces have been proven wrong. At one time or another, they have derided the inclusion of women, landless peasants, former serfs and slaves, or immigrants more fully in the civic body. Extending to them the franchise, educating their children, providing health and social welfare to them has always been controversial. But this has been the direction in which the self-declared “civilized” and wealthy nations have been steadily moving since Bismarck, since the revolutions of 1848 and 1870, since the American Civil War with its Reconstruction Amendments, since the Progressive Era and through the New Deal on to the Great Society. This is why we have a progressive federal income tax and an estate tax in this country, why we feed, clothe and house the needy, why we (used to) worry about investing in our cities’ infrastructure, and in the human capital of our people. What the brutal facts about punishment in today’s America show is that this American project of civic inclusion remains incomplete. Nowhere is that incompleteness more evident than in the prisons and jails of America. And this as yet unfulfilled promise of American democracy reveals a yawning chasm between an ugly and uniquely American reality, and our nation’s exalted image of herself.

—Glenn C. Loury is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences at Brown University
http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/03/11/glenn-loury/a-nation-of-jailers/

Posted by lois at 09:38 PM | Comments (0)

Real Cost of Prisons Comix (the book)

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix
edited by Lois Ahrens
PM Press
Reviews: http://www.pmpress.org/content/article.php?story=loisahrens#reviews
Ordering info:
https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=48

One out of every hundred adults in the U.S. is in prison. This book provides a crash course in what drives mass incarceration, the human and community costs, and how to stop the numbers from going even higher. This volume collects the three comic books published by the Real Cost of Prisons Project. The stories and statistical information in each comic book is thoroughly researched and documented.

Prison Town: Paying the Price tells the story of how the financing and site locations of prisons affects the people of rural communities in which prison are built. It also tells the story of how mass incarceration affects people of urban communities where the majority of incarcerated people come from.

Prisoners of the War on Drugs includes the history of the war on drugs, mandatory minimums, how racism creates harsher sentences for people of color, stories on how the war on drugs works against women, three strikes laws, obstacles to coming home after incarceration, and how mass incarceration destabilizes neighborhoods.

Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and Their Children includes stories about women trapped by mandatory sentencing and the "costs" of incarceration for women and their families. Also included are alternatives to the present system, a glossary and footnotes.

Over 125,000 copies of the comic books have been printed and more than 100,000 have been sent to families of people who are incarcerated, people who are incarcerated, and to organizers and activists throughout the country. The book includes a chapter with descriptions about how the comix have been put to use in the work of organizers and activists in prison and in the "free world" by ESL teachers, high school teachers, college professors, students, and health care providers throughout the country. The demand for them is constant and the ways in which they are being used is inspiring.

The Buzz:

"I cannot think of a better way to arouse the public to the cruelties of the prison system than to make this book widely available."
--Howard Zinn

"The Real Cost of Prisons comics are among the most transformative pieces of information that the youth get to read. We take it with us to detention centers, group homes, youth shelters and social justice organizing projects. Everywhere we go we see youth nodding with agreement and getting excited to see their reality validated in print. The Real Cost of Prisons helps youth know what's up and gives them the push they need to get active in the struggle to make interpersonal and community-wide change."
--Shira Hassan, Co-Director Young Women's Empowerment Project, Chicago, IL

Posted by lois at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

MA: Telephone company price gouging

A bad call for prisoners
By Ronald Fraser / As You Were Saying . . . | Saturday, March 14, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Op-Ed

It is time to end telephone price gouging in prisons. If phone companies in Florida, Michigan, Missouri and New York can provide inmates with reasonable rates, so can Massachusetts.

Prisoners who use the telephone to maintain strong family ties will be better prepared to rebuild their lives upon returning home. Why then does Massachusetts allow price-gouging phone companies to drive prison rates for interstate calls sky high, isolating inmates from the outside world?

The cost of long-distance calling has dropped drastically for most Bay Staters, but not for families of inmates. According to the Federal Communications Commission, nationally, domestic interstate calls in 2006 were billed at just 6 cents per minute.

Yet the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Campaign to Promote Equitable Telephone Charges reports that the families of Massachusetts inmates pay Global Tel* Link, the Bay State’s prison phone monopoly, much more.

For a 15-minute call, including per-call and usage charges, the campaign calculates that inmate families in Massachusetts pay a very reasonable 15 cents per minute for intrastate long-distance collect calls, but a whopping 89 cents per minute for interstate collect calls. A similar interstate call using a debit or prepaid card would cost a lot less, but Massachusetts prisons do not permit the use of such cards.

In other states, inmates’ families pay less per minute for 15-minute collect interstate calls: Florida, 12 cents; Michigan and New York, 15 cents; Missouri, 17 cents; and 18 cents in New Hampshire.

These Massachusetts rates include “commissions” (also known as kickbacks) negotiated during the contracting process and paid to prison operators as a percentage of phone revenues. Eager to win lucrative contracts, competing phone companies sweeten their bids by offering generous kickbacks as high as 65 percent.

Only seven states - Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma and Rhode Island - do not accept such commissions and pass the savings on to inmates.

While competition among phone companies in the open market drives long-distance calling rates down, competition in the prison market, with help from greedy phone companies and uncaring prison operators, actually drives rates up.

Studies show that nationally, including special security features attached to prison phones, it costs phone companies between 12 and 17 cents per minute to provide interstate collect calling, and between 6 and 12 cents per minute to provide interstate debit calling.

Using these cost estimates, in Massachusetts Global Tel* Link is making a profit on collect interstate calls in the 80 percent to 86 percent range. Nationally, estimates are that prison phone companies make similar profits on these calls.

It’s not that no one has noticed the ripoff. The 2006 Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons reported that inmate phone rates are “extraordinarily high.” Even the American Bar Association has called for inmate calls to be set at the “lowest possible rates.” And the American Correctional Association says sound correctional management includes reasonably priced phone services.

Martha Wright and other inmate family members have asked the FCC to mandate that inmates making interstate collect calls be charged no more than 25 cents per minute, and interstate debit calls no more than 20 cents per minute. Their proposal also asks that the debit card option be provided in all U.S. prisons.

It is time to end phone price gouging in prisons. If phone companies in Florida, Michigan, Missouri and New York can provide inmates with reasonable rates, so can Massachusetts. Doing so will help strengthen prisoners’ family ties and make our communities safer.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1158433

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

March 13, 2009

NV: Prisoner Internet access plan advances

Inmate Internet access plan advances
By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, March 12, 2009
(03-12) 16:52 PDT Carson City, Nev. (AP) --

Nevada lawmakers advanced a plan Thursday that would allow some state prison inmates — who lost the use of personal typewriters starting in 2007 — limited access to the Internet.

Currently, inmates can't use the Internet but have access to electronic library materials on CD-ROMs. Under AB34, they could get e-mail from approved senders, take online classes and access an electronic law library. They also could videoconference with state Parole Board commissioners for hearings, virtually visit with doctors and buy items such as digital music files.

The bill, which provides for monitoring of all e-mail traffic by prison staffers, was advanced to the full Assembly by the Committee on Corrections, Parole and Probation.

The plan is to set up kiosks where inmates could access incoming e-mails from approved senders and download MP3 digital files for a price. State Corrections Director Howard Skolnik said that secure types of kiosks are available on the market and used in prisons in other states.

"It's the new technology," said Skolnik. "We are aware of at least 14 states that have already implemented this type of programming. It's bringing us into the 21st century, and I think the 21st century is a good place to be."

"We'll be making sure that everything we need to protect the system will be in place," Skolnik said.

The committee vote on the bill was 10-4. The opponents, all Republican, who questioned whether the change could impact prison security, included Assemblymen Ty Cobb of Reno, John Hambrick of Las Vegas, Don Gustavson of Sparks and Richard McArthur of Las Vegas.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada had proposed several amendments, including one stating that access to electronic technology shouldn't replace inmates' existing rights to in-person contact with attorneys.

But the attorney general's office opposed those amendments, saying that prisoners' rights to visitation are carefully controlled by the prison, and warning that to include language in the bill that says the state shouldn't interfere with "existing visitation rights" could lead to a slew of lawsuits.

"I've always been under the understanding that your access to your attorney is a right," said Assemblyman William Horne, D-Las Vegas.

Deputy Attorney General Janet Trout said that in some cases, inmates' constitutional rights have to be severely curtailed.

"The department certainly does restrict visitation to certain individuals even if it's family members," Trout said. "We recognize this is one of the most risky parts of their business."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/12/state/n165259D25.DTL

Posted by lois at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2009

MA: Retired public workers smiling all the way to the bank Still on sheriff’s payroll

Retired public workers smiling all the way to the bank
Still on sheriff’s payroll
Boston Herald
By Laurel J. Sweet | Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Essex jail system has become a retirement playpen for ex-lawmen collecting thousands in state dollars on top of plum pensions for second careers as greeters, tour guides and urine jockeys, a Herald review shows.

Several of Sheriff Frank G. Cousins Jr.’s 37 part-timers, in addition to giving generously to his war chest, are retired former employees, including:

• Thomas Goff, 65. Goff hit mandatory retirement age in January as jail superintendent - Cousins’ second in command - with a $105,731 state pension. Goff then returned to work on a six-month, $14,500 contract as a consultant on the prisoner re-entry program. Since 2005, Goff has donated $1,825 to Cousins, a Republican and sheriff since 1996, campaign finance records show.

• Kenneth Gagnon, 61, retired in 2002 as an assistant deputy superintendent with a $48,283 state pension. He now gets $13,844 to transport hundreds of urine samples collected from probationers and parolees to the department’s lab 16 hours a week. Gagnon gave Cousins $175 in 2007, and his wife, Nina, has donated $1,175 since 2005.

• S. Michael Backry Sr., 66, was a major for the sheriff’s office until he retired in 2003. In addition to his annual $37,650 state pension, he is paid $19,996 to give guided tours of the Essex County Correctional Facility in Middleton to school children and civic groups. Since 2005, Backry has donated $775 to Cousins.

Massachusetts allows state, county and municipal pensioners to continue working in the public sector up to 960 hours a year, or to make up the difference between their pension and the current salary of the position they left.

Even so, an astonished Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said of Cousins’ hirings, “It may be perfectly legal, but it’s the kind of double dipping that’s offensive to taxpayers.”

• Thomas Lowry, 69, retired in 2003 as a Lynn building inspector with a $37,992 pension. He now works for Cousins as a lobby officer, greeting and assisting inmates’ families and friends 20 hours a week for $14,560 per year. Since 2006, Lowry has given Cousins $575.

It’s not just the long arms of the law reaching for another taxpayer-funded check. Until recently, Jack Christian, 64, was the sheriff’s department’s plumber. Cousins now pays him $13.94 an hour to monitor a different kind of plumbing, collecting urine samples.

The part-timers do not receive benefits, but all told, they are costing the state more than $600,000 in salaries.

Cousins said he spent the past month trimming $1.2 million from his budget by trimming six days’ pay from command staff salaries - including his own - and moving correctional officers from a four-days-on, two-days-off rotation to a five-and-two schedule.

“That’s been accomplished by not laying off anyone,” Cousins stressed. “A lot of people aren’t happy about it, but a lot of people are happy because they’re still working.”

In addition to not filling positions like Goff’s, Cousins said his longtime assistant, Barbara Kowalski, voluntarily gave up her $64,384 job so no one else would be put on the street.

Still, Jerry Enos, president of the Essex County Correctional Officers Association, said, “We have objected to all payments to retirees and vendors at a time when our members are being forced to work an extra 17 days without payment and they’re having their personal lives completely disrupted.”

Said Cousins: “This is ragtime. I know where the complaints are coming from and I’m not going to let a few ignorant, uneducated, rogue officers dictate public policy.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1156341

Posted by lois at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

March 04, 2009

WI- Economic crisis propels prison system changes

Economic crisis propels prison system changes
Shelley Nelson
Superior Telegram - 03/03/2009 (WI)

With the cost of housing just one of the state’s 23,000 prison inmates at $29,000 per year, the Wisconsin is looking for ways to get smart on crime.

Department of Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch was in Superior on Monday to meet with local law enforcement to highlight some of the changes proposed as the state faces a $5.7 billion budget shortfall. Among the changes is a new evaluation system that could keep low-risk, nonviolent offenders out of state prisons and low-risk offenders who’ve committed misdemeanor crimes off the state’s probation system.

Superior Police Capt. Chad La Lor said Monday’s session was the first he heard of dropping supervision for misdemeanor offenders. He said even if offenders aren’t actively supervised, probation provides a mechanism to bring an offender in quicker when they reoffend.

“You get in this cycle ‘it’s a minor crime,’ but when there are true victims, there are no minor crimes,” La Lor said.

The budget for corrections is about $1.2 billion, a cost that could double in the next 10 years if the state doesn’t develop new strategies, Raemisch said.

“There always will be a need for prisons to house violent criminals who pose a threat to public safety, but … we need to invest in strategies beyond prison expansion to curtail corrections spending and reduce recidivism,” Raemisch said.

The budget proposed by Gov. Jim Doyle for the next two years would start the state on that path.

The goal of the new strategy is to protect public safety by keeping violent offenders in prison, but providing opportunities for nonviolent offenders to complete treatment so they can succeed and become productive citizens when they return to their communities, Raemisch said. Under the proposed changes, offenders would be evaluated to determine the level of risk they pose to the community and provide services to help low-risk offenders.

The state would expand services in the Earned Release Program to provide services needed for successful reintegration in the community. Currently, drug and alcohol treatment are provided, but an offender may need education and job skills, Raemisch said. He said the goal is to provide what the offender needs.

“This whole do-the-crime, do-the-time strategy is taxing people out of their homes and probably closing schools as we build prisons,” said District Attorney Dan Blank.

Currently, 1 in 39 Wisconsin adults are under some form of control of the state’s corrections department, whether probation, extended supervision, local jails or prison, according to a study released Monday by the Pew Center, an independent nonprofit that uses analysis to improve public policy.

While 1 in 26 Minnesota adults are under some form of corrections control, the state’s prison population is only about 9,000, Raemisch said, suggesting there could be a better way to deal crime.

“If we reduce our population more, that just means less cost for criminal justice system, less crime, less victims, and the savings just goes on and on,” Raemisch said. “We’re talking about changing people’s lives and working in a positive nature, and that’s just going to help the state.” Of the 23,000 people currently in the state prison system, 3,000 automatically would be evaluated for risk when the law passes, he said. “That doesn’t mean they’ll get out of prison right away. It will take months and months.”

Since the 1990s, Blank said the state’s focus has been incarceration and getting tough on crime, when the state needs to be smart on crime.

“I think the important thing is this represents a philosophical change that recognizes the way we’ve done business probably is not as effective as we wanted it to be and it’s turned out to be horribly expensive,” Blank said. “We took the easy way out in a lot of cases and we started dumping people in the prison system because it looks like we’re tough on crime and that’s what gets headlines and votes.”

One of the things county officials hope to see come from this is an opportunity to reintegrate prison inmates in the community by using the county jails to house state prisoners and allow them a chance, under Huber work release, to get jobs to ensure a successful transition from incarceration to release in the community.

“I’d like to work with the sheriff’s on a re-entry program … and get them acclimated in the community,” Raemisch said.
http://www.superiortelegram.com/articles/index.cfm?id=33693§ion=News

Posted by lois at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2009

Mass. fifth in nation for adults in prison, probation or parole---$1.25 B. 1 in 24 under correctional control

Study: Mass. fifth in nation for adults in prison, probation or parole
By Laura Crimaldi | Monday, March 2, 2009
Boston Herald

An astonishing one in 24 Bay State adults were either behind bars or under community supervision at the end of 2007, costing taxpayers $1.25 billion, according to a national study published today.

The report, prepared by the Pew Center on the States, ranked Massachusetts fifth in the country in terms of the number of adults in prison or jail or under the supervision of probation or parole. The study said that $1.25 billion was spent on corrections at the state and federal level in 2007 statewide.

“In any year, spending $1.25 billion dollars on corrections is stunning. In a fiscal crisis, this kind of spending is unacceptably foolish. If finances is what finally moves the state to revamp its correctional policies, so be it,” said Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services.

The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, which oversees the state’s prisons and parole system, could not immediately provide comment on the study. State workers are not required to come into work today until noon.

The state with the highest number of adults involved with the correction system was Georgia, where one in 13 adults or 562,763 people were in the penal system in 2007, the Pew study said. There were 206,241 people involved in the penal system in Massachusetts.

The state ranks even higher when it comes to parolees and probationers living in the community.

Massachusetts had the third highest rate of community supervision with 1 in 28 adults or 179,854 people answering to parole and probation officers at the state and federal level.

Parole is a more cost-effective way of monitoring offenders, the study said. It costs $130.16 to incarcerate an adult for one day. That same figure pays for 18 days of parole supervision in the community, the report said.

The Pew Center said that for every dollar Massachusetts spent on prisons in 2008, it spent four cents on parole. The report, entitled One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections,” looked at prison populations at the federal, state and county level.

“At long last research that has proven what advocates have been saying for years: Let’s invest in people, not prisons,” said Lyn Levy, executive director of SPAN Inc., a non-profit service provider for ex-offenders. “It’s not only the right thing to do; it’s cost effective, it works, and it makes us safer.”

Nationally, Pew found that the exploding number of people on probation or parole has ballooned the American corrections system population to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 adults.

While most of those offenders live in the community as a probationer or parolee, the Pew report found that nearly 90 percent of state corrections dollars are spent on prisons.

In terms of the number of adults in a jail or prison, the state ranks much lower nationally at number 47. There were 26,387 adults behind bars in 2007 or 1 in 190 people.

The District of Columbia had the highest incarceration rate in that category with 1 in 50 adults or two percent of its population in a prison or jail.

The Pew report affirms state Department of Correction figures that indicate an exploding prison population. Last year, the state began installing bunk beds in single cells at the maximum security Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley to address systemwide overcrowding.

In 1982, one in 127 adults were invovlved in the Bay State correction system, Pew found.

The DOC, which runs 18 prisons, has a spending plan of $543 million for the fiscal year that ends in June. Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget proposal for Fiscal 2010 proposes a modest decrease in spending to $542 million.

The Parole Board supervises 8,000 parolees annually, according to its Web site. Its budget for this year is $19.4 million.

Office of the Commissioner of Probation figures show that the probation system supervised 256,952 people in Fiscal Year 2008. More than 28 percent of those probationers are juveniles or involved in the Probate and Family Court.

Probation’s operating budget is $142 million. Its proposed spending plan for the fiscal year that begins on July 1 is $151 million, according to the governor’s budget Web site.

lcrimaldi@bostonherald.com
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1155690

Posted by lois at 10:16 AM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2009

PEW: 1 in 11 African Americans Under Correctional Control, 1 in 27 Latinos, 1 in 45 white people

March 3, 2009
Prison Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid
By SOLOMON MOORE
NY Times
One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study.

Correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance, based on state and federal data.

Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades, according to the report today by the Pew Center on the States, the first breakdown of spending in confinement and supervision in the past seven years.

The increases in the number of people in some form of correctional control occurred even as crime rates sharply declined, by about 25 percent in the past two decades.

At a time when states are facing huge budget shortfalls, prisons, which hold 1.5 million adults and cost far more per convict than community supervision, are driving the cost increases.

Yet states have shown a preference for prison spending even though it is cheaper to monitor convicts in community programs, including probation and parole, which require offenders to check in regularly with law enforcement officers.

Over all, two-thirds of offenders, or about 5.1 million people in 2008 were on probation or parole.

Pew researchers say that as states trim essential services like education and health care, prison budgets continue to grow. Those priorities are misguided, the study says.

"States are looking to make cuts that will have long-term harmful effects," said Sue Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States. "Corrections is one area they can cut and still have good or better outcomes than what they are doing now."

The study found that states are failing to increase spending for community supervision in proportion to their growing caseloads. About $9 out of $10 spent on corrections goes to prison financing. A person in community supervision costs far less: a survey of 34 states found that states spent an average of $29,000 a year on prisoners compared to $1,250 on probationers and $2,750 on parolees.

One in 11 African-Americans are under correctional control, one in 27 Latinos, and one in 45 white people are in prison, jail, or under correctional supervision.

Only one out of 89 women is behind bars or monitored, compared to one out of 18 men.
States with the highest proportion of people under some form of punishment regimen include Georgia (1 in 13), Indiana (1 in 26), Louisiana (1 in 26), and Ohio (1 in 25).

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Posted by lois at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)

Pew Study: 1 in 31 adults in the U.S. under criminal justice control. Money for prisons not probation/paorole

State graph at this URL: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=380542
Full report here: http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/PSPP_1in31_report_FINAL_WEB_2-27-09.pdf
Monday, March 02, 2009
Study finds disparity in corrections spending
By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer

One in 31 adults in the United States is under correctional supervision, whether they are behind bars, on probation or on parole. With 77 supervised adults per 1,000 people, Georgia leads the nation. Only 11 out of 1,000 adults in New Hampshire, meanwhile, is under correctional control.
States spend seven times more money on prisons than on probation and parole, even though the vast majority of the 7.3 million people now under correctional supervision are not behind bars, according to the first detailed survey of state corrections spending since 2002.

Counting offenders on probation and parole, one in 31 U.S. adults is under some form of correctional supervision, including incarceration, according to the study, released Monday (March 2) by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Center on the States.

In 1982, 1 in 77 adults was under correctional supervision, the study said. It attributed the dramatic growth over the past three decades in large part to an expansion in the number of offenders granted probation or parole.

States and localities, not the federal government, supervise most of the nation’s criminals, including those on probation and parole.

The nonpartisan Pew Center on the States — funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the parent organization of Stateline.org — last year issued a report finding that, for the first time, one in 100 adults nationwide, or 2.3 million people, were behind bars.

The new report focuses on the more than 5 million people under probation or parole supervision, either because their crimes did not warrant incarceration or because they have been released after serving time. States, the Pew study contends, devote a disproportionately small amount of funding to the management of these offenders, when compared with what they spend on criminals currently behind bars — even taking into consideration the far greater costs of operating prisons.

Building and staffing prisons and providing inmates with food and health care “understandably costs more,” the study said, but “the difference in cost between institutional and community corrections … is huge.”

The 34 states that provided complete spending data for the study collectively poured $18.65 billion into prisons in fiscal 2008, while spending just $2.53 billion on probation and parole programs — a ratio of more than seven to one, the report found. The average daily cost of supervising someone on probation was $3.42 in fiscal 2008, the study said, compared with $78.95 for the cost of incarcerating an inmate.

Pew's Adam Gelb, who helped produce the report, said in an interview that the states that provided full spending data offer “a very representative sample” of the national picture, encompassing all regions and both urban and rural areas.

One notable exception is California, which did not provide complete data.

The report comes as the budget crisis facing state governments has begun to force a re-evaluation of corrections policy in some states, driven by declining tax revenues, increasing incarceration costs and other priorities competing for state dollars, from health care to higher education.

The Democratic governors of at least four states — Kentucky, New York, Virginia, Wisconsin — recently have sought to save tens of millions of dollars by reducing the amount of time some prisoners spend behind bars (see related story: Govs’ Q & A: Rethinking prison time).

Other states have negotiated bipartisan agreements focused on preventing recidivism, a major cause of crowded prisons and rising costs. According to federal statistics, more than half of those released from prison are back behind bars within three years.

The Pew study said Arizona, Kansas and Texas are states “already well under way” to improving their supervision of community-based offenders and working to reduce recidivism. A new Arizona program, for instance, allows those on probation to trim their sentences by 20 days for each month they meet court-ordered conditions.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, in an interview with Stateline.org Feb. 23, said his state and others are recognizing the need to focus more attention on managing offenders in the community. Doyle recently proposed classifying community-based offenders according to the risk they pose and allocating state resources accordingly.

“I think (all states) are feeling the burden of supervising a lot of people that maybe don’t need quite so much supervision, and not being able to supervise the people that do,” Doyle said.

Providing incentives to offenders, as Arizona is doing, and classifying them based on their risk, as Doyle has proposed, are among six recommendations in the Pew report to help states improve their probation and parole systems. Other recommendations include using electronic-monitoring technology and measuring the progress of new policy initiatives to ensure they achieve results.

Some probation and parole officials say that many of the study’s recommendations already are being followed and that they see no disproportionate spending on prisons versus community corrections.

“I don’t feel like there’s an imbalance or too much money going one way as opposed to going our way,” said Kevin Kempf, chief of community corrections in Idaho, where, according to the study, one in 18 adults is under correctional supervision and where nearly eight times more money is spent on prisons than on probation and parole.

Kempf said his probation officers typically see caseloads of 75 offenders — which he called “outstanding” in comparison to caseloads in other states — and that the state legislature and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter (R) have placed sufficient emphasis on community corrections.

“When there’s a need for us and we ask for it, we typically get it,” he said.

But Martin Horn, the commissioner of New York City’s corrections and probation departments, said even caseloads of 75 offenders raise questions about the level of service probation and parole agencies realistically can provide.

“Think about an officer with 100 cases,” he said. “Even if he works 40 hours a week, that is less than a half hour per case per week. And that’s if he never takes time off.”

Horn said he agreed with the Pew study's conclusion that community corrections has been underfunded, but he said policymakers cannot simply cut prison budgets and use the money to fund probation and parole instead. Improving community supervision, he said, would likely require new money, at least initially — a difficult prospect given the economy’s decline.

Horn identified another challenge. “Smart investments will pay for themselves, but they will pay for themselves five and 10 years out,” he said. That is a problem, he said, “because for politicians, their planning horizons are two years out at best.”

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

KS: Leavenworth Doesn't Want "Detainees" from Guantamamo

Kansas slams door on idea of Gitmo transfers
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
March 1, 2009
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — Mayor Lisa Weakley can't think of a single good reason the federal government should transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Army's Fort Leavenworth in this city of 35,000.

She can, however, list many reasons why this community — even though it's famed for its prisons and has the Defense Department's only maximum-security facility — should not be their next home, starting with worries about the threat of terrorism.

"Is it really a bad thing not to want it in your backyard if you've got a really good, solid explanation?" she asks. "We have geographical challenges, security concerns and economic concerns. These are different types of prisoners than we're used to."

President Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge when he signed an executive order Jan. 22 requiring the closure of Guantanamo within a year. Detainees who can't be released, returned home or sent to another country will be moved to a U.S. detention facility. Pentagon officials studying potential destinations have visited Fort Leavenworth, the Navy brig in North Charleston, S.C., and California's Camp Pendleton.

The Kansas Legislature, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the state's U.S. senators all object to sending them here.
'Nobody wants them here'

It's almost impossible to find anyone here who thinks it's a good idea. "Nobody wants them here," says Mo Jones, 32, who owns Mo-Cuts Barbershop across Metropolitan Street from Fort Leavenworth. "We know their history. They're terrorists."

That's a classic not-in-my-backyard reflex, says criminologist James Austin, who studies prison systems. He doubts the detainees would pose much of a security risk.

Curtis Hammond, 56, who worked at the federal penitentiary here for 20 years, worries detainees would instill in American prisoners "their ways of thinking and their religious beliefs."

Mike Martinez, 60, a manager for an area company, says, "If they can't be charged with something and tried, they ought to let them go."

Phil Urban wishes detainees could stay at Guantanamo. "If we do bring them here on U.S. soil, that changes their legal status," which might result in their release, he says.

If they have to be relocated, though, says Urban, 62, a music store owner, "Fort Leavenworth can handle them as good as anybody else."

Attorney General Eric Holder heads a task force that is studying the status of the more than 200 detainees. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd says it's "far too early" to know what it will advise.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Jan. 30-Feb. 1 found that half of Americans disapproved of Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo prison; 44% approved.

More security challenges

Leavenworth, founded in 1854, calls itself the "first city of Kansas," but it's just as famous for its prisons. A federal penitentiary, which opened in 1906, was home to Al Capone. There's a privately operated detention center in Leavenworth and a state prison in Lansing.

Fort Leavenworth, which calls itself the "intellectual center of the Army" because it's home to the Command and General Staff College, opened in 1827. Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born there in 1942.

The fort's U.S. Disciplinary Barracks opened in 2002, replacing an imposing 1875 prison. The USDB has about 500 beds and a maximum-security unit with 85 prisoners. A 500-bed medium-security prison opens next year.

Fort Leavenworth abuts the northern edge of Leavenworth and is more like an extension of the community than a separate place. Anyone can drive onto the 8-square-mile post after showing a driver's license and a vehicle security check.

Easy access to the fort would end if Guantanamo detainees end up there, says Leavenworth police chief Pat Kitchens. He worries the town could become a target of terrorists angry about detainees' imprisonment. "Terrorists don't target military installations. They target local populations," Kitchens says. He has 66 police officers and figures he'd need more if detainees end up here.

Securing the fort could be a challenge. The Missouri River is its eastern border. Railroad tracks on fort property are used by about 50 coal and freight trains a day. The city leases part of the fort's airport for use by private planes.

Steve Jackof the Leavenworth County Development Corp., warns that if detainees come here, some countries might refuse to send officers to the Command and General Staff College, ending a valuable cultural exchange and eliminating diplomatic allies for the nation.

All those factors add up to a compelling case, says Tim Holversonof the Leavenworth-Lansing Area Chamber of Commerce.

"If the task force does its homework and doesn't just make assumptions — 'Leavenworth, you're a prison community' — they will see why it's a bad idea," he says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-03-01-leavenworth_N.htm

Posted by lois at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2009

Pres. Obama Revives COPS Hiring Program- 50,000 more police

Stimulus funds new police officers
By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
Feb 26, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is reviving a controversial Clinton-era police hiring program, and the lack of restrictions on the money has critics warning of wasteful spending.

The stimulus package loosens the old rules for the program by dropping a provision that required police agencies to pay millions in local dollars to tap federal hiring grants. It gives police agencies nearly unfettered access to $1 billion over three years for hiring up to 6,000 officers as many departments face cuts.

That money is part of an overall effort, unveiled in Obama's budget proposal Thursday, to fund 50,000 new police officers. The budget does not specify a timeframe or cost, and Justice Department documents say rules for the broader program will be released later.

Some criminal justice analysts say the rules in the stimulus package don't require enough commitment from local agencies and that the program offers a potentially false promise that more police lead to less crime.

"No matching funds mean no accountability," says David Muhlhausen, a justice policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "This is giving away free money." He says there was "no conclusive evidence that the grants helped decrease crime" during the initial program.

Craig Uchida, a former Clinton official who helped oversee the program, says the matching funds made cities "accountable" because they invested their own money. Police agencies had to pay 25% of all new officer salaries and benefits for the three-year federal grant period. "Our view was, let's not give (recipients) a free ride," he says.

Justice Department spokesman Corey Ray says the stimulus money could begin flowing to agencies within weeks and save some from layoffs that threaten public safety.

He says the bad economy makes the change necessary because the old rules blocked some cash-strapped agencies from participating, and the need for help is even greater now. The police grants, along with other stimulus spending, will get extra scrutiny by administration auditors, he says.

The original Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program, championed by Vice President Biden while he was in the Senate, provided funding for more than 100,000 officers.

The Justice Department's own audits of the program alleged millions of dollars were misspent and thousands of jobs funded by the grants were never filled. In one case, a New Mexico tribe got $728,125 to hire eight extra officers. After the department closed in 2002, auditors said it was unclear where the money went or whether anyone was hired.

Ray says the problems related to the original program involved a small number of agencies.

Police groups, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), have tried to resurrect COPS since the Bush administration shut it down after 9/11, when U.S. funds were shifted to homeland security.

Under Clinton, COPS was designed to battle a spike in violent crime. Gene Voegtlin, the IACP's legislative counsel, credits COPS with helping to spur the subsequent crime decline. Yet some cities that did not accept the money, such as Oklahoma City, reported equal declines to those that did.

The Obama program is being rolled out as crime has declined in much of the past decade, including 2007, the most recent year measured by the FBI.

A study released in January by the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement think tank, found nearly half of the 233 police agencies surveyed linked recent increases in criminal offenses, such as robberies, to the economy.

Leslie Paige, spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, says the new grant program is a "give-away" that postpones needed change.

"Local governments need to learn how to live on smaller budgets and figure out what we need to jettison, including law enforcement," she says.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-26-cops2_N.htm
This and other news relating to mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Posted by lois at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2009

Citing Cost, States Consider End to Death Penalty

Citing Cost, States Consider End to Death Penalty
NY Times
By IAN URBINA
Published: February 24, 2009

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — When Gov. Martin O’Malley appeared before the Maryland Senate last week, he made an unconventional argument that is becoming increasingly popular in cash-strapped states: abolish the death penalty to cut costs.

Mr. O’Malley, a Democrat and a Roman Catholic who has cited religious opposition to the death penalty in the past, is now arguing that capital cases cost three times as much as homicide cases where the death penalty is not sought. “And we can’t afford that,” he said, “when there are better and cheaper ways to reduce crime.”

Lawmakers in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire have made the same argument in recent months as they push bills seeking to repeal the death penalty, and experts say such bills have a good chance of passing in Maryland, Montana and New Mexico.

Death penalty opponents say they still face an uphill battle, but they are pleased to have allies raising the economic argument.

Efforts to repeal the death penalty are part of a broader trend in which states are trying to cut the costs of being tough on crime. Virginia and at least four other states, for example, are considering releasing nonviolent offenders early to reduce costs.

The economic realities have forced even longtime supporters of the death penalty, like Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, to rethink their positions.

Mr. Richardson, a Democrat, has said he may sign a bill repealing capital punishment that passed the House last week and is pending in a Senate committee. He cited growing concerns about miscarriages of justice, but he added that cost was a factor in his shifting views and was “a valid reason in this era of austerity and tight budgets.”

Capital cases are expensive because the trials tend to take longer, they typically require more lawyers and more costly expert witnesses, and they are far more likely to lead to multiple appeals.

In New Mexico, lawmakers who support the repeal bill have pointed out that despite the added expense, most defendants end up with life sentences anyway.

That has been true in Maryland. A 2008 study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan public policy group, found that in the 20 years after the state reinstated the death penalty in 1978, prosecutors sought the death penalty in 162 felony-homicide convictions, securing it in 56 cases, most of which were overturned; the rest of the convictions led to prison sentences.

Since 1978, five people have been executed in Maryland, and five inmates are on death row.

Opponents of repealing capital punishment say such measures are short-sighted and will result in more crime and greater costs to states down the road. At a time when police departments are being scaled down to save money, the role of the death penalty in deterring certain crimes is more important than ever, they say.

“How do you put a price tag on crimes that don’t happen because threat of the death penalty deters them?” said Scott Shellenberger, the state’s attorney for Baltimore County, Md., who opposes the repeal bill.

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, an organization in Sacramento that works on behalf of crime victims, called the anticipated savings a mirage. He added that with the death penalty, prosecutors can more easily offer life sentences in a plea bargain and thus avoid trial costs.

But Eric M. Freedman, a death penalty expert at Hofstra Law School, said studies had shown that plea bargaining rates were roughly the same in states that had the death penalty as in states that did not.

“It makes perfect sense that states are trying to spend their criminal justice budgets better,” he said, “and that the first place they look to do a cost-benefit analysis is the death penalty.”

States are looking elsewhere as well.

Last year, in an effort to cut costs, probation and parole agencies in Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey and Vermont reduced or dropped prison time for thousands of offenders who violated conditions of their release. In some states, probation and parole violators account for up to two-thirds of prison admissions each year; typical violations are failing drug tests or missing meetings with parole officers.

As prison crowding has become acute, lawsuits have followed in states like California, and politicians find themselves having to choose among politically unattractive options: spend scarce tax dollars on expanding prisons, loosen laws to stem the flow of incarcerations, or release some nonviolent offenders.

The costs of death penalty cases can be extraordinarily high.

The Urban Institute study of Maryland concluded that because of appeals, it cost as much as $1.9 million more for a state prosecutor to put someone on death row than it did to put a person in prison. A case that resulted in a death sentence cost $3 million, the study found, compared with less than $1.1 million for a case in which the death penalty was not sought.

In Kansas, State Senator Carolyn McGinn introduced a bill this month that would abolish the death penalty in cases sentenced after July 1. “We are in such a dire deficit situation, and we need to look at things outside the box to solve our budget problems,” said Mrs. McGinn, a Republican. Kansas is facing a budget shortfall of $199 million, and Mrs. McGinn said that opting for life imprisonment without parole rather than the death penalty could save the state over $500,000 per capital case.

But skeptics contend that prosecutors will still be on salary and will still spend the same amount, just on different cases. In Colorado, lawmakers plan to consider a bill this week that would abolish the death penalty and use the savings to create a cold-case unit to investigate the state’s roughly 1,400 unsolved murders. While the police must continue investigating these cases, there is no money in the budget for that. A group of families who lost relatives in unsolved murders has lobbied lawmakers on the bill.

In Virginia, competing sentiments are evident in the legislature.

While lawmakers have proposed allowing prison officials to release low-risk offenders up to 90 days before the end of their sentences, citing a potential saving of $50 million, they are also considering expanding who is eligible for capital punishment to people who assist in killings but do not commit them and to people convicted of murdering fire marshals or auxiliary police officers who are on duty.

It is considered unlikely, however, that Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who opposes capital punishment, would sign such a bill.

In 2007, New Jersey became the first state in a generation to abolish the death penalty.

That same year, a vote in Maryland to abolish the death penalty came up one vote short of passing. In December, however, a state commission on capital punishment recommended that Maryland abolish the death penalty because of the high cost and the danger of executing an innocent person.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 25, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/us/25death.html?scp=1&sq=In%20Push%20to%20End%20Death%20Penatly,%20Some%20States%20Cite%20Costs&st=cse

Posted by lois at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2009

Josh MacPhee Review of: Illustrations from the Inside & The Real Cost of Prisons Comix

Review: Illustrations from the Inside & The Real Cost of Prisons
Posted February 18, 2009 by Josh MacPhee

Go to this URL for the review which includes images from the books.
http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2009/02/review_illustrations_from_the_1.html
Review:
Illustrations from the Inside: The Beat Within
edited by Louis E.V. Nevaer
Mark Batty Publisher, 2007

The Real Cost of Prisons
edited by Lois Ahrens
PM Press, 2008

Back in 1997, I was living in Boulder, CO and working with the Prisoners Rights Project, a group dedicated to improving the conditions of Colorado's prisoners. We were mostly collecting and tabulating data and anecdotes from men trapped in the Colorado State Penitentiary, a super maximimum security prison and the ugly little brother of the Federal Florence AdMax prison down the street (there is something like a dozen prisons all on the same drag in Canyon City). I had been working on prison injustice issues for a number of years, first in Washington, DC, then Ohio, and then Colorado. One thing that was constant throughout my time doing prison activism were the envelopes from prisoners, tattooed with ball point pen dragons, big-breasted women, and low riders. These were some of the smallest, most intense and photo-realistic drawings I had ever seen; I had no idea the depth and detail one could extract from a Bic pen.

Illustrations from the Inside isn't exactly a collection of prison envelope art, but it has all the best qualities of that art form and more. The book is an amazing collection of images created by juvenile prisoners that are part of The Beat Within, a long running weekly magazine and writing program for youth in juvenile detention and prison. The pages here are a rush of imagery, from Chicano clown faces to Black super heroes, prison bars to indigenous spirituality. In many ways this is a tour through the mind of most teenage boys, but with a darker twist, as even the most banal images begin to feel infected by fear, control, domination and violence. The quality of the art jumps from childish to some of the most intense social realism I've ever seen. Cartoon Tupac scribbles share space with detailed drawings of riot cops beating Black youth. In some ways Illustrations reads like an American youth version of that popular Russian Criminal Tattoos book, not as esoteric or x-rated, but a serious window into the mindset of 11-25 year old prisoners (yes, some of the images are from imprisoned youth as young as 11!).

It's hard not to see the connections between this art and the popular art forms of tattooing and graffiti. Adam Mansbach seizes upon the similarities and difference to graffiti in his introduction to the book, raising the specter of burned out 1970s South Bronx, and how both art forms are the creative product of forgotten youth, kids thought of as the other, as dangerous, as criminals, as trash.

The writing in the book is pretty straightforward, which works. Mansbach gives us a basic intro, and then hands it over to editor Louis Nevaer. Nevaer, in direct and plain language, breaks down the structural reasons why class and race deeply effect who goes to prison and why, leading us to the reality of a majority poor youth of color juvenile justice system. The information is delivered in a straightforward way, nothing romantic or condescending. The one thing I am left wondering is: who is Nevaer? Unlike Mansbach, he has no bio, and he never clearly positions himself in his introduction. Why does he care? What is his connection to the youth or The Beat Within?

As always with Mark Batty Publishers, the book is beautiful. A nice hardcover, high quality paper, mostly black and white like the drawings, but with pink accents that highlight important written information in the pages facing the illustrations. And nice endpapers to top it all of, letting us know they care about book production and the book as an art object, not simply as a vehicle for information.

The Real Cost of Prisons covers similar material, but is a completely different take on it. This is primarily a paperback compilation of 3 comic books produced by the Real Cost of Prisons Project in order to educate prisoners and the public. The project is a nation-wide public education campaign designed to illustrate in plain and simple language what the real costs of prison are in our society. Since the 1970s the levels of incarceration in this country have skyrocketed, but there has been little to know public dialog about the reasons for this, or what it all costs, not just in financial terms, but the human costs. These comics were designed as popular education tools, and are being used as just that. Tens of thousands of copies have found their way into high school classrooms, prison study groups, politicians desks, and activist hands.

realcost01.jpgComics are a powerful medium for breaking down complex ideas into frame by frame visual explanations, and that's just what this book does. The Project was smart to approach 3 political comics veterans, all with experience working on World War 3 Illustrated, the longest running political comics magazine in the US. "Prison Town: Paying the Price," drawn by Kevin Pyle, is an overview of how prisons are paid for, who pays the real costs and how prison construction effects the communities they are placed in. "Prisoners of the War on Drugs," drawn by Sabrina Jones, exposes the forces at work behind drug laws and drug-related imprisonment. "Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and their Children," drawn by Susan Willmarth, is a touching collection of first person narratives about how prison has deeply affected women and children.

As this is an art bllog, let me talk a bit about the art. Kevin Pyle's comic is a visual tour-de-force. Ever since his early World War 3 comics about prisons, I've always felt Pyle's unique smudged drawing style perfectly captures the creepy feeling that prisons create; the idea something else is going on beyond what the eye can see, that the images, like the workings of state repression, won't stand still long enough to get a clear image of what is really going on. Somewhat unfortunately this unsettled feeling carries into almost all his frames, even the ones focused on restorative justice and alternatives to the cruelty of prisons. Sabrina Jones is at her peak, using bold organic lines to powerfully carry us through the story and information. The material is dense and difficult, so I commend her efforts to tame it. My only complaint is that I would like to have seen more large images, full page graphics that frame the smaller panels and give us a macro view. Although Susan WIllmarth has done comics for World War 3 before, she is the artist I'm the least familiar with, but is an exciting surprise. I think her comic is my favorite, graphically it reads as an exciting clash between Raymond Pettibone and Lynda Barry. It is much looser than the previous two stories, the raw style bringing us deep into the lives she's narrating. I'm not a comics expert, but this seems like a great example of the comic books' visual narrative structure being used to compelling lay out important social and political material.

These two books illustrate two very different possible relationships between art and social injustice. The Real Cost of Prisons uses art by practiced professionals as a tool to teach about and explain issues to wide and diverse audiences. It plays to the strengths of an established form (the comic) and lays out a clear path for the reader to better understand the workings of the US prison system. On the other hand, Illustrations from the Inside argues that creativity is a raw tool for the liberation of the creator. The audience is secondary; we are voyeurs, allowed a quick peek into the lives of kids in prison. The art can educate people, that is much less important than the possible transformative effect it can have on the artists themselves.

Posted by lois at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

NV: Legislative panel discusses prison plans

Legislative panel discusses prison plans
Feb. 19, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Legislative panel discusses prison plans
By BRENDAN RILEY
The Associated Press

CARSON CITY — Told that the state's prison population is lower than expected, members of a Senate-Assembly budget panel said Thursday that they would like a delay in new prison construction and an end to plans to shut down an old prison and an inmate camp.
Lawmakers commented after Corrections Director Howard Skolnik said the current total of 12,689 inmates is 725 less than what had been projected in the $481 million, two-year prison system budget plan outlined in mid-January by Gov. Jim Gibbons.

Skolnik also said local authorities in the Las Vegas and Reno areas, Nevada's population centers, have advised him that crime rates are flat. That would factor into new inmate projections being prepared by prison system consultants.

Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, the subcommittee chairwoman, said she would like to see "a little more thought" put into initial administration plans to shut down the old Nevada State Prison in Carson City and an inmate camp near Tonopah and to build a new prison at Indian Springs, in southern Nevada.

McClain was joined by Assembly members Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, and Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, in saying the Tonopah camp should remain open.
"We're all pretty convinced that's not a good policy," said Leslie, adding that she also opposes the plan to close the medium-security prison in Carson City, which dates to the 1870s.

Skolnik said reasons for the inmate population not climbing as expected could include the addition of more police in Las Vegas, resulting in more crime prevention; and also a drop in population in southern Nevada and an economic downturn that has cut into opportunities for criminals.

"Because of the economic downturn there's a lot more cocooning going on," Skolnik said. "People are staying home. They're not out on the street. It's harder to become a victim if you're locked in your house watching TV."

While Skolnik said he still expects a need for future prison system expansion, Richard Siegel of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada questioned whether the expansion is needed and noted that 20 percent of the beds in various prison facilities are now vacant.
Siegel also said he was optimistic that the current prison population could be maintained. He said state parole authorities are "more proactive" now in returning convicts to the streets, and a major study panel on which he serves is looking for ways to hold down the number of inmates behind bars.

Siegel also said Nevada has one of the best rates in the nation of people who get paroles and manage to stay out of prison afterward.

Find this article at: http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/39883807.html

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

NY Plans to Release More Prisoners

NY plans to release more inmates from prisons
By Michael Virtanen
Associated Press Writer
Newsday
February 19, 2009

ALBANY, N.Y.

The Paterson administration has proposed further emptying New York's prisons by releasing more inmates six months early for good behavior, putting middle-aged convicts into shock camps and punishing technical parole violations with something short of prison.

Corrections chief Brian Fischer said the measures, recommended earlier this year by a special commission that included lawmakers, are based on past successes and would help the criminal justice system operate more rationally. They require the Legislature's approval.

The three measures would remove an estimated 1,600 more inmates from prisons in a year. The population _ which stood at 59,918 on Thursday at 69 facilities _ is down about 11,500 since its 1999 peak. Fischer cited a reduced crime rate and improved focus on helping convicts re-enter society.

"The point isn't to empty the prisons," corrections spokesman Erik Kriss said, calling savings a side benefit. "The point is to build on stuff we've found works."

Currently, 39 percent of inmates return within a three-year period, most for parole violations, Kriss said. Technical violations can include failing a drug test or missing curfew.

Parole Division spokeswoman Heather Groll said the division could proceed administratively if the bill isn't passed.

The proposed expansion of the six-month military-style shock camp, begun in 1987 for inmates under age 24, would allow nonviolent offenders up to age 49 with less than three years left on their sentences to be admitted. Graduates' recidivism rate is 20 percent lower than other inmates, Fischer said.

The credit time proposal for good behavior is a variation on Merit Time, which allows nonviolent offenders to earn reduced sentences for good behavior and program participation. Fischer said since it started in 1996, prisons have seen a 35 percent decline in assaults on staff and 60 percent drop in assaults on other inmates.

Janice Grieshaber, executive director of the Jenna Foundation for Non-Violence, said she was initially worried about the proposals but believes her concerns about violent offenders are being addressed.

"We need to keep the most violent and threatening people off the street. There are people who cannot be helped and they don't want to be," said Grieshaber, who lobbied for passage of Jenna's law, which eliminated parole for violent felons. "I also believe in the system being able to work in a positive way and enable certain offenders to change. I emphasize the word certain."

The Department of Correctional Services has also proposed closing four minimum-security camps and up to a half-dozen prison annexes once built to handle overflows.

The prison system, with a $3 billion annual budget and 31,000 employees, estimates nearly $30 million in annual savings from the closings.

Past proposals to close prisons, often major employers in rural areas, have met stiff opposition in the Legislature.

The Paterson administration is trying to close a projected deficit of more than $14 billion in the upcoming fiscal year in a roughly $120 billion state budget, requiring savings from all executive agencies, including corrections.

"Certainly everything's on the table," Donn Rowe, president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, said Thursday. The union that represents prison guards continues to lobby against closing the camps, calling them "an important tool" against recidivism.

The camps have programs and fewer restrictions that help with re-entry, and minimum-security inmates otherwise would go to medium-security prisons with more dangerous felons, according to the union.

The union maintains the prison system is actually at 104 percent of capacity measured by federal standards.

Fischer said the prison system has more than 7,000 vacant beds, and a 50 percent drop in its minimum-security population over nine years.

Speaking this week to the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City, Fischer said the statewide crime rate dropped 35 percent over the past decade. Alternatives to prison for drug offenders and other nonviolent felons, coupled with a legislative rollback four years ago of some of the harsh Rockefeller-era drug laws, also contributed to the 16 percent decline in the population in the state's 69 correctional facilities, he said.
New York's maximum-security population has stayed "relatively constant" or slightly up and was 24,207 on Thursday, Kriss said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--prisonerreleases0219feb19,0,2772263.story

Posted by lois at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2009

Pew Study Finds Sharp Rise in Latino Federal Prisoners

Study Shows Sharp Rise in Latino Federal Convicts
By SOLOMON MOORE
Published: February 18, 2009
NY Times

Latino convicts now represent the largest ethnic population in the federal prison system, accounting for 40 percent of all those convicted of federal crimes, according to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

In 2007, Latinos, who make up 13 percent of the United States population, accounted for one third of all federal prison inmates, a result the study attributed to the sharp rise in illegal immigration and the increased enforcement of immigration laws.

Nearly half of all Latino offenders, or about 48 percent, were convicted of immigration crimes, while drug offenses were the second-most prevalent charge, according to the report.

As the annual number of federal offenders more than doubled from 1991 to 2007, the number of Latino offenders sentenced in a given year nearly quadrupled, to 29,281 from 7,924.

Of Latino federal offenders, 72 percent are not United States citizens and most were sentenced in courts from one of the four states that border Mexico. Undocumented federal prisoners are usually deported to their home countries after serving their sentences.

“The immigration system has essentially become criminalized at a huge cost to the criminal justice system, to courts, to judges, to prisons and prosecutors,” said Lucas Guttentag, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union. “And the government has diverted the resources of the criminal justice system from violent crimes, financial skullduggery and other areas that have been the traditional area of the Justice Department.”

Last month, The New York Times reported that federal immigration prosecutions had increased over the last five years, doubling in the last fiscal year to more than 70,000 cases. Meanwhile, other categories of federal prosecutions, including gun trafficking, public corruption, organized crime and white-collar crime, have declined over the same period.

The federal justice system accounts for 200,000, or 8.6 percent, of the 2.3 million inmates in federal and state prisons and city and county jails. Nineteen percent of state prisoners and 16 percent of jail inmates were Latinos, the Pew study found. African-Americans, who make up about 12 percent of the national population, make up 39 percent of state prisoners and jail inmates.

Deborah Williams, an assistant federal defender in Phoenix, said that the large number of Latinos in the federal system, particularly those who are not citizens and have limited English proficiency, had dramatically changed federal prison culture.

“I have Anglo and Native American clients who tell me about being the only non-Spanish speaker in their pod,” Ms. Williams said. “Ten years ago, it just wasn’t that way. Everything is changing in there, including the language, the television shows they watch, and a lot of times the guards don’t speak the language. How do you safely guard people who may not understand your orders?”

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons, Tracy Billingsley, declined immediate comment on the Pew report.

Mark Hugo Lopez, a co-author of the study, which relied on United States Sentencing Commission statistics, said, “It’s hard to understand whether we’re seeing a policy change or just a growth in the total number of immigrants coming to this country.”

The number of undocumented immigrants in the country increased to 11.9 million last year, from 3.9 million in 1992.

Under federal programs like Operation Gatekeeper, which hired thousands of immigration enforcement officials along the southwest border, and Operation Streamline, which instituted a “zero tolerance policy” for illegal border crossings in the same region, immigration crimes have skyrocketed.

The large number of immigration crimes and low-level drug offenses account for the relatively light sentences that Latinos typically receive — about 46 months, compared with 62 months for white inmates and 91 months for African-American prisoners, according to the study.
graph at this URL-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/us/19immig.html?_r=1

Posted by lois at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)

MI: Analysis: Granholm's prison plan is ambitious

February 16, 2009
Analysis: Granholm's prison plan is ambitious
By David Eggert
Associated Press Writer

LANSING (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm's ambitious plan to save money by releasing more prisoners is doable, but a lot has to go right for it to work.

Since the number of inmates exceeded 51,000 almost two years ago, her administration has lowered the population to just over 48,000 through paroles and commutations, a timely drop in felony convictions and prison intakes, and an expanded program that aims to keep parolees from committing new crimes.

The trend certainly could continue, but the Michigan Department of Corrections has a tough path ahead to reach its goal of reducing the head count an additional 7 percent by year's end. The last time Michigan was under 45,000 inmates: 1999.

The $2 billion corrections budget is under scrutiny because Michigan incarcerates people at a higher rate and pays corrections workers higher salaries compared with other Great Lakes states. Corrections is the largest program controlled directly by state government and employs nearly one-third of all state employees.

It costs 4½ times more to incarcerate a state inmate each year than it does to educate a schoolchild.

The Democratic governor's past attempts to address sentence lengths, or the "front end" of the system, were rejected by lawmakers and law enforcement. So she's relying on the "back end," her parole board, to take a closer look at 12,000 prisoners serving beyond their earliest release date.

Granholm needs the prison population to fall so she can close more prisons and potentially lay off more than 1,000 corrections employees, saving $120 million in the next budget year.

The same day she unveiled her proposed state budget last week, she signed an executive order expanding the parole board from 10 to 15 members to accelerate the process.

"Do we expect to release all 12,000? Obviously not," Corrections spokesman John Cordell said. "Some will serve to the max because they are really unsafe."

But he notes that Michigan inmates on average serve 137 percent of their minimum sentence while the national average is 120 percent.

"The more people that are past their earliest release date we can release safely in the community, we will do so," Cordell said.

The parole board may start automatically releasing prisoners once they serve their minimum sentence assuming they complete rehabilitation programs. Serious offenders such as rapists and murderers would be excluded from the policy.

The parole board could only hold inmates beyond 120 percent of their minimum sentence if they pose a "very high" risk of re-offending.

The policy was recommended by outside experts who spent a year examining crime and punishment in Michigan. Their report released last month suggested applying the policy to prisoners sentenced after April 1. The Corrections Department is considering whether it should be retroactive to those behind bars today, too.

It's unclear if the parole board will be forced to follow the policy, but the Granholm administration says the board is being more aggressive regardless.

Nearly 71 percent of prisoners were approved for parole at their earliest release date in 2008, the highest in Granholm's six years in office.

The parole board has reduced the overall number of inmates serving past their earliest release date by 10 percent since last summer. Throw in fewer parole revocations, a 9 percent drop in prison admissions in 2008 and the first decline in felony convictions in nine years, and it's easy to see why the prison population has fallen for seven straight months.

But the population can be fickle. If there's just one high-profile crime involving a parolee, all bets are off and Granholm's plan will be jeopardized.

When Patrick Selepak was mistakenly released from prison in 2006 and killed three people in Macomb and Genesee counties, the justice system responded with more arrests, more prison sentences, fewer paroles and more parole revocations, according to the state. The prison population exploded 13 straight months before declining.

Then in 2007, parolee and registered sex offender Matthew Macon killed at least two women in Lansing and was suspected in the deaths of up to five others. That led to eight straight months of growth in the prison population.

Other factors — such as whether the number of prison intakes starts creeping up again and if there will be enough money to hire more officers to monitor parolees — could complicate Granholm's corrections plan, too.

Finally, there's bound to be a limit when reviewing the 12,000 inmates who have served their minimum sentence because as the pool declines, the remaining prisoners could be sex offenders and violent criminals the parole board is hesitant to release.

Corrections Director Patricia Caruso said she expects the prison population to continue to decline, resulting in the first corrections layoffs in the Granholm era.

She said the department is decreasing the population "safely and appropriately."

"We are not opening the door and pushing people out of the prison," Caruso said.
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20090216/FREE/902169997

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

February 17, 2009

WI: Thread a threat to control of prisoners

"Thread is seized frequently in the Secure Program Facility, which houses the most unruly felons in highly restrictive conditions."

SAT., FEB 14, 2009
Prison contraband reports show hidden potential of ordinary items
Karen Rivedal

Ramen noodles and a Bic pen.

A knit cap and a knitted cup holder.

A pair of socks and a white T-shirt.

A toothbrush and a broken deodorant cap.

A piece of thread.

Four crocheted bears.

A Bible.

It might sound like a care package to a Christian college, but all these items come from recent contraband reports from Wisconsin prisons. Seized from prisoners' cells and lockers, the items run afoul of state rules dictating what and how much stuff an inmate can have.

If much of what's listed on the reports appears benign, prison officials say, that's because maintaining security and safety requires more than just keeping out guns and knives.

Extra amounts of allowable property — which is the bulk of what prison guards seize — can sow disorder in a host of ways, staff said, from creating a fire hazard to breeding bad blood between prisoners.

What's more, even mundane items can be made dangerous, officials said. One favorite tactic of inmates is to melt a razor blade removed from prison-provided shavers into the handle of a prison toothbrush.

Instant weapon, easily concealed.

"Anything in a prison can be a weapon if that is the intent," said Dan Westfield, security chief of prisons in the state Department of Corrections.

Another inmate might use the wooden squeegee handle of a prison mop bucket, which records show was seized from a male prisoner at Fox Lake Correctional Institution last year, or grab a spray bottle from the laundry filled with bleach. That was found in a prisoner's cell at Taycheedah Correctional Center, the state's prison for female maximum- and medium-security inmates.

"Using stuff within the facility is much easier than having somebody trying to bring them a knife or a gun," said Rick Phillips, security director at Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, a men's maximum-security prison.

Hiding places

The Wisconsin State Journal reviewed contraband reports from five state prisons at a variety of security levels. The prisons were Fox Lake, Taycheedah, Dodge, Oakhill and the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, formerly known as Supermax.

The reports bear out not only the seemingly ordinary nature of many confiscated items but also their hidden potential. Prisoners sometimes hide banned items inside allowed ones and convert many normal, daily items for illicit purposes that would rarely occur to a free person, staff said.

To a prisoner, a deodorant cap can be a good place to stash tobacco — illegal in the state's smoke-free prison system — and a long piece of thread can be a communication cable.

Thread is seized frequently in the Secure Program Facility, which houses the most unruly felons in highly restrictive conditions.

Many inmates there use thread pulled from their uniforms to "fish underneath the doors with," passing notes or other materials, said Monica Horner, security director at the Boscobel prison. "It's hard to stop, because it's something we give them every day (in their clothes), and it's easy for them to get rid of by flushing it down the toilet," she said.

Some inmates also take apart pens and attach them to small motors to make tattoo guns or hide drugs and cash inside book bindings. That kind of ploy likely accounted for the reportedly "altered" Bible seized at the Boscobel prison in 2007, staff said.

Even a roll of toilet paper — something prison officials obviously can't stop providing — can be used alone or molded with other materials to make ropes, daggers and fake but realistic-looking guns. Toothpaste often provides the hardening element, staff said.

At Taycheedah in October 2007, one inmate even made a woven noose from toilet paper, intending to use it to kill herself. Such things turn up especially among inmates with mental problems, staff said.

"They weave things out of what's available to them," said David Tarr, Taycheedah's security director. "There's always toilet paper. When you weave it the right way, it can support the weight of a 200-pound person."

Inmates also frequently abuse prescription medicine, which is far more of a problem in prisons than illegal drugs, staff said. The abuse happens when inmates with legal prescriptions take it in oversized doses or provide it to others.

"It's so dangerous if they're stockpiling medications," said Jodine Deppisch, warden at Fox Lake, a medium-security men's prison. "There's always a big fear of medication abuse, because if someone has a bad reaction, you don't really know what you have there."

Staff said prescription drug abuse is more of a problem among women inmates than men. In men's prisons, more street drugs are confiscated, along with much more gang-related photos and papers.

Clutter a problem

Even if no rule-breaking is intended, clutter in a cell can hamper prison operations just by being there, officials said.

For one thing, it taxes the ability of guards to conduct timely and effective searches.

"An inmate might have a piece of paper showing all the gambling debts he owes to another inmate," said Deputy Warden Gary Boughton at the Boscobel prison. "If he's got that one piece of paper stashed in between stacks and stacks of paper, it's more likely (guards) will miss that."

An inmate with many possessions also can build undue influence through gifts or loans of items to other inmates, while botched trades and unpaid debts can lead to retaliatory violence, staff said.

One way an inmate can accumulate a lot of possessions is by not turning in old items as required when new allocations are made. At Dodge, prisoners have used excess clothing to evade supervision by making a dummy dressed in their clothes and left in their cells.

"So he looks like he's there," Phillips said.

Inmates who hoard clothes also pose difficulties for the prison laundry and stockroom.

"If we don't know how much clothing they have, we can't keep track of it," Phillips said. "We need to keep track so we have enough clean stuff in stock to distribute."

Cell phones new threat

Prisons' security chief Westfield said the most sought-after contraband in state prisons has long been money, drugs and tobacco. Cell phones — as they have become smaller, cheaper and more sophisticated — are a growing new threat, he said.

Cell phones threaten prison security and endanger public safety because they give prisoners an independent communication channel to the outside world, officials said.

Ordinarily, prison officials monitor messages inmates might seek to send out, by examining their mail and listening in on the calls they are allowed to make on prison phones.

But having a secret cell phone, officials said, would circumvent that safeguard and allow prisoners to communicate messages about things that law enforcement would like to know about — such as plans to escape, criminal plots, or directives to criminal associates on the street.

Pornographic drawings or photos, often ripped out of magazines, are also always near the top of the list, staff said. Monica Horner, security director at the Boscobel prison, said the going rate for a 12-by-12-inch pornographic picture is $30 — a princely sum for inmates who make less than $1 an hour at prison jobs.

"That just turns into a lot of strong-arming and unauthorized transfer of property," she said.

Beyond the property bans and limits, prison officials try to stem the flow of contraband through frequent random and scheduled searches. They also closely examine mail and screen visitors to the prisons.
Studying contraband records can also point up weaknesses, staff said, and inmates themselves can flag a problem.

"They might drop off a note or make a comment that somebody has something they shouldn't have in their cell," Dodge Warden Tim Lundquist said. "The inmates want to be in a safe environment, too."

Then again, he added, "They'll send us on wild goose chases, too, sometimes."
http://www.madison.com/wsj/arch_local/438434

Posted by lois at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2009

OH: Strained Budget Prompts Call for Prison Reform

Seitz offers plan for prison reform
OVERCROWDING STRAINS BUDGETS

By Sharon Coolidge and Jon Craig
February 16, 2009

State Sen. Bill Seitz says sweeping prison reform is the only way to reduce overcrowding and ease strain on Ohio's incarceration budget.
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The conservative Green Township Republican last week introduced Senate Bill 22, which would allow more minor offenders to be sentenced to community programs, give more good-time credit to inmates, give the parole authority the ability to deal with parole violators and create sentencing alternatives for parents convicted of failing to pay child support.

"While it is important that the Legislature continues to pass strong laws to help keep our communities safe, this effort must be balanced with policies that work to responsibly reduce Ohio's prison population and its financial impact on taxpayers across the state," Seitz said.
The state prison population was 50,719 on Feb. 9 and could soar to 60,000 by 2018 without reform, experts say.

Currently the state's 32 prisons are operating at 132 percent of their designed inmate capacity. The two state prisons in Warren County on Friday were holding inmates at 73 and 76 percent above their designed capacity.

The annual cost to house an inmate is $24,875.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters stopped short of criticizing a fellow Republican, but said the bill would compromise safety and if the budget needs relief, cuts should be made elsewhere.

"The problem with any of these laws is they are entirely budget driven, and not safety driven," Deters said.

"Bill is one of the best legislators I have ever met, he is very smart and he is looking for ways to get money out of the budget, but he is looking in the wrong place," Deters said.

"The first job of government is to protect its citizens, and a viable prison system is critical to community safety."

Seitz, who served nearly eight years in the Ohio house before moving to the Senate in 2007, said reform has been needed for years.

But the budget crisis means the legislature has to act now, he said.

Seitz's bill mirrors proposals by the Strickland administration.

Gov. Ted Strickland's two-year budget, which must be passed by June 30, proposes spending $3.65 billion in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 to run prisons. Collins said there is about $10 million in the state budget for counties to fund community-correction programs, including halfway houses.

Strickland's budget bill recommends sentencing people to alternative programs for failing to pay child support, freeing 527 prison beds annually; increasing from one to seven days per month the possible earned credit time for eligible inmates, freeing 2,644 prison beds; redefining supervision for parole violators, freeing 591 prison beds; and raising the felony theft thresholds from $500 to $750, freeing 300 prison beds.

Those and other reforms could eventually save $29 million and reduce the prison population by 6,736 annually, according to budget estimates.

Former Gov. Bob Taft closed Lima and Orient correctional institutions in 2002-03. No decision has been made about what state prison would be the next to close.

The Seitz bill varies slightly from Strickland's proposal, reducing earned credit to five days a month instead of seven. Violent offenders and sex offenders would not be eligible for good-time credits.

"There are many things for Democrats and Republicans to fight about in this budget," Seitz said. "I hope this is not one of them."

Seitz said the reforms do not compromise safety.

"We all want to increase the penalties for this and that," Seitz said. "And it might be warranted, but where is the money? The prison budget has been cut, cut, cut."

Something has to give, he added.

Then he borrowed a line from Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Director Terry Collins: "We have to figure out who is truly bad and who we are just mad at."

Collins praised Seitz's bill.

"I appreciate the fact that (Seitz) understands the critical urgency we have in the Department of Corrections," Collins said. "He certainly knows the legislative process better than I, and I certainly appreciate his concern about if we can do something quicker than waiting for the next state budget, which begins July 1."

Collins told the House Finance Committee on Thursday that sentencing reforms such as the Seitz bill could divert more offenders from crowded state prisons while easing the state's budget crisis.

"Judges have used these diversions well," Collins told The Enquirer. "Their problem is that they need more dollars for alternatives to prison."

Collins said sentencing reforms will take some time.

But he said some programs are already in place, citing Talbert House and River City, both in Hamilton County. But he said such programs need additional state money.

David Singleton, director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a criminal justice watchdog and advocacy organization, said reforms are needed.

"Bill Seitz is proving himself to be a leader for smart-on-crime reform in the state and we are delighted that he is leading on this," Singleton said.

Singleton said Seitz's willingness to work with the governor shows criminal justice reform can cross the political aisle.

"This is not going to make us less safe, it will make sure we are not wasting money incarcerating people who can be better served in a community setting," Singleton said. "It's a very smart bill."

"Is there more that can be done?" Seitz said.

"Yes there is, and this bill may be amended."

Seitz said sentencing disparities for people convicted of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine crimes must be corrected, that judges need more authority over judicial release, and that inmates at the end of their sentences should transition into community-based correctional facilities.

Singleton predicts that the bill will make progress and said Seitz has the clout to get it passed.

Hearings could start as soon as next month, Seitz said.

"Until people put their money where their mouth is on criminal sentences, there is no other choice," Seitz said.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090216/NEWS0108/902160318

Posted by lois at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

Kansas parks lose as prisons cut back

Monday, Feb 16, 2009
Posted on Sun, Feb. 15, 2009
Kansas parks lose as prisons cut back
BY MICHAEL PEARCE
The Wichita Eagle

The closing of three rural correctional facilities to save the state money could increase costs in areas such as park services and maintenance.

The prisons at Toronto, Osawatomie and Stockton have produced tens of thousands of work hours each year for some state parks, towns and nonprofit organizations. But to save about $900,000 this year, the Kansas Department of Corrections is closing those facilities.

"It's a very difficult situation because it looks like the state is adding back to the budget with one hand and taking it away with another," said Kelly Johnston, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks commission chairman.

Some state parks have depended on inmate labor for more than 40 years and don't have the budget to hire replacements.

"It's going to affect us drastically," said Kim Jones, interim manager for Fall River and Cross Timbers state parks in southeast Kansas.

"For years, inmates have been our main source of labor. Probably 98 percent of the improvements we've had in the last 20 years have been from inmate work."

Jones said the two parks received more than 25,000 hours of inmate labor from Toronto Correctional Facility last year.

The closing equates to losing 12 full-time employees. It would cost about $347,000 to replace that labor by hiring replacement workers, Jones said, but there's no budget for such spending.

That leaves three state maintenance workers to care for more than 2,000 acres and about 265 camp sites.

"We'll just have to prioritize and take care of the most popular campgrounds as best we can," Jones said. "We should be all right until we have something big like a flood... and we had five of those last year."

Corrections cuts

Roger Werholtz, Kansas Department of Corrections secretary, said his agency is having to find more than $9 million in 2009 budget cuts, as requested by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the Legislature.

The department began making cuts last summer, when the governor told state agencies to look for ways to cut 3 percent from their 2009 budgets.

The announcement about closing the prisons came last month.

"Whenever we've had budget recessions in the past, closing facilities has been a possibility," Werholtz said. "But this is the first time we've had to go that deep."

Werholtz is aware that the closings will have a negative impact on other government departments and some rural economies.

"Our No. 1 priority is public safety, and we could move these... prisoners to other facilities without impacting public safety," he said. "It was the least-onerous choice we had, but there have been no good choices."

Operations have already been suspended at a minimum-security honor camp at Osawatomie. The Toronto facility should close Feb. 27. A camp at Stockton is scheduled to close April 1.

The camps might be re-opened if the economy improves, though corrections officials expect mandates for more budget cuts in 2010.

A similar facility north of El Dorado, where that state park gets its labor, is not scheduled to close this year, but Werholtz said closure remains a possibility.

If it does close?

"We'll be seriously up a creek," said Doug Lauxman, El Dorado State Park manager.

Cheney State Park is expected to continue to get inmate labor help from the prison in Hutchinson.

Werholtz said the Toronto closure should save his department about $275,000 this year.

The roughly 160 inmates from the three camps are being scattered among other facilities around the state. Transferred inmates may have a chance to work on crews from their new facilities.

Werholtz said work crews from all corrections facilities could decline because of cuts.

The Corrections Department continues to look for more ways to cut costs, and Werholtz said layoffs are a possibility.

Uses for inmates

Corrections officials said Kansas inmates perform about 1 million hours of labor annually. Pay is about $1 a day.

Last year, the parks benefited from more than 81,000 hours of inmate labor.

Jim Griffitts, an officer at Toronto Correctional Facility, said the camp was placed there in the mid-1960s specifically so crews could work at Fall River and Cross Timbers (formerly Toronto) state parks. Griffitts said Toronto inmates performed about 66,000 hours of labor last year, which includes work away from the park.

The city of Fredonia has had an inmate crew for about a year. Rusty Ratzlaff, Fredonia public works director, wishes they had come sooner.

"It's not like we've laid off paid workers," he said. "We're using the inmates for things (city workers) haven't had time to do.

"I've had more compliments on how good things are looking than ever."

Skilled labor

Inmates perform duties more skilled than picking up trash.

Tuesday, state park maintenance worker Paul Hughes supervised a crew as they removed piles of driftwood from last summer's floods.

"That's a 1975 tractor and the only reason it's running is because of the inmates," Hughes said. "They're about the only reason most of these vehicles are running.

"When something breaks down, there's always some gear-head who knows how to take it apart and put it back together so it runs. We just buy the parts. That saves us a lot of money and time."

Jones said skilled inmate labor played huge roles in installing the parks' cabins, playgrounds and paved roads.

"A lot of these people come here trained in construction, plumbing, or heavy-equipment operation," Jones said. "Those skills are really expensive when you have to pay for them."

Popular with inmates

Inmates interviewed Tuesday said they have appreciated an opportunity to work while at Toronto Correction Facility.

"When you're locked inside, the clock and calendar don't move," Troy Ghramm said. "You kind of get into a routine of working every day. Time passes."

Near Ghramm, inmates Ben Kolterman and Ryan Wilson laid rocks gathered from a nearby ranch against a cabin's foundation.

Wilson said it gives him a chance to learn masonry, which he will combine with his previous experience as a roofer when released.

Kolterman said he enjoyed the chance to stay sharp on his longtime occupation of laying rock and brick. He said he will make more than $20 an hour when released.

Griffitts said there's a correlation between inmates who regularly work and reduced disciplinary problems.

"It all goes back to the idle hands and idle minds thing," he said. "They need something to do.

"Also, some of these guys come with no experience of working. This teaches them a work routine."

Public opposition

Jones, interim manager for Fall River and Cross Timbers state parks, said she started getting calls shortly after the Toronto facility closing was announced.

Some asked whether a favorite part of a park would be open. Several groups volunteered to help with maintenance.

While volunteer work will be appreciated, few think it can replace the thousands of hours of inmate labor.

Joe Costin of Altoona spent much of Monday and Tuesday fishing for catfish from the shore at Cross Timbers.

"They've always done such a great job of keeping these parks looking good," he said of the inmates. "It doesn't make a lot of sense."
http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1035356.html

Posted by lois at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2009

Katrina vanden Heuvel on "Senator Webb's Act of Strength"

Senator Webb's Act of Strength
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 02/12/2009
The Nation

Our criminal justice system is broken. The US represents 5 percent of the world's population but accounts for nearly 25 percent of its prison population. We are incarcerating at a record rate with one in 100 American adults now locked up--2.3 million people overall. As a New York Times editorial stated simply, "This country puts too many people behind bars for too long."

But people who have been fighting for reform for decades are seeing new openings for change. The fiscal crisis has state governors and legislators looking for more efficient and effective alternatives to spending $50 billion a year on incarceration. At the federal level, there is reason to believe that the Obama administration and a reinvigorated Department of Justice will take a hard look at the inequities of the criminal justice system and work for a smarter and more effective approach to public safety. Finally, there are Congressional leaders--none more prominent than Senator Jim Webb --who understand that the system isn't functioning as it should and there is an urgent need for reform.

Indeed advocates for reform couldn't ask for a better standard-bearer than Senator Webb. As a decorated former Marine and Reagan Administration official no one is going to slap him with the politically-dreaded "soft on crime" label that has stymied so many Democrats who have taken on this issue in the past. There is a "Nixon goes to China" quality to Webb's call for change--a law and order man who described his reform effort as "an act not of weakness but of strength."

As a journalist Webb wrote on the need for reform after visiting Japanese prisons and seeing a fundamental fairness and effectiveness that he recognized as lacking in the US criminal justice system. As a Senator he's held hearings which have highlighted racial disparities in sentencing, the staggering costs of incarceration and effective and cost-efficient alternatives, and a futile and racially biased drug policy.

Now Senator Webb is poised to establish a commission with a broad mandate to examine issues like drug treatment, effective parole policy, racial injustice, education for inmates, reentry programs--the myriad of issues intertwined in wasteful, ineffective criminal justice policies. Look for him to lay out that mandate with specificity in the coming weeks, and make an aggressive push to bring this issue to the forefront in both Congress and the media, much as he was able to do with the GI Bill.

Webb sent me an e-mail saying, "I feel very strongly about the need to put the right people behind bars. But we're locking up the wrong people too often all across our country. Mental illness isn't a crime. Addiction isn't a crime. We need to make sharp distinctions between violent offenders and people who are incarcerated for non-violent crimes, drug abuse and mental illness. We must raise public awareness about the need for criminal justice reform and find viable solutions. My staff and I are finalizing proposed legislation that could be introduced in the next two weeks to establish a national commission that will take a comprehensive look at where our criminal justice system is broken and how we can fix it."

While it's critical that Senator Webb is raising these issues at the national level where they have received so little attention, Marc Mauer, Executive Director of The Sentencing Project, points out that 90 percent of the US prison population is incarcerated in state prisons and only 10 percent in federal prisons. Mauer said there is a growing awareness at the state level that our drug and sentencing policies have "gotten out of hand" and that the fiscal crisis presents an opportunity to do something about it.

"The fiscal crisis gives governors and legislative leaders the opening to do what many of them have known should be done for some time, but [they] didn't have a political comfort level to do it," Mauer said. "Now they can talk about issues like excessive sentences for drug offenders, and too many people being sent back to prison for technical violations of parole."

One legislative reform effort is occurring in Senator Webb's own Virginia--a state that abolished parole in 1995 and is second only to Texas in number of executions. This session, a bill will be taken up that would allow prison officials to release non-violent offenders 90 days before their sentences are up. This would primarily be achieved by offering drug treatment programs at the beginning of an individual's incarceration rather than only at the end. (Which begs the question--if we are truly serious about rehabilitation of inmates why are we only offering addicts treatment for a disease at the end of a sentence?!) Upon successful completion of the treatment program these individuals would be eligible for early release. The legislation also provides for more non-violent offenders to be sent to community-based programs or be monitored electronically rather than incarcerated.

A similar program was undertaken in Washington state and a four-year study of 2,600 inmates released early showed significant cost savings and no negative consequences in terms of recidivism. Mauer said the coalition rallying around the Virginia proposal is diverse and particularly encouraging in what has traditionally been a "tough on crime state."

Other states taking action on criminal justice reform include: Michigan which is addressing re-entry issues and shifting resources to parole officers and community-based programs; Kansas cut parole revocations by 50 percent in a two-year period by increasing oversight of parole officers and using alternatives to incarceration such as increased drug testing and electronic monitoring; California issued a court ruling this week that the state must address its failure to provide adequate health and medical services in prisons by reducing the population by a third--nearly 55,000 persons--through "shortening sentences, diverting nonviolent felons to county programs, giving inmates good behavior credits toward early release, and reforming parole."

Now is also a hopeful, unique moment in New York state where the top three political leaders all support real reform and there is a chance to repeal the wasteful, ineffective, and unjust Rockefeller-era drug laws--after thirty-five years! This week I moderated a panel --cosponsored by The Nation, the Correctional Association of New York, and The New School's Center for New York City Public Affairs--of government officials and reform leaders working to downsize prisons, reform probation and parole, and provide effective community-based prisoner reentry programs. The Correctional Association of New York is leading the "Drop the Rock" campaign that includes an Advocacy Day in Albany in March.

Greg Berman, Director of the Center for Court Innovation --a non-profit think tank in New York--said, "The question is: can we come up with meaningful, cost-effective responses to non-violent crime that do not rely on incarceration? Drug courts, mental health courts and community courts--the so-called 'problem-solving courts'--all show enormous potential. Most criminal cases are not complicated in a legal sense, but they are committed by people with complicated lives. Scratch the surface and you find addiction, mental illness, joblessness, etc. These problem-solving courts are linking offenders to drug treatment, counseling, job training in lieu of incarceration. But unlike some rehabilitation efforts in the past, they are requiring participants to return to court on a periodic basis to ensure accountability. There is a growing amount of evidence suggesting that this approach can change sentencing practice--dramatically reducing the use of jail, for example--while also reducing both substance abuse and recidivism."

Despite a fiscal crisis which has caused at least forty states to make or propose cuts in vital services like education and health care --and ample evidence of the effectiveness of alternatives to incarceration--the battle for reform on the state level is still a difficult one.

"It's far from a done deal that this will automatically lead to prison reductions," Mauer told me. "One option is to say let's reconsider sentencing policies, reduce the population, close prisons and save money. The other choice is to say let's cut out alternatives to incarceration, community-based drug treatment, and other programs, and you can see those cost savings very quickly. I think that would be a shortsighted way to go but it's going to be tempting for a lot of legislators to think about doing that. I think that's the battle that is going to be fought in different states."

That's why the effort of Senator Webb and his colleagues at the federal level is so critical. They can galvanize support for repealing unjust policies like those that treat a low-level user of crack the same as a major drug dealer, or five grams of crack the same as 500 grams of powder. They can ensure that we use needed federal dollars for public safety in smart and effective ways. For example, the Second Chance Act to provide job training, drug treatment, and other re-entry programs was passed with broad bipartisan support in 2008 but no funds have been appropriated. Finally, with Senator Webb's commission, we can begin the process of transforming our criminal justice system so that prisons are reserved for violent offenders and other vital resources are used to support alternatives like drug treatment, effective parole policies, education, and reentry programs.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/407756/senator_webb_s_act_of_strength

Posted by lois at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)

"Your Valentine, Made In Prison"

February 12, 2009
Beth Schwartzapfel
Your Valentine, Made in Priosn
The Nation
With Valentine's Day approaching, perhaps you're planning a trip to Victoria's Secret. If you're a conscientious shopper, chances are you want to know about the origins of the clothes you buy: whether they're sweatshop free or fairly traded or made in the USA. One label you won't find attached to your lingerie, however, is "Made in the USA: By Prisoners."

This Valentine's Day you might want to steer clear of Victoria's Secret, unless of course you like your lingerie made by prisoners.

In addition to the South Carolina inmates who were hired by a subcontractor in the 1990s to stitch Victoria's Secret lingerie, prisoners in the past two decades have packaged or assembled everything from Starbucks coffee beans to Shelby Cobra sports cars, Nintendo Game Boys, Microsoft mouses and Eddie Bauer clothing. Inmates manning phone banks have taken airline reservations and even made calls on behalf of political candidates.

Still, it's notoriously difficult to find out what, exactly, prisoners are making and for whom. Most of the time, inmates are hired by subcontractors who have been hired by larger corporations, which are skittish about being associated with prison labor. Paul Wright, an expert on prison labor with sources inside many prisons, has broken many labor stories in his newspaper, Prison Legal News. It hasn't been easy. "As a general rule, you'll have an easier time finding out who Kim Jong Il's latest mistress is than finding out who these guys are working for," he says. (Starbucks, Nintendo, Eddie Bauer and Victoria's Secret did not return requests for comment; Microsoft declined to comment.)

Advocates of prison labor programs describe the arrangement as win-win: inmates keep busy and stay out of trouble, and employers get low-cost labor with little or no overhead. But critics, from labor unions to prisoner rights advocates, raise a host of concerns about exploitation and unfair business competition.

In 1979 Congress created the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIECP), which provides private-sector companies with incentives to set up shops in prisons using inmates as employees. States offer free or reduced rent and utilities in exchange for the decreased productivity that comes with bringing materials and supplies in and out of a secured facility and hiring employees who must stop working throughout the day to be counted and who are sometimes unavailable because of facility-wide lockdowns.

Prisoners are often grateful for the work; when the system is working, they can learn marketable job skills and save money. "It provided a sense of independence," says Kelly DePetris, who worked for eight years in California state prisons at Joint Venture Electronics, doing everything from assembly to administrative jobs to materials control.

"You don't have to ask people for things," she says. "I have a son, so it was nice to send home money to help with little things--school clothes, things like that." As a Joint Venture employee, DePetris made about $1.74 per hour after deductions, compared with the thirty cents she estimates she might have made working in the prison laundry. When she was released last May after serving fourteen years, she had saved $16,000, with which she bought a used car, clothes and health insurance. "It's really come in handy," she says.

Relatively speaking, PIECP accounts for a tiny fraction of the number of inmates in US prisons and jails. Some 5,300 of the 2.3 million inmates nationwide work for private-sector companies. "It's a small piece, but it's a significant piece" of the overall prison labor system, says Alex Friedmann, who served ten years in a Tennessee prison in the 1990s and worked making Taco Bell T-shirts in a PIECP silk-screening shop.

PIECP rules stipulate that work must be voluntary, that workers be paid a wage comparable to what free-world employees doing similar work are paid and that the program not compete unfairly with companies on the outside. But labor unions and companies on the outside have argued that this is impossible: there is no way for a company that pays no rent to compete fairly.

Talon Industries was a Washington State-based water-jet company whose competitor, MicroJet, had a PIECP shop inside a state prison. Rick Trelstad, a partner at Talon, contended that his company shut down in 1999 at least in part because MicroJet consistently underbid him for work. (He and an association of his colleagues successfully sued the Washington State Department of Corrections to shut down PIECP, but voters reinstituted it last year.) Lufkin Industries, a Texas-based maker of tractor-trailer beds, claims it was run out of business because its competitor, Direct Trailer & Equipment Company, paid only one dollar per year for factory space in the local prison and so was able to offer much lower prices for the same product.

David Lewis, vice president and general manager of Joint Venture Electronics and Kelly DePetris's former boss, acknowledges that the setup has been great for his business. "They get no holiday pay. They get no vacation pay. There's no medical, dental: all that's paid for by the state," he says. What's more, if the company has to downsize, as it did recently, laid-off prison workers have few other places to look for work. When business picks up again, employees who on the outside would have found other jobs are still in prison, just waiting to be rehired. The waiting list for work at Joint Venture is up to 200 people long.

Advocates for prisoners' rights take issue with what they see as an inherently exploitative situation. Courts have consistently found that prisoners are not protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act. So they may not unionize. They can't agitate for better wages or working conditions, because any threats to walk off the job would ring hollow--where would they go?

What's more, by law, as much as 80 percent of PIECP employees' paychecks is deducted for room and board, taxes, family support, victims' compensation or charity. The National Correctional Industries Association, the nonprofit organization that certifies PIECP programs, found that participants kept only about 20 percent of their wages in the past two quarters. Friedmann, for instance, worked for two years in the late 1990s in the silk-screening shop. He estimates that after deductions for fines, fees and other charges, he left prison with $30. "So while businesses get rent-free space, prisoners are paying for their 'room and board,'" says Prison Legal News's Paul Wright, who himself served seventeen years in a Washington prison. "Prisoners pay their boss's rent."

So this Valentine's Day, if your shopper's conscience leads you to check labels, don't bother looking for "Made in Prison." Of all the hundreds of goods and services produced by prisoners with taxpayer subsidies, only one is labeled as such: a line of jeans and denim work shirts made at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution. It's called Prison Blues.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/schwartzapfel

Posted by lois at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2009

CA: Panel of Judges Rule State must release up to 57,000 prisoners---3 articles

From the Los Angeles Times
Judges back a one-third reduction in state prison population
Jurists issue tentative ruling in lawsuit brought by inmates, who say overcrowding in state prisons violates their right to adequate healthcare.
By Michael Rothfeld

February 10, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento — A panel of three federal judges, saying overcrowding in state prisons has deprived inmates of their right to adequate healthcare, tentatively ruled Monday that the state must reduce the population in those lockups by as many as 57,000 people.

The judges issued the decisionafter a trial in two long-running cases brought by inmates to protest the state of medical and mental healthcare in the prisons.

Although their order is not final, U.S. District Court Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton and 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt effectively told the state that it had lost the trial and would have to make dramatic changes in its prisons unless it could reach a settlement with inmates' lawyers.

State officials immediately said they would appeal.

If the state is ordered to reduce the prison population, it would likely be able to do so over two or three years, so it would not have to release large numbers of inmates at once. Some methods of cutting the population include limiting new admissions, changing policies so parole violators return to prison less frequently, and giving prisoners more time off of their sentences for good behavior and rehabilitation efforts.

The judges said these types of measures could save the state more than $900 million a year in prison costs, money that could be used by cities and counties to put those who otherwise would have gone to prison into local jails or treatment programs.

The state's 33 prisons were designed for 84,000 inmates, and they now hold 158,000, nearly double their designed capacity. The rest of the 170,000 in the correctional system are in out-of-state prisons and other facilities. The judges found that with inmates crammed into institutions, they could not receive the care to which they are entitled under the U.S. Constitution.

"There is . . . uncontroverted evidence that, because of overcrowding, there are not enough clinical facilities or resources to accommodate inmates with medical or mental health needs at the level of care they require," the judges wrote in a 10-page decision.

They said that triple-bunking of inmates in prison gymnasiums has increased the risk of infectious disease and that a shortage of doctors, nurses and correctional officers has denied inmates access to treatment and a decent system to keep their medical records in order.

In the ruling, the judges said they believe the state's prisons can safely operate at 120% to 145% of their designed capacity. Based on the current prison population, that would mean a potential reduction of 36,000 to 57,000 inmates. They reserved the right to change their numbers and did not say when their final order might come.

"It's a pretty comprehensive victory for us," said Michael Bien, a lawyer in San Francisco who has fought for mentally ill prisoners. "It was a message -- a very loud, clear message -- that it's time that the public officials in California took responsibility for their own criminal justice system."

Under federal law, judges cannot order the state to lock up fewer prisoners if such a move would endanger the public, and the panel said that would not be the case if reductions were done gradually.

But Matt Cate, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's corrections secretary, said the ruling "poses a significant threat to public safety" because it could prevent the state from incarcerating as many criminals as it now keeps in seven to 10 prisons.

"If this panel issues a final decision, we will appeal this matter to the United States Supreme Court," Cate said tersely during a news conference in Sacramento.

State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown called the ruling "the latest intrusion" on California's prison system by the federal courts. In a statement, he labeled the order "a blunt instrument that does not recognize the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals, many of whom are deeply disturbed."

The judges oversaw the trial starting in November and completed it last week. In their decision, they referred to the testimony of Jeanne Woodford, a former corrections secretary under Schwarzenegger, who told them overcrowding made it impossible for prisoners to get mental health treatment and medical exams. They also cited experts from Texas, Pennsylvania, Maine and Washington.

And the judges used Schwarzenegger's words and actions against him, citing the state of emergency the governor declared for the prisons in 2006 -- still in effect -- and quoting him as saying overcrowding had caused "substantial risk to the health and safety" of prison inmates and staff. They noted that Schwarzenegger has made budget-related proposals to reduce the prison population by 40,000 inmates, and that lawmakers have backed similar ideas.

"We cannot believe that such support would exist if the adoption of such measures would adversely affect public safety," the judges wrote, although the proposals they referred to have not garnered enough support to go into effect.

The state nearly reached a settlement with the inmates last year that would have reduced the prison population by tens of thousands, largely by shifting low-level offenders to local jails and rehabilitation programs. But that deal fell apart when Republican state lawmakers and county prosecutors objected.

Since then, the state has hardened its stance. Schwarzenegger and Brown are now demanding that Henderson terminate court oversight of prison medical care, which he seized from the state in 2006. They say the situation has improved with the hiring of new medical and correctional personnel.

http://www.latimes.com/news/la me-prisons10-2009feb10,0,4380330.story?track=ntothtml

Judges tell state to free thousands of inmates

Bob Egelko,Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 10, 2009

(02-09) 18:48 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- California needs to release tens of thousands of California inmates over the next two to three years to relieve overcrowding that has ravaged prison medical and mental health care, a panel of federal judges said Monday.

In what it labeled a tentative ruling, the three-judge panel said prison populations must be reduced so health care for inmates can be brought up to constitutional standards.

Crowding at prisons can be eased by measures that will not flood the streets with dangerous inmates, such as changing parole policies and sending some low-risk inmates to county custody, the panel said.

"The evidence is compelling that there is no relief other than a prisoner release order that will remedy the unconstitutional prison conditions," said the judges, who held a trial on prison overcrowding in San Francisco last fall.

California's 33 prisons hold nearly 160,000 inmates, about twice their designed capacity. The judges said they were prepared to impose a limit of between 120 and 145 percent of capacity, which would require 37,000 to 58,000 prisoners to be released.

The Schwarzenegger administration immediately announced plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court once the ruling becomes final.

Matthew Cate, secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said at a Sacramento news conference that the judges' order would put thousands of inmates back on the streets, posing "a significant threat to public safety."

Attorney General Jerry Brown, who represented the state, said the court "does not recognize the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals, many of whom are deeply disturbed."

But Donald Specter of the nonprofit Prison Law Office, a lawyer for inmates who sued the state, said the ruling validates the group's position that overcrowding is creating dangerous conditions that can be eased only by reducing the prison population.

"Much of the evidence showed that it's been done in other states without having any impact on public safety," Specter said. "It's safe, it's reasonable, it's necessary. It's too bad that it's taken a court to recognize this."

The case arose from past rulings by two of the panel members, U.S. District Judges Thelton Henderson of San Francisco and Lawrence Karlton of Sacramento, that concluded the quality of medical care and mental health treatment in California prisons violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Karlton first ordered improvements in mental health treatment in 1995, and Henderson found that prison health care had been substandard since at least 2002.
Unnecessary deaths

In a 2006 ruling, Henderson said the $1.1 billion medical care system was causing the unnecessary death of one inmate per week. He said the state was incapable of repairing the system and appointed a manager to run it under his supervision.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a return to state control last month. He also has appealed Henderson's order that the state pay the first $250 million of the manager's $8 billion plan to rebuild prison hospitals.

In Monday's decision, the panel, which also includes Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, agreed with lawyers for the inmates that "crowding is the primary cause" of the constitutional violations.

Because prisons are jammed beyond capacity, there aren't enough doctors and nurses to help all the inmates who need care, or enough staff to make sure they're taking medications, the panel said. Crowding at some prisons is so severe, with inmates being triple-bunked in gyms, that it has increased the risk of diseases spreading among prisoners and staff, the judges said.

They noted that Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for the prisons in 2006, citing overcrowding that endangered inmates and staff. That order remains in effect.

Prison crowding could be eased through a combination of increasing sentence reductions for good behavior, turning over low-risk prisoners to counties for incarceration or treatment, and changing parole policies that now return large numbers of inmates to prison for minor violations, the judges said.

They said the state would save nearly $1 billion a year, money that could be used for local prisoner housing and rehabilitation.
No help in sight

Although prison health conditions are improving under the direction of court appointees, the panel said, inmates are still suffering, with no immediate help in sight. Construction plans will take years to implement, even if the deficit-plagued state can find a way to pay for them, the panel said.

The judges ordered state officials to consult with the prisoners' lawyers and other parties in the case, including prison guards and county prosecutors, on any steps that might be taken to lower the prison population.

Specter, the inmates' lawyer, said he was prepared to resume negotiations, but added that "there's no point in talking" if Schwarzenegger maintains his refusal to consider any such measures.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/10/MNGS15QM8V.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
© 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.

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Judges tentatively approve prison inmate reduction
dwalsh@sacbee.com
Published Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009

A panel of three federal judges tentatively ruled Monday that California must reduce its prison population by up to 58,000 inmates in two to three years, saying that "the present state of overcrowding" makes it impossible for the state to deliver health care at a constitutional level.

The judges clearly said there are many avenues available to the state and counties other than an early-release program - like parole reform, increased good time credits and programs to reduce recidivism. They all fall under the federal Prison Litigation Reform Act's definition of a "prisoner release order."

They will review the evidence presented at a 14-day non-jury trial and issue a final opinion, but the tentative ruling is meant "to give the parties notice of the likely nature of that opinion, and to allow them to plan accordingly," the judges said.

Inmates' attorneys expressed hope that, in the wake of the ruling, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his administration, legislative leaders, county representatives and all other affected parties will work out a settlement.

Reaction by Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate made that seem unlikely. Cate correctly said the 10-page tentative ruling calls for 37,000 to 58,000 fewer inmates within two to three years.

Speaking for himself and Schwarzenegger, the secretary said they "disagree with the panel's ruling," and with the release of that many convicts "onto California streets," which he called "a significant threat to public safety."

Attorney General Jerry Brown labeled the tentative ruling "a blunt instrument that does not recognize the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals."

If the ruling becomes permanent, Cate declared, it will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. An appeal from the specially-convened panel bypasses the federal appellate level and goes directly to the high court, which could accept the matter for review, or let the ruling stand without review.

"This is not about overcrowding," Cate said. "We are providing a constitutional level of care now; so we have the right to keep these inmates in prison."

By contrast, the three judges said inmates' attorneys "have presented overwhelming evidence that crowding is the primary cause of the underlying constitutional violations."

They said conditions have "substantially increased the risk of the transmission of infectious illnesses among inmates and prison staff."

"It is our present intention," the panel said, "to adopt an order requiring the state to develop a plan to reduce the prison population to 120 percent or 145 percent of the prison's design capacity (or somewhere in between) within a period of two or three years." The judges noted the 33 adult prisons, with nearly 160,000 inmates, are operating at close to 200 percent design capacity.

The judges are Lawrence K. Karlton of Sacramento, who has presided for 19 years over an ongoing class-action lawsuit on behalf of mentally ill inmates; Thelton E. Henderson of San Francisco, who has presided for eight years over an ongoing class-action lawsuit on behalf of physically ill inmates and who put prison health care into receivership in 2006; and Stephen Reinhardt of Los Angeles, a judge of the 9th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They are considered three of the most liberal judges in the nine-state appellate circuit.

"The state has a number of options Š that would serve to reduce the population of the prison Š without adversely affecting public safety," the judges said. "It could also use the savings that will result from the implementation of a population cap to provide for any increased burdens on the counties."

The judges acknowledged the state's $42 billion budget deficit and the fiscal implications of their final decision "are of the most serious order. There are simply no additional funds Š being made available by the state to deal with the critical problem created by prison overcrowding."

California legislators expressed mixed views Monday about releasing inmates, but declined to specifically address the tentative ruling because they had not read it.

"I don't think we should be releasing prisoners early," said Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville. "I think they're in prison because they created a threat to society. And I think we should do everything we can to keep them behind bars."

But Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, who sits on the Assembly Public Safety Committee, said that some prison inmates can be rehabilitated and released, thus relieving prison overcrowding without impairing public safety.

"I know there is a percentage of inmates who are in for less serious offenses who would not endanger the public directly, but there are always exceptions, and that's where we get in trouble," Ma said, adding that early release deserves scrutiny.

Inmate lawyer Michael Bien said the ruling "sends a message to the state to Š work out a solution that is win, win, win - that is good for public safety, good for sick prisoners and helps solve the budget deficit.

Steven Fama, an inmate attorney, pointed to proposals by Schwarzenegger in the past two years - "parole reform," "release of about 20,000 inmates over about 20 months."

He said of the 140,000 inmates released each year, most served only a few months.

"It's just a matter of finding the ones that would create the least risk if released a couple of months early," Fama added.
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Call The Bee's Denny Walsh, (916) 321-1189. The Bee's Jim Sanders also contributed to this report.
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February 08, 2009

NY: Towns must do without prison work crews

Towns must do without prison work crews
State eliminated all but 2 groups
By Keith Goldberg
Times Herald-Record
Posted: February 07, 2009

MOUNT HOPE — It didn't cost a dime for Mount Hope to re-paint its senior center last summer. Or perform custodial work at its police headquarters and perform some maintenance work on its ball fields.

That's because the work was done by crews of inmates from the Otisville state prison, said Mount Hope Supervisor Bill Novak.

In Warwick, Supervisor Michael Sweeton said crews from Mid-Orange Correctional Facility helped maintain the town park during the spring and summer months.

But the free ride is over. As part of budget cuts instituted by Gov. David Paterson, all three prison work crews at Otisville were eliminated last fall. Two of the four crews at Mid-Orange Correctional Center in Warwick were also cut. The two remaining crews are the only ones left in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, according to state Department of Corrections spokesman Erik Kriss.

"Now, we'll have to contract out work," Novak said. He said the town has already hired a custodian for the police station. Kriss estimated that each work crew costs the state $60,000 per year, mostly for security. "We tried to maintain some crews. What has to be done is to prioritize works."

Besides, he added, the decline in New York's prison population means there just aren't that many available workers.

Only nonviolent offenders who have less than two years on their sentence are eligible to serve on a work crew, Kriss said. Such inmates are usually housed in minimum and medium security prisons, like Otisville and Mid-Orange.

Kriss said minimum-security inmate levels in the state have dropped 50 percent in the past nine years, while medium-security inmates have decreased 20 percent.

Nevertheless, it's another example of costs being shifted from the state level to the local level.

Chester is one town over from Mid-Orange. Supervisor Steve Neuhaus said the town was planning to use prison crews for maintenance work. With the cutbacks, "now everyone's going to be grasping," Neuhaus said. "They provide a great service."
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090207/NEWS/9020703 21/-1/NEWS

Posted by lois at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2009

National Academy of Sciences Report finds Science Found Wanting in Nation’s Crime Labs

"One person who has reviewed the draft and who asked not to be identified because of promises to keep the contents confidential said: “I’m sure that every defense attorney in the country is waiting for this report to come out. There are going to be challenges to fingerprints and firearms evidence and the general lack of empirical grounding. It’s going to be big.”

Science Found Wanting in Nation’s Crime Labs

By SOLOMON MOORE
Published: February 4, 2009
NY Times

Forensic evidence that has helped convict thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the product of shoddy scientific practices that should be upgraded and standardized, according to accounts of a draft report by the nation’s pre-eminent scientific research group.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences is to be released this month. People who have seen it say it is a sweeping critique of many forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on, including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting.

The report says such analyses are often handled by poorly trained technicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court. It concludes that Congress should create a federal agency to guarantee the independence of the field, which has been dominated by law enforcement agencies, say forensic professionals, scholars and scientists who have seen review copies of the study. Early reviewers said the report was still subject to change.

The result of a two-year review, the report follows a series of widely publicized crime laboratory failures, including the case of Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer from Portland, Ore., and Muslim convert who was wrongly arrested in the 2004 terrorist train bombing in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded 2,000.

American examiners matched Mr. Mayfield’s fingerprint to those found at the scene, although Spanish authorities eventually convinced the Federal Bureau of Investigation that its fingerprint identification methods were faulty. Mr. Mayfield was released, and the federal government settled with him for $2 million.

In 2005, Congress asked the National Academy to assess the state of the forensic techniques used in court proceedings. The report’s findings are not binding, but they are expected to be highly influential.

“This is not a judicial ruling; it is not a law,” said Michael J. Saks, a psychology and law professor at Arizona State University who presented fundamental weaknesses in forensic evidence to the academy. “But it will be used by others who will make law or will argue cases.”

Legal experts expect that the report will give ammunition to defense lawyers seeking to discredit forensic procedures and expert witnesses in court. Lawyers could also use the findings in their attempts to overturn convictions based on spurious evidence. Judges are likely to use the findings to raise the bar for admissibility of certain types of forensic evidence and to rein in exaggerated expert testimony.

The report may also drive federal legislation if Congress adopts its recommendations. Senator Richard C. Shelby, Republican of Alabama, who has pushed for forensic reform, said, “My hope is that this report will provide an objective and unbiased perspective of the critical needs of our crime labs.”

Forensics, which developed within law enforcement institutions — and have been mythologized on television shows from “Quincy, M.E.” to “CSI: Miami” — suffers from a lack of independence, the report found.

The report’s most controversial recommendation is the establishment of a federal agency to finance research and training and promote universal standards in forensic science, a discipline that spans anthropology, biology, chemistry, physics, medicine and law. The report also calls for tougher regulation of crime laboratories.

In an effort to mitigate law enforcement opposition to the report, which has already delayed its publication, the draft focuses on scientific shortcomings and policy changes that could improve forensics. It is largely silent on strictly legal issues to avoid overstepping its bounds.

Perhaps the most powerful example of the National Academy’s prior influence on forensic science was a 2004 report discrediting the F.B.I. technique of matching the chemical signatures of lead in bullets at a crime scene to similar bullets possessed by a suspect. As a result, the agency had to notify hundreds of people who potentially had been wrongfully convicted.

In its current draft report, the National Academy wrote that the field suffered from a reliance on outmoded and untested theories by analysts who often have no background in science, statistics or other empirical disciplines.

Although it is not subject to significant criticism in the report, the advent of DNA profiling clearly set the agenda. DNA evidence is presented in less than 10 percent of all violent crimes but has revolutionized the entire science of forensics. While DNA testing has helped to free more than 200 wrongfully convicted people, “DNA was a shock to police culture and created an alternative scientific model, which promoted standardization, transparency and a higher level of precision,” said Paul Giannelli, a forensic science expert at Case Western Reserve University School of Law who presented his research to the National Academy. Enforcement officials, Mr. Giannelli said, “chose to say they never make mistakes, but they have little scientific support, and this report could blow them out of the water.”

Peter J. Neufeld, a co-director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit group that uses DNA evidence to exonerate the wrongfully convicted, presented to the academy a study of trial transcripts of 137 convictions that were overturned by DNA evidence and found that 60 percent included false or misleading statements regarding blood, hair, bite mark, shoe print, soil, fiber and fingerprint analyses.

The courts have long struggled with the proper role of scientific evidence. In a 1993 landmark decision, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, the Supreme Court held that scientific testimony had to meet an objective standard. Federal courts have occasionally excluded evidence like handwriting and hair analysis.

Donald Kennedy, a Stanford scientist who helped select the report’s authors, said federal law enforcement agencies resented “intervention” of mainstream science — especially the National Academy — in the courts.

He said the National Institute of Justice, a research arm of the Justice Department, tried to derail the forensic study by refusing to finance it and demanding to review the findings before publication. A bipartisan vote in Congress in 2005 broke the impasse with a $1.5 million appropriation.

Mr. Shelby also accused the National Institute of Justice of trying to infiltrate the forensic study panel with lobbyists for private DNA analysis companies, who were seeking to limit the research to DNA studies.

The National Institute of Justice said it would not comment until the report was released. But a preview of potential turf wars played out in the presentations to the National Academy in December 2007. A forensic expert from the Secret Service blasted the F.B.I. for developing questionable techniques “on an ad-hoc basis, without proper research.”

He said the Secret Service wanted the National Academy “to send a message to the entire forensic science community that this type of method development is not acceptable practice.”

Everyone interviewed for this article agreed that the report would be a force of change in the forensics field.

One person who has reviewed the draft and who asked not to be identified because of promises to keep the contents confidential said: “I’m sure that every defense attorney in the country is waiting for this report to come out. There are going to be challenges to fingerprints and firearms evidence and the general lack of empirical grounding. It’s going to be big.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/05forensics.html?ref=us

Posted by lois at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

Lawsuits Suggest Pattern of Rikers Guards Looking Other Way

Lawsuits Suggest Pattern of Rikers Guards Looking Other Way
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: February 3, 2009

When two guards were accused last month of encouraging inmates in one Rikers Island jail to police themselves, leading to beatings and in one case the killing of an inmate, correction officials called the situation “an aberration” and said they had not seen such a case in other units involving other guards.

But New York City has been sued in recent years by more than a half-dozen Rikers inmates claiming to have been the victims of beatings by prisoners while guards looked the other way, or worse, ordered the attacks. The city settled one case for $500,000, and another for just under $100,000. A new lawsuit was filed Tuesday.

And last year, Bronx prosecutors charged that a Rikers guard ordered six inmates to beat two prisoners; one victim was hospitalized with a collapsed lung. The guard has pleaded not guilty.

None of the cases include allegations on the scale of those announced last month by officials in the Bronx district attorney’s office, who said that the two Rikers guards had recruited inmates over three months last year to serve as “managers, foot soldiers and enforcers” to maintain order in a housing unit for adolescent men. The guards are also accused of training the inmates in how to restrain and assault their victims, and deciding where and when attacks would occur.

But the pattern of cases suggests that city correction officials have been aware of a problem in which Rikers guards have acquiesced or encouraged violence among inmates.

“These are institutions where inmate activity is monitored 24 hours a day, and it’s astonishing that this kind of behavior should go on for so long unchecked,” said Jonathan Chasan, a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society’s prisoners’ rights project, which is co-counsel in the new suit that was filed on Tuesday.

The city’s correction commissioner, Martin F. Horn, said in an interview that his agency was aware of the earlier cases and that he believed that steps had been taken to increase security and make it easier for the authorities to identify corrupt guards and inmates.

“I think it would be a mistake to say that the city was asleep at the switch because I don’t think we were,” Mr. Horn said.

“One could question whether the steps that we took were sufficiently effective. Certainly we are looking back, and we are concerned, and we want to learn from this and step up our efforts and review what we’ve done and say, ‘Was it sufficient? Was it adequate? Was it effective?’ ”

In the case last month, the Bronx district attorney announced charges against three Rikers correction officers and a dozen inmates in connection with what they said was a criminal extortion ring that included assaults, larceny and other crimes that occurred between July and October 2008. The charges followed an investigation into the beating death of an 18-year-old inmate, Christopher Robinson, on Oct. 18 after, the authorities said, he refused to go along with the ring.

Two officers, Michael McKie and Khalid Nelson, were charged with enterprise corruption and were accused of leading the ring; neither was charged with participating in the death of Mr. Robinson. Both men have pleaded not guilty. A third officer was also charged with conspiracy.

There have been at least seven lawsuits filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan accusing guards of complicity or acquiescence in inmate violence at Rikers, a complex of 10 detention facilities which, along with several other jails around the city, hold about 13,000 prisoners, most of whom are pretrial detainees.

None of the seven suits have gone to trial. In the three that were settled, the city admitted no liability or wrongdoing.

The $500,000 settlement, reached in 2007, concerned a 2003 assault on an inmate named Donald Jackson.

His lawyer, Andrew B. Stoll, said Mr. Jackson was punched by another prisoner with the acquiescence of a guard, that his client fell and hit his head. Although he “was bleeding badly, and unconscious,” the lawsuit said, “the officers delayed in obtaining medical treatment.”

In another case, the city agreed last year to pay $97,500 to Schmi Caballero, who said in his suit that a guard became angry that he was taking too long on a call to his mother.

As punishment, the guard had another inmate attack him with a broomstick, the suit said, and Mr. Caballero was beaten in the face, and left with a broken nose and blurred vision.

Mr. Caballero’s lawyer, Joel Berger, said he believes gangs were being allowed to control certain Rikers units. “Sometimes the officers are afraid to do something about it,” he said.

Another lawyer, Julia P. Kuan, whose firm has two pending suits involving Rikers assaults, in 2006 and 2007, said, “The city’s been on notice because these lawsuits have been pending for quite some time, and the fact patterns are so similar.”

In one case, a guard unlocked the cell of an inmate named Camillo Douglas, allowing three prisoners who were known members of the Bloods gang to enter, the suit said. They struck Mr. Douglas repeatedly with brooms and metal shanks; they also attacked another inmate who rushed to his aid, the suit said.

Norman Seabrook, president of the union representing about 8,000 correction officers, declined to comment on the suits, except to say he believes that the officers are innocent of wrongdoing. He said that to the extent problems exist, “the managers in this agency are not properly supervising and training officers.”

The latest suit describes an assault in March 2007 by a prisoner that the authorities say was used by guards as an enforcer in the Rikers jail for adolescent males, the Robert N. Davoren center. The inmate, Tyreek Shuford, was beaten and left with his head bleeding and then was not allowed to visit the infirmary for two days, the suit said.

Jonathan S. Abady, another of Mr. Shuford’s lawyers, said the case suggested there was “an intractable culture of permissiveness” among officers, “coupled with a disturbing attitude of denial by higher level supervisors.”

Mr. Horn disputed contentions that his agency was not addressing security, saying the agency was moving in the right direction, and when compared with jails in other large cities, “we are safer by far.”

John Eligon contributed reporting.
A version of this article appeared in print on February 4, 2009, on page A21 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/nyregion/04rikers.html?_r=1

Posted by lois at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2009

Albion, New York Portrait of a prison town.

Albion, New York
Portrait of a prison town.
By Andrew Marantz / Albion, New York
Tuesday, February 3, 2009

America’s prison system is the biggest in history.

Of the roughly nine million prisoners in the world, over two million are in America (World Prison Population List). The United States incarcerates more of its own people (an estimate of 2,357,284 according to the incarceration clock on January 27, 2009, at 12:56 p.m.) per capita than any other nation. This rate is 6.2 times greater than Canada’s, 7.8 times greater than France’s, and 12.3 times greater than Japan’s.

Why?

The simple answer would be because of our crime rate, only this is not really true. America’s incarceration rates and crime rates do not correlate. The imprisonment rate does not reflect the general population growth either; population growth is a molehill compared to the ever-growing mountain of incarcerated Americans (Punishment and Inequality in America, 2006).

If imprisonment and the creation of prisons are not direct responses to crime, what are they? Marxist scholars say that the elites have seized upon the idea of mass incarcerations as a new answer to an old question: What shall we do with the poor? Political historians note that, after Nixon made drugs and crime his chief campaign issues, a “tough on crime” image became a political sine qua non. (Before the ’60s, crime prevention was an invisible, unglamorous political duty, like road maintenance. Then Goldwater and Nixon and Reagan, no longer allowed to comment directly on “the Negro problem,” used crime as a wedge issue to secure the white vote, and the Willie Horton age was born). Racial bias theorists see the “War on Crime” as a war on African Americans, and incarceration as an extension of slavery.

But prison is not merely a theory. A prison is a building. A building sited on 50 acres of flat farmland. It has towers, offices with shaded windows, surveillance screens, uniformed guards, lights along its perimeter. Penetrate further inside and the imagination grows dim; it darkens with every locked door, but even on the inside of the inside there are people. People playing Scrabble, trying to pray, outlining letters in their head, napping before class, eating three meals a day. And outside the prison compound there are people, too. Outside the prison walls there is a town.

Once a factory town

A lot of American towns are begging for some kind of stimulus — any kind. When a town is desperate enough and it has the right kind of flat, fallow land, the corrections people swoop in and mount a public relations campaign. They support pro-prison candidates for the county board. They woo the town fathers. They talk up the industry: clean, quiet, no slow season. The worse things get out there, the better things will get for you. Almost always, the town buys it.

New York state has built 43 prisons since 1976, all of them in small upstate towns.

Albion, New York is one such town.

If you’re driving into Albion from the east on New York State Route 31 (NY Route 31), the Orleans County Economic Development Agency (EDA) is on your right. You’ll have to squint to make out the blue EDA logo because the building won’t catch your eye; it’s one of those anonymous one-story office buildings with exactly three boxwoods, and coffee-brown trim. If you pass a row of bright orange tractors for sale, you’ve gone too far.

A lot of people remember when this whole part of town was all one factory, the Lipton canning plant. Everyone worked for Lipton back then. Now it’s hard to imagine the factory during the ’60s and ’70s, humming, clanking, chugging, growing, growing, still growing, running out of space, till Lipton had to ask the town to block off Clinton Street on both sides, and the factory spilled out into the street. It doesn’t hum now, doesn’t look like much of anything but broken glass and concrete and mud, and it has a stench so bad, the neighbors swear someone’s hiding bodies in the basement. The two factory smokestacks now fossil in Albion’s elegiac skyline. The smokestacks no longer smoke; they just sit, and late in the day they cast boxy shadows over sun-bleached brick walls, stacks of crates in the lot, unhitched trailers, dead dandelions, empty window frames. The rusted crane with the key still in it. Eerie how the workers, on whatever the last day happened to be, just left. Like Pompeii, only without the desperate rush; not a bang but a whimper — slow and nonchalant, like they just forgot to ever come back. But the people in the town still need to make a living.

Another mile west on NY Route 31 — past the Save-a-Lot, past the Family Dollar, past the new Wal-Mart Supercenter perched on a knoll — and you’ll come to two more signs you’re likely to miss. One says “Albion C. F.” and one says “Orleans C. F.” Take a right at the first one, galunk over the rusted train tracks, and as the road curves, you’ll come face-to-face with one of Albion’s stately historic buildings, dressed in brick and white wood. And ringing the perimeter of the brick building, between it and you, the ribbons of polished metal. Floating, sort of blinking in and out of focus like spokes, drifting alongside the road in two ethereal layers as you drive (slowly now), the thousands of tiny points glinting in the sun, silver wire stretched thin — you've never seen metal shine like this. Maybe you roll up your windows without thinking and turn on your air conditioning. And then a tiny green sign on a post, so small you almost have to stop the car to make it out: “Correctional facility inmate work crews. Do not stop to pick up hitchhikers.”

Like a nation within a nation

I asked around about the mayor of Albion, and was told that the mayor was an idiot and probably a cokehead. Everyone told me this, from all political camps, and no one seemed to care much about him as long as he didn’t screw up anything important.

On the afternoon of our meeting, Mayor Michael Hadick was 20 minutes late. He was a young man, maybe in his early 30s, with watery blue eyes and thinning hair. He walked into Village Hall briskly, blinking a lot, making fast small talk and slicking back his hair with his free hand, and placed his jumbo Iced Capp on the table. “Long line at Tim Horton’s,” he said.

During our conversation I asked him what he thought about prisons. Growing up in Albion, he noticed them occasionally.

“Well, you know when we used to walk, where we used to come in from Eagle Harbor, they used to have the numbers up. I never could figure out what it was, but we used to drive by and my parents used to say, ‘That’s where the bad boys go.’ Obviously it was a lot smaller then, but you always wondered what those [were], cuz they had big blue numbers on it. One through eight, if I remember, and you always used to go, ‘What did they do, the bad boys, that they put ’em in these cages like this?’ Almost looked like, uh … reminds me of … uh … like the boxes, for uh … greyhounds, now that I think about it. But they were a lot bigger. They musta been — what do you call ’em — garage bays. That’s what I’m thinking now it woulda been. But back then, I had no idea. And they put the fear in me.”

As an adult, though, he seemed to lose interest. Now, he doesn’t “really see the interaction or the tie-in to the village whatsoever. It is what it is. They’re on that side of the fence, we’re on this side. I don’t think about it much.”

Albion is a prison town — how could the mayor of the town not think about prisons? Following national census policy, the 2,500 prisoners are counted as part of the town population, even though they do not pay taxes or vote or actually live in the town. By reporting a total population of 8,000 instead of 5,500, Albion gains representation in state and county legislature, improves its chances for state grants, and makes itself more attractive to national chains like Wal-Mart. The prisons buy their water from the town every month. The prisons give contracts to engineers and plumbers, and free labor to the town through work-exchange programs. I did not see how any of this could be uninteresting to any Albionite, much less the mayor.

Apparently, prisons did not seem as weird to people in Albion as they seemed to me. I had assumed that asking about prisons in a prison town would be a delicate subject, like asking about the mafia in Sicily or Katrina in New Orleans. Instead, it seemed more like asking people in Manhattan about the hot dogs, or the sewage drains. Everyone in the town was both perfectly willing to talk about the topic yet already bored of it. I would stop people and say, “I’d like to ask you a few questions about the prisons,” and they would looked confused.

“Well, sure, well—I don’t know much, but … what do you want to know?”

I kept asking my interview subjects to go over the same ground with me, kept asking the obvious questions, because I couldn’t believe that you could drive your kids here for soccer, that you could look out your window and see the prison’s water tower always on the horizon, and not think it was strange.

I asked the state assemblyman from the district, Steve Hawley, whether he saw prisons as an opportunity for economic growth.

“Oh, absolutely. It’s good for the local people, it’s good for the county, it’s good for everyone.”

Everyone? So he wouldn’t prefer other businesses — factories, let’s say — to prisons?

“No, I don’t think so. Because, as I say, our citizenry around here has become accustomed and used to having facilities that … are meant to house … prisoners. They … no, I think that they’re fine.”

James Recco, a correction officer at Orleans who lived in Albion, underscored a point I’d heard again and again: Correction officers were good for the local economy.

“If you paid the correction officers with cash that’s tainted pink, you’d see most of all the retail stores, the gas stations, would all of a sudden be flooded with these pink bills.”

I asked him if Albionites appreciated this interdependence.

“Well, it’s … A prison is a part of the life of a town, but not … on an everyday level. Everybody knows it’s there, but it’s not a part of their lives. Is sort of like a sovereign nation — it’s like a nation within a nation.”

A revolving door

Yesterday, in another city hundreds of miles away — another world practically — someone found out her life was ruined, and tomorrow she will drive all night in a van, her hands locked behind her back.

Some of the incarcerated are violent and some nonviolent. Some of them didn’t do it, but some of them did. Some of them took the fall for someone else. Some of them took a plea. Some were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some don’t know right from wrong. Some of them molested little boys. Some of them stole medicine for their dying wife. Some of them killed strangers, for no reason. Many of them are mentally ill, and are not receiving treatment. Many of them cannot read, and are not receiving education. Many of them are drug addicts, and they will be drug addicts when their sentence is over. Tomorrow some of them will catch the next Greyhound back downstate, and many new bodies will arrive to take their place.
http://inthefray.org/content/view/3194/288/

Posted by lois at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2009

Some of the spending In the Senate Stimulus Bill

$150 million for the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee - (OFDT) is an organization that achieves efficiencies, effectiveness and operational synergies within the detention and incarceration community by fostering interagency cooperation, mutual understanding, accountability and teamwork.

$50 million for Salaries and Expenses at the U.S. Marshal's Service

$125 milion for Department of Justice "Construction"

$75 million for Salaries and Expenses at the FBI

$400 million for FBI "Construction"

$1 billion for buildings and facilities in the Federal Prison System

$300 million for grants to combat violence against women

$1.5 billion for Byrne grants

$440 million in State and Local law enforcement grants

$100 million in State and Local grants for anti-narcotics work

$300 million in law enforcement assistance to Indian tribes

$100 million in grants for the Office for Victims of Crime

$150 million for rural law enforcement

$50 million in aid to combat Internet Crimes Against Children

$1 billion for the COPS program (hiring new police officers)

Posted by lois at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2009

MI: Sacred Cows Block Real Prison Reform

Wednesday, January 28,2009
Sacred cows block real prison reform
by Kyle Melinn
Don't claim to be a Korean War veteran if you're not. In Michigan, it's a three-year felony.

Sodomy is still a crime in Michigan, as is dueling, adultery and compelling a woman to marry.

Yet, trying to get Republicans to strip these arcane crimes from the books or to be a bit more sensible on sentencing for real crimes like low-level drug offenses, forgery and counterfeiting is like trying to make real reform in the state's prison system.

It’s next to impossible.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration told legislative Republicans 18 months ago that if it was serious about cutting corrections costs, there's really only one way to do it: Lower the state's comparably enormous prison population with realistic sentences that aren't driven by political opportunism.

But in order to do it, the Democrats have to give too, and that means lessening labor costs in the union-driven prison system.

Everybody wants to cut the Department of Corrections these days, but for different reasons.
During last May’s swank Detroit Chamber of Commerce shindig on Mackinac Island, Granholm pledged that if the business community got the Legislature to cut prison costs, she’d roll back the new Michigan Business Tax surcharge.

So off to work they went. The Detroit Chamber and other business groups spent the next several months tearing apart the state’s prison budget, trying to find a way to imprison our bad guys for less money.

If you haven’t heard yet, Michigan’s prison system is huge, like $2 billion huge. The biggest in the Midwest by far and by any measuring stick you want to use. We lock up more prisoners than any of our neighbors and at a higher cost.

During the economically flush 1990s, then-Gov. John Engler made prison construction a cottage industry. Get-tough-on-crime Republican lawmakers were more than happy to fill these new facilities by jacking up prison sentences and installing more mandatory minimums.

Ah, but public safety comes at a price. In the fear-driven culture in which we live, where any middle-class child abduction or spousal murder has the potential to make national headline news for weeks on end, no amount of money is too much to lock up the crooks.

Until, the piggybank is empty, that is.

And in Michigan, the state piggy bank has been collecting dust bunnies since 2001. We’ve shifted money here and there. Cut money to cities, townships, universities, and certain parts of state government. Taxes were raised in 2007, and the business community was ticked.

That returns us to the Detroit Chamber, which came back last October with $800 million in prison reform, more than enough to cover a business tax surcharge. Their plan was to cut sentences and cut labor costs.

The governor and the Legislature stared at each other. The stand-off began.

The Republican-led Senate is all about privatization and slashing the union-driven labor costs within the state’s prison system, but not giving up their "bad-guys-are-going-to-kill-you-in-your-bed-in-the-middle-of-the-night” fear card.

The Democrats are OK letting out non-violent offenders as long as they’ve served their minimum sentences. They’re also fine with giving judges more sentencing discretion, but not if they have to throw their union buddies under the bus by cutting labor costs.

The Council of State Governments’ Justice Center was called in to help. It called in the Republicans, Democrats and DOC officials and went to work.

Last week, amid much bipartisan fanfare, the report was released. What did Republicans and Democrats come up with?

Squat.

Not only did the Council only find $16 million in savings for next year (less than 1 percent of the entire DOC budget), but it suggested that the money saved go toward local police and DNA crime labs. So much for rolling back the business tax.

Faced with the charge of fixing state government, the Republicans and Democrats came back with a tin can and square tires.

Now the state has a $1.4 billion budget hole, the little sister to a $1.8 billion hole of two years ago that required major tax increases to fill.

Prison cuts must happen this year. The “Obama-bucks” won’t balance the state budget in the long term.

The sacred cows need to be led to the slaughterhouse. Republicans need to pitch the "lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key" mentality, but Democrats will need to give a little, too, even if it means less overtime or fewer union workers in prisons.

To not meet halfway can't be an option.
http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-2562-sacred-cows-block-real-
prison-reform.html

Posted by lois at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)

REPORT AFFIRMS BENEFITS OF IN-PRISON COLLEGE PROGRAMS, CALLS FOR RENEWED FUNDING

NEW CORRECTIONAL ASSOCIATION REPORT AFFIRMS BENEFITS OF IN-PRISON COLLEGE PROGRAMS, CALLS FOR RENEWED FUNDING

http://www.correctionalassociation.org/publications/download/ppp/Higher_Education_Full_Report_2009.pdf

Inmates that participate in post-secondary education programs have a lower recidivism rate than incarcerated comparison groups, several studies show.

New York, New York: The Correctional Association of New York, the state’s oldest criminal justice organization, released today, Education from the Inside, Out, a report examining the multiple benefits of in-prison college programs. In addition to conversations with formerly incarcerated people and program practitioners, the paper includes a survey of statistically-based studies supporting the significance of post-secondary correctional education in reducing recidivism and improving prison management.

The report recounts the recent history of federal and state cuts that have virtually eliminated in-prison college programs in New York and across the country:

* Since 1994, due to a provision in legislation signed into law by then President Bill Clinton, the nation’s inmates have been denied access to federal Pell Grants – small grants for low-income people to help pay for college. This act essentially cut off public support from Washington for college programs in prison. In 1995, under the leadership of then Governor George Pataki, New York banned inmates from receiving the State’s Tuition Assistance Program grants, effectively shutting down nearly all New York’s 70 in-prison college programs. Currently only eight programs in 16 facilities offer higher education courses to New York inmates.

Education from the Inside, Out presents strong evidence that in-prison college programs have a significant and direct impact on the rate at which people return to prison. Among other research, the report includes the results of a New York State Department of Correctional Services study:

* In 1991, the Department view published Analysis of Return Rates of the Inmate College Program Participants that tracked men and women who had earned a degree in the Inmate College Program during the 1986-1987 academic year, finding the rate of return for degree-earners to be significantly lower than that of participants who did not earn a degree. Of those earning a degree, 26.4 percent had been returned to the Department's custody, whereas 44.6 percent of participants who did not earn a degree were returned to custody. Degree earning inmates also returned to prison at a lower rate than would be expected when compared to the overall male return rate.

Robert Gangi, Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York, said, “The policy of most states and the federal government of locking up thousands of people each year, some for disproportionately long sentences, some for the second and third time, does little to reduce crime and often leads to hazardous conditions of confinement.” Gangi, a regular visitor to New York’s correctional facilities, continued: “Our report points government leaders and concerned citizens in a different direction, making the case for the positive value of in-prison college programs.”

The report includes a full examination of the tangible benefits of post-secondary correctional education:

* Reduced rate of recidivism. Experts maintain that inmates who participate in college programs return to prison less often because higher education increases opportunities for meaningful, steady employment and improve cognitive functions.

* A safer, more manageable prison environment. Prison administrators and program practitioners alike report that college programs in prison provide an incentive for good behavior; produce mature, well-spoken leadership who have a calming influence on other inmates and on correction officers; and, communicate the message that society has sufficient respect for the human potential of incarcerated people.

* A cost-effective method of improving public safety. The short- and long-term benefits of a better educated population makes investment in higher education for incarcerated individuals and people in the community smart fiscal policy. A cost-benefit analysis conducted by the University of California at Los Angeles and referenced in Education from the Inside, Out found that the cost to the state per crime prevented by offering education to inmates is about $1,600; the cost per crime prevented by extending prison sentences is $2,800. In other words, “[a] $1 million investment in incarceration will prevent about 350 crimes, while that same investment in education will prevent more than 600 crimes. Correctional education is almost twice as cost effective as incarceration.”

According to Jackie Ross, principal author of Education from the Inside, Out: “Higher education in prison is highly valuable because it bolsters men and women who are among the most underserved in our society and critically in need of a college education and degree. College level learning serves to decrease anti-social behaviors and increase self-efficacy among inmates.”

Education from the Inside, Out also includes a review of six model post-secondary correctional education programs and first-hand testimony from program directors in New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Massachusetts. Statements from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people are also highlighted throughout the report, further substantiating the importance of college programs in correctional facilities.

* Wes Caines, an inmate at Eastern Correctional Facility in Ulster County, New York and a participant in the Bard Prison Initiative, an in-prison college program sponsored by the well-regarded liberal arts institution Bard College, told Correctional Association’s visitors: “Prison culture is an extension of street culture. You must consciously withdraw from prison culture, street culture, and negative culture that is detrimental to progress. Bard [college] is a way to disengage from the prison mentality.”

The report concludes with specific recommendations for New York policymakers:

* Restore and expand public funding for college programs in prison primarily by lifting the ban on inmate eligibility for Tuition Assistance Program grants.

* Expand access to higher education opportunities for formerly incarcerated people as a means of supporting successful re-entry and community well-being.

* Require New York’s Board of Parole to consider participation in college programs as a qualifying indicator for parole release.

Posted by lois at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2009

Strapped states eye prison savings---including double celling and sending prisoners out of state

Monday, January 26, 2009
Strapped states eye prison savings
By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer

State of the States 2009

Faced with a surging prison population and a state budget more than $1 billion in the red, Gov. Steve Beshear and Kentucky lawmakers last year took a dramatic step that they hoped would save $30 million over two years: granting early release to more than 1,800 inmates, including some felons convicted of murder, rape and other violent crimes.

Kentucky’s prisoner release plan, which touched off a political firestorm and prompted a court challenge from the state’s attorney general — like Beshear, a Democrat — is an example of the difficult criminal justice decisions some states could face this year.

From California to Connecticut, states are under mounting pressure to bring corrections spending in line with the reality of gaping budget shortfalls.

Lawmakers in some states are slashing prisoner rehabilitation programs, releasing inmates early or packing them more tightly into crowded facilities to save money. Others are using technology, such as satellite tracking, to monitor sex offenders, drunken drivers and other criminals instead of keeping them behind bars. To avoid building new prisons, many states ship inmates to private facilities that often are thousands of miles away.

Other states are exploring long-term strategies aimed at preventing recidivism, a leading factor behind overcrowded prisons and jails — and rising costs. At any given time, more than 2.3 million people are locked up in federal, state and local facilities in the United States, and more than half of those released from prison are back behind bars within three years, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

“We’re at a crossroads. I think there is an acknowledgment that if we continue the status quo, we’re going to continue to have a prison population that increases to untenable levels,” said Ryan S. King, a policy analyst with The Sentencing Project, which lobbies for changes in sentencing laws as a way to reduce incarceration rates.

For the first time, one in every 100 adults in the United States is behind bars, according to a February 2008 report by the Public Safety Performance Project (which, like Stateline.org, is part of the Pew Center on the States). The booming prison population cost states nearly $50 billion in 2007, but the high incarceration rate has had no discernable effect “either on recidivism or overall crime,” the report said.

Nationally, corrections trails only health care, education and transportation in consuming state dollars. Prison spending increased 127 percent from 1987 to 2007, and at least five states — Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, Oregon and Vermont — now spend as much or more on corrections as they do on higher education, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers and the Public Safety Performance Project.

The statistics are alarming state lawmakers in all regions of the country and, increasingly, on both sides of the political aisle. Criminal justice reform — for years a controversial issue for legislators wary of being labeled “soft on crime” — is finding new proponents as public officials seek ways to save money. But a single strategy to tackle incarceration costs has yet to emerge, and some critics say state policymakers are dragging their feet and avoiding comprehensive changes that have become necessary.

King and other advocates of sentencing reform say the nation’s incarceration rate will continue to rise unless criminal penalties are reduced, even for felons serving 20 years or more. They support curtailing or eliminating mandatory-minimum sentences and want to change other policies, such as “truth in sentencing,” that restrict parole opportunities for many offenders.

“That’s a difficult conversation, but it’s one that — if we really want to address the growth of the prison population — we need to have,” King said. He singled out California, home to a prison system so strained it faces a federal takeover, as a state where sentencing reforms are urgent. “We’re talking about huge, huge issues, and they’re all the way back at the starting line, quibbling about the rules of the race,” he said.

Releasing prisoners early — which remains a politically explosive way to cut costs in some cases — has emerged as a common strategy, debated or approved in at least eight states last year. Some, such as Alabama and North Carolina, agreed to release elderly or terminally ill inmates who cost taxpayers millions for health care while behind bars; at least 34 other states also allow so-called compassionate releases of prisoners who pose little threat to society.

But Kentucky and other states have considered much more aggressive plans that apply to the general inmate population: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), for example, sought to free more than 22,000 offenders, including thieves and drunken drivers, from California’s severely crowded prison system. But state lawmakers rebuffed his plan as too risky.

Crimes committed by released prisoners can spark public outrage and re-evaluation of corrections policy. In Pennsylvania, a man granted parole by the state last August fatally shot a Philadelphia police officer a month later, prompting Gov. Ed Rendell (D) to temporarily halt the parole process to conduct a “top-to-bottom review.” In December, the review concluded the prisoner was properly released but recommended a series of improvements to the parole system.

Kentucky’s prisoner release program also drew criticism when a newspaper reported that at least 14 percent of those released were accused of committing new crimes within months, even though recidivism rates nationwide typically are much higher.

Other states are trying different approaches to save money. In cash-strapped Massachusetts, where state prisons are operating at nearly 50 percent above capacity, the state corrections chief last year proposed double-bunking inmates at a maximum-security facility and called for legislation to ease mandatory-minimum sentences, which he said were partly to blame for overcrowding. Elsewhere, budget cuts have targeted rehabilitation programs. A budget crisis in New York forced cuts to substance-abuse programs for ex-offenders in New York City. Nevada scaled back education for inmates at some facilities.

Drug courts — which exist in all 50 states and permit drug users to avoid jail time if they meet rigorous sobriety and other conditions set by a judge — also could be a target for funding reductions, despite evidence that they are successful. More than 70 percent of those who participate in drug courts avoid incarceration, said C. West Huddleston III, executive director of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.

But Huddleston said he expects less funding because of states’ budget problems.

“My experience in the last decade of working in policy is that, pretty much 100 percent of the time, drug dependent offenders are at the end of the line when it comes to funding priorities,” he said. “It is my fear that in these lean times … legislatures [might] see drug court as just an extra expense on the books that they can cut to save money.”

Not all states are relying solely on cutbacks. A politically and geographically diverse group of states, including Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, last year launched new efforts to help offenders during and after their time in the criminal justice system.

In Arizona, the Republican Legislature teamed up with Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, a former prosecutor who was tapped for President Barack Obama’s Cabinet, to approve a program that rewards counties whose recidivism rate is significantly reduced. Kansas approved a similar program two years ago. Arizona’s program includes incentives for people on probation; they can reduce their sentences by 20 days for each month they comply with court-ordered conditions of their probation, such as making child-support payments and undergoing therapy.

Barbara Broderick, chief probation officer in Maricopa County, Ariz., said earned time credits for probationers provide a carrot-and-stick approach that previously focused only on sending delinquent offenders to jail or prison.

“What I didn’t have,” she told Stateline.org, “is the option to say, ‘Work with me. Lead a law-abiding life. Do the things the court has ordered.’”

In Pennsylvania, Rendell and the politically divided Legislature worked together last year to enact a reform package that, among other things, expands rehabilitation opportunities for inmates and offers earned-time credits. It also shifts offenders from crowded local jails to more secure state facilities.

Plans to address recidivism such as those in Arizona and Pennsylvania have enjoyed bipartisan support in part because they do not reduce criminal sentences and can pay off in smaller prison populations. But experts still point out that the recent emphasis on helping ex-prisoners become productive members of society contrasts sharply with the “tough-on-crime” policies that became popular during the 1970s and 1980s, when rampant use of crack cocaine fueled an increase in crime.

Even in the fiercely partisan hallways of Washington, D.C., so-called re-entry programs have attracted support. Congress last year passed the Second Chance Act, which authorizes millions of dollars in grants to state and local governments to help rehabilitate former offenders. President George W. Bush signed the act into law in April, though it was not immediately funded.

“After 20 years of going down the ‘tough-on-crime’ road and seeing what it has wrought, we now know better,” U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va), a backer of the Second Chance Act, told a group of criminal justice professionals in a speech at George Washington University.

President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden both supported the Second Chance Act as members of the U.S. Senate, and there are strong expectations that the administration will fund the act.

Graphs at this URL:
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=365279

Posted by lois at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2009

Organizations Press Congress to Adopt More Comprehensive Approach to Public Safety in Recovery Bill $4 Billion to Byrne and COPS programs will do little to strengthen communities, make us safer, or improve economy

Please feel free to circulate the letter pasted below to other organizations and to congressperson.
Lois
=========================

Organizations Press Congress to Adopt More Comprehensive Approach to Public Safety in Recovery Bill
$4 Billion to Byrne and COPS programs will do little to strengthen communities, make us safer, or improve economy
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 26, 2009

Washington, DC--Leading national organizations concerned with criminal justice, health and civil liberties today urged Congress to support a comprehensive and targeted approach to improving public safety instead of focusing funds on state and local law enforcement. Their action was in response to $4 billion in earmarks for law enforcement grants included in the economic stimulus package now being considered by the House.

Although applauding policymakers for understanding that improving public safety and justice systems are important to economic recovery, the 15 organizations, which included the Justice Policy Institute, the American Psychological Association and the American Civil Liberties Union (full list of organizations is below) warned that a "stimulus" directed at law enforcement is misguided and could be counterproductive by increasing costly arrests and imprisonment for lower-level offenses. The groups called for the allocation of the $4 billion to more comprehensive approaches that will improve public safety and will decrease spending on jails, prisons, and law enforcement. The groups mentioned education, job training, treatment and other programs proven to strengthen both economies and communities.

"Economic security is a crucial element of an effective public safety strategy, but this funding will stimulate neither Main Street nor safe streets," said Tracy Velázquez, executive director of the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), a research organization that studies alternatives to incarceration. "Instead of placing our limited resources in the most expensive, deep end of the system- police and prisons-it's time we move more funding upstream, to the kinds of jobs and programs that are proven to promote safety and support communities."

In the current House draft of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, $3 billion in funding is earmarked for state and local law enforcement assistance through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (Byrne Grants), and an additional $1 billion is set aside for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) programs. The Byrne Grant program has suffered from scandals associated with overzealous anti-drug task forces, and a lack of accountability that has led critics to call the program "a big pile of pork" (www.reason.com).

Funding for Byrne grants was slashed under the Bush administration, which found in the fiscal year 2007 budget that the grants were "not able to demonstrate an impact on reducing crime," and that "the program's lack of long-term goals and measures inhibited targeting of resources to address real crime needs" (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget_fy2007_justice/). The COPS program, which is designed to support the expansion of law enforcement and has the potential to add 13,000 new officers to communities, was also cut due to lack of demonstrated performance.

The bill comes at a time when violent crime in the U.S. continues to drop, and states and municipalities struggle to pay for already bloated prisons and jails while facing budget cuts for critical programs that have been shown to preserve public safety and reduce incarceration. In their letter to Congress, the groups argue that rather than focusing federal stimulus funds on law enforcement, lawmakers should help states invest in programs that reduce the number of people behind bars and that help people re-entering the community from prison. They also believe that Congress should invest in programs and policies that have long-lasting effects. Education and job promotion in America's poorest communities is one of the most effective public safety strategies. Velázquez said that while states have the option to use Byrne funds for prevention, re-entry and intervention, the federal government should directly fund such programs in an intentional fashion that creates more accountability.

"A $4 billion mistake now will be magnified in the future; jails and prisons will continue to grow at the expense of states and counties, which will be forced to find funds to imprison people by cutting critical community services," said Velázquez. "Let's seize this opportunity to move in the right direction by investing in a more positive future."

###

January 26, 2009

Dear Member of Congress:

On January 15th, the House Appropriations Committee released the draft of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In this draft, $3 billion in funding was earmarked for State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, and an additional $1 billion is set aside for hiring law enforcement officers under the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. The undersigned organizations applaud the Appropriations Committee for recognizing that economic stimulus can be achieved through improving public safety and justice systems. However, we believe that focusing solely on law enforcement is misguided and could be counterproductive in terms of improving the state and national economy; we urge the reallocation of this $4 billion to a broader, more comprehensive set of services and programs that not only will improve economies, but improve public safety and decrease spending on jails, prisons and law enforcement. Below are some key points for you to consider when making your spending decisions:

Byrne Grants and COPS programs have not been shown to have a significant positive impact on public safety. According to the United States Government Accountability Office, "Factors other than COPS funds accounted for the majority of the decline in crime during this period [the 1990s]. For example, between 1993 and 2000, the overall crime rate declined by 26 percent... [with] 1.3 percent decline due to COPS."[1] Other studies of the impact of the grants on crime have been inconclusive. Congress should focus on funding what works, not just what might be popular with local officials.
There has been no significant increase in crime that would support beefing up law enforcement. In fact, violent crime in the U.S. continues to drop: The most recent FBI Crime reports show a 3.5 percent drop in violent crime during the first half of 2008. It is unclear why, with resources so scarce right now, Congress would invest in more police when there is not a clearly demonstrated need.

These programs have often resulted in increased arrests and incarceration of nonviolent drug users. In particular, the program funds hundreds of regional anti-drug task forces across the country. While reducing drug production and violence related to drug trafficking are important law enforcement activities, too often those who are caught up by these task forces are individuals who should be in treatment, not jail. The U.S. prison population tripled from 1985 to 2005;[2] with the average cost of a prison bed over $30,000 per year, these federal programs can actually end up costing states money without increasing public safety.
Improving re-entry services can increase public safety and help people contribute to the economic recovery. Many states and municipalities are contemplating cuts to services that help people re-entering the community from prison or jail. The inability of formerly incarcerated people to successfully transition back to the community leads to unacceptably high rates of recidivism. Rather than focusing solely on federal grants to law enforcement, Congress should help states invest in re-entry programs such as mentoring, job training, housing, and substance abuse and mental health services.

Congress should invest in programs and policies that have positive and long-lasting effects on communities. Education and job creation in America's poorest communities is one of the most effective public safety strategies. Only 46 percent of incarcerated individuals have a high school diploma or its equivalent, as compared to 82 percent of men aged 18 to 34. [3] Other evidence-based programs include community-based substance abuse and mental health treatment; and prevention programs for youth. Putting resources toward these positive opportunities is the most effective way of increasing public safety, while also creating jobs by investing in communities.

Fund diversion programs. If Congress wants to support public safety and law enforcement, they should provide funding for Crisis Intervention Training for officers; this can help reduce the arrest and incarceration of people whose "crime" was having a mental illness. And treatment diversion programs can be a cost effective way to safely keep people out of pr