The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

August 13, 2010

NH: Students and prisoners prodcue a play

Students and inmates produce play
By Ann Baum, The Dartmouth Staff
The Dartmouth
Published on Friday, August 13, 2010
(Go to the URL below for a great picture!)
Every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, seven of the 14 students enrolled in College Course 12 venture down Interstate 91 to the Sullivan County House of Corrections in Unity, N.H., where they collaborate with female inmates to produce a play that will be performed at the end of the term. The experience encourages students and inmates to recognize their shared fundamental human qualities, according to Ivy Schweitzer, the course’s professor.

These biweekly trips are part of the class “Inside Out: Prison, Women and Performance,” which is taught by Schweitzer and Pati Hernandez, founder of “Telling My Story,” a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing theater to prisons.

As the students and the inmates learn from each other, Signe Taylor is filming the class to create an hour-long documentary, she said — a project inspired by her experiences filming the class’s final presentation several years ago.

During each class meeting, which occurs at the 2A hour, half the class travels to the Sullivan County House — a medium security prison — while the other half attends a seminar on campus, Schweitzer said. This structure creates a balance between theory and application, Schweitzer said.

The course brings students to the Sullivan County House where Hernandez leads activities such as African drumming and dancing with the prisoners. Students also work with inmates to produce their plays at this time.

The themes for the skits that students and prisoners are producing this term are words — four negative and four positive — such as support and honesty, according to Master of Arts of Liberal Studies student Josh Labove, a student in the class.

After the skits, students and inmates give 30-second testimonials consisting of both personal and social reflection, according to Schweitzer.

“The testimonies of the women prisoners usually talk about overcoming a sense of low self-esteem, shyness, abjection — a sense of not being entitled to be listened to or not being entitled to be heard,” Schweitzer said. “Nobody cares about them, nobody recognizes them.”

During the performances, audience members often have trouble distinguishing between students and inmates, Schweitzer said.

“What many people have said to me is they can’t tell who are the prisoners and who are the students, and that’s one of our goals,” she said. “On a human level, there really aren’t any differences.”

Traveling to the prison was a “startling” experience, according to Rachel Sarnoff ’12, a student in the class.

“It’s a harsh environment,” Sarnoff said. “The metal doors are really loud and the guards are friendly to us, but they’re very patronizing.”

Students cannot exchange any items with the inmates and must pass through a metal detector — so strong that it can detect a bobby bin — before entering the facility, according to Sarnoff.

“We feel that environment of distrust every time we go in there,” Sarnoff said.

At their first meeting, however, prisoners and students exchanged hugs — something that students did not recognize as significant until they saw the non-contact visiting room, Sarnoff said.

“These women haven’t touched their children in months and months and they got to hug us on the first day,” she said, explaining that the students are not always required to follow visitation rules as strictly as other visitors.

Rules at the prison normally require that visitors refrain from referring to inmates by their first names, although the students are not held to the policy, Sarnoff said.

The community-based structure of the class creates an opportunity for learning unlike any other class at the College, Labove said.

“It’s unpredictable,” he said. “It’s the kind of class that you don’t know what’s going to come next.”

While other classes have strict syllabi and structured midterms, the class’s emotional taxation as well as the logistical complications of transporting students to and from the Sullivan County House each creates a perpetual state of “discomfort,” Labove said.

“I’ve never seen a course with as many moving parts as this one,” he said.

Although the class is demanding, students learn a lot by adjusting to experiences in which they are forced to “go with the flow,” Labove said.

“You don’t ever get into that comfortable lull,” he said. “There’s no easy coasting in this class, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

Both Schweitzer and Labove spoke of the value of community-based learning, citing the unique opportunity to put academic theories to practical use.

“I was really glad when [College President Jim Yong Kim] was appointed president because I know he’s really supportive of community-based learning,” Schweitzer said.

The experience this summer has caused many students in the class to question the inequalities inherent in the U.S. prison system, Sarnoff said.

“Yes, these women committed crimes, but their punishment or their treatment is not equal to their crime,” she said. “They’re being punished for something that we see on this campus or that other people do and get away with simply because of their privileged status in life.”

Although students were made familiar with the type of crimes committed by the inmates at the beginning of the term, the stories that the class focuses on are not based upon the inmates’ criminal activity. Rather, the plays focus on the many factors that brought the inmates to that point in their lives, Sarnoff said.

While students in the class have also been affected by their experiences at the prison, the class’s impact extends beyond students at the College. Taylor said she did not know what to expect when she first agreed to a freelance job filming the project’s final performance of its inaugural year.

“I really knew next to nothing,” Taylor said. “I was going in blind, it was very intense.”

One member of the 2006 cast seemed to direct her testimonial at Taylor, she said. The woman, a filmmaker who worked on a documentary about finding the geographical center of the United States before she was arrested, discussed her drug addiction and the consequences of imprisonment.

“What made her most sad was that she’d never have children,” Taylor said.

Taylor said she had originally assumed that the inmate was a MALS student. The woman’s age, profession, clothing and even her hair cut were all identical to her own, Taylor said.

“I was looking basically at my twin,” Taylor said. “It was a very shaking experience.”

The experience inspired Taylor to film future final performances for the group, she said. This summer, she decided to film the entire class experience throughout the term to create an hour-long documentary.

http://thedartmouth.com/2010/08/13/news/prison

Posted by lois at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2010

The Economist: "Rough Justice in America: Too many laws, too many prisoners"

Rough justice in America
Too many laws, too many prisoners
Never in the civilised world have so many been locked up for so little
The Economist
Jul 22nd 2010 | Spring, Texas

THREE pickup trucks pulled up outside George Norris’s home in Spring, Texas. Six armed police in flak jackets jumped out. Thinking they must have come to the wrong place, Mr Norris opened his front door, and was startled to be shoved against a wall and frisked for weapons. He was forced into a chair for four hours while officers ransacked his house. They pulled out drawers, rifled through papers, dumped things on the floor and eventually loaded 37 boxes of Mr Norris’s possessions onto their pickups. They refused to tell him what he had done wrong. “It wasn’t fun, I can tell you that,” he recalls.

Mr Norris was 65 years old at the time, and a collector of orchids. He eventually discovered that he was suspected of smuggling the flowers into America, an offence under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. This came as a shock. He did indeed import flowers and sell them to other orchid-lovers. And it was true that his suppliers in Latin America were sometimes sloppy about their paperwork. In a shipment of many similar-looking plants, it was rare for each permit to match each orchid precisely.

In March 2004, five months after the raid, Mr Norris was indicted, handcuffed and thrown into a cell with a suspected murderer and two suspected drug-dealers. When told why he was there, “they thought it hilarious.” One asked: “What do you do with these things? Smoke ’em?”

Prosecutors described Mr Norris as the “kingpin” of an international smuggling ring. He was dumbfounded: his annual profits were never more than about $20,000. When prosecutors suggested that he should inform on other smugglers in return for a lighter sentence, he refused, insisting he knew nothing beyond hearsay.

He pleaded innocent. But an undercover federal agent had ordered some orchids from him, a few of which arrived without the correct papers. For this, he was charged with making a false statement to a government official, a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Since he had communicated with his suppliers, he was charged with conspiracy, which also carries a potential five-year term.

As his legal bills exploded, Mr Norris reluctantly changed his plea to guilty, though he still protests his innocence. He was sentenced to 17 months in prison. After some time, he was released while his appeal was heard, but then put back inside. His health suffered: he has Parkinson’s disease, which was not helped by the strain of imprisonment. For bringing some prescription sleeping pills into prison, he was put in solitary confinement for 71 days. The prison was so crowded, however, that even in solitary he had two room-mates.

A long love affair with lock and key

Justice is harsher in America than in any other rich country. Between 2.3m and 2.4m Americans are behind bars, roughly one in every 100 adults. If those on parole or probation are included, one adult in 31 is under “correctional” supervision. As a proportion of its total population, America incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan. Overcrowding is the norm. Federal prisons house 60% more inmates than they were designed for. State lock-ups are only slightly less stuffed.

The system has three big flaws, say criminologists. First, it puts too many people away for too long. Second, it criminalises acts that need not be criminalised. Third, it is unpredictable. Many laws, especially federal ones, are so vaguely written that people cannot easily tell whether they have broken them.

In 1970 the proportion of Americans behind bars was below one in 400, compared with today’s one in 100. Since then, the voters, alarmed at a surge in violent crime, have demanded fiercer sentences. Politicians have obliged. New laws have removed from judges much of their discretion to set a sentence that takes full account of the circumstances of the offence. Since no politician wants to be tarred as soft on crime, such laws, mandating minimum sentences, are seldom softened. On the contrary, they tend to get harder.

Some criminals belong behind bars. When a habitual rapist is locked up, the streets are safer. But the same is not necessarily true of petty drug-dealers, whose incarceration creates a vacancy for someone else to fill, argues Alfred Blumstein of Carnegie Mellon University. The number of drug offenders in federal and state lock-ups has increased 13-fold since 1980. Some are scary thugs; many are not.

Michelle Collette of Hanover, Massachusetts, sold Percocet, a prescription painkiller. “I was planning to do it just once,” she says, “but the money was so easy. And I thought: it’s not heroin.” Then she became addicted to her own wares. She was unhappy with her boyfriend, she explains, but did not want to split up with him, because she did not want their child to grow up fatherless, as she had. So she popped pills to numb the misery. Before long, she was taking 20-30 a day.

When Ms Collette and her boyfriend, who also sold drugs, were arrested in a dawn raid, the police found 607 pills and $901 in cash. The boyfriend fought the charges and got 15 years in prison. In a plea bargain Ms Collette was sentenced to seven years, of which she served six.

“I don’t think this is fair,” said the judge. “I don’t think this is what our laws are meant to do. It’s going to cost upwards of $50,000 a year to have you in state prison. Had I the authority, I would send you to jail for no more than one year…and a [treatment] programme after that.” But mandatory sentencing laws gave him no choice.

Massachusetts is a liberal state, but its drug laws are anything but. It treats opium-derived painkillers such as Percocet like hard drugs, if illicitly sold. Possession of a tiny amount (14-28 grams, or ½-1 ounce) yields a minimum sentence of three years. For 200 grams, it is 15 years, more than the minimum for armed rape. And the weight of the other substances with which a dealer mixes his drugs is included in the total, so 10 grams of opiates mixed with 190 grams of flour gets you 15 years.

Ms Collette underwent drug treatment before being locked up, and is now clean. But in prison she found she was pregnant. After going through labour shackled to a hospital bed, she was allowed only 48 hours to bond with her newborn son. She was released in March, found a job in a shop, and is hoping that her son will get used to having her around.

Rigid sentencing laws shift power from judges to prosecutors, complains Barbara Dougan of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a pressure-group. Even the smallest dealer often has enough to trigger a colossal sentence. Prosecutors may charge him with selling a smaller amount if he agrees to “reel some other poor slob in”, as Ms Dougan puts it. He is told to persuade another dealer to sell him just enough drugs to trigger a 15-year sentence, and perhaps to do the deal near a school, which adds another two years.

Severe drug laws have unintended consequences. Less than half of American cancer patients receive adequate painkillers, according to the American Pain Foundation, another pressure-group. One reason is that doctors are terrified of being accused of drug-trafficking if they over-prescribe. In 2004 William Hurwitz, a doctor specialising in the control of pain, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for prescribing pills that a few patients then resold on the black market. Virginia’s board of medicine ruled that he had acted in good faith, but he still served nearly four years.

Half the states have laws that lock up habitual offenders for life. In some states this applies only to violent criminals, but in others it applies even to petty ones. Some 3,700 people who committed neither violent nor serious crimes are serving life sentences under California’s “three strikes and you’re out” law. In Alabama a petty thief called Jerald Sanders was given a life term for pinching a bicycle. Alabama’s judges are elected, as are those in 32 other states. This makes them mindful of public opinion: some appear in campaign advertisements waving guns and bragging about how tough they are.
Watching hairs go white, and lifetimes ebb away

Many Americans assume that white-collar criminals get off lightly, but many do not. Granted, they may be hard to catch and can often afford good lawyers. But federal prosecutors can file many charges for what is essentially one offence. For example, they can count each e-mail sent by a white-collar criminal in the course of his criminal activity as a separate case of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. The decades soon add up. Sentences depend partly on the size of the loss and the number of people affected, so if you work for a big, publicly traded company, you break a rule and the share-price drops, watch out.

Eternal punishment

Jim Felman, a defence lawyer in Tampa, Florida, says America is conducting “an experiment in imprisoning first-time non-violent offenders for periods of time previously reserved only for those who had killed someone”. One of Mr Felman’s clients, a fraudster called Sholam Weiss, was sentenced to 845 years. “I got it reduced to 835,” sighs Mr Felman. Faced with such penalties, he says, the incentive to co-operate, which means to say things that are helpful to the prosecution, is overwhelming. And this, he believes, “warps the truth-seeking function” of justice.

Innocent defendants may plead guilty in return for a shorter sentence to avoid the risk of a much longer one. A prosecutor can credibly threaten a middle-aged man that he will die in a cell unless he gives evidence against his boss. This is unfair, complains Harvey Silverglate, the author of “Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent”. If a defence lawyer offers a witness money to testify that his client is innocent, that is bribery. But a prosecutor can legally offer something of far greater value—his freedom—to a witness who says the opposite. The potential for wrongful convictions is obvious.

Badly drafted laws create traps for the unwary. In 2006 Georgia Thompson, a civil servant in Wisconsin, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for depriving the public of “the intangible right of honest services”. Her crime was to award a contract (for travel services) to the best bidder. A firm called Adelman Travel scored the most points (on an official scale) for price and quality, so Ms Thompson picked it. She ignored a rule that required her to penalise Adelman for a slapdash presentation when bidding. For this act of common sense, she served four months. (An appeals court freed her.)

The “honest services” statute, if taken seriously, “would seemingly cover a salaried employee’s phoning in sick to go to a ball game,” fumes Antonin Scalia, a Supreme Court justice. The Supreme Court ruled recently that the statute was so vague as to be unconstitutional. It did not strike it down completely, but said it should be applied only in cases involving bribery or kickbacks. The challenge was brought by Enron’s former boss, Jeff Skilling, who will not go free despite his victory, and Conrad Black, a media magnate released this week on bail pending an appeal, who may.

There are over 4,000 federal crimes, and many times that number of regulations that carry criminal penalties. When analysts at the Congressional Research Service tried to count the number of separate offences on the books, they were forced to give up, exhausted. Rules concerning corporate governance or the environment are often impossible to understand, yet breaking them can land you in prison. In many criminal cases, the common-law requirement that a defendant must have a mens rea (ie, he must or should know that he is doing wrong) has been weakened or erased.

“The founders viewed the criminal sanction as a last resort, reserved for serious offences, clearly defined, so ordinary citizens would know whether they were violating the law. Yet over the last 40 years, an unholy alliance of big-business-hating liberals and tough-on-crime conservatives has made criminalisation the first line of attack—a way to demonstrate seriousness about the social problem of the month, whether it’s corporate scandals or e-mail spam,” writes Gene Healy, a libertarian scholar. “You can serve federal time for interstate transport of water hyacinths, trafficking in unlicensed dentures, or misappropriating the likeness of Woodsy Owl.”

“You’re (probably) a federal criminal,” declares Alex Kozinski, an appeals-court judge, in a provocative essay of that title. Making a false statement to a federal official is an offence. So is lying to someone who then repeats your lie to a federal official. Failing to prevent your employees from breaking regulations you have never heard of can be a crime. A boss got six months in prison because one of his workers accidentally broke a pipe, causing oil to spill into a river. “It didn’t matter that he had no reason to learn about the [Clean Water Act’s] labyrinth of regulations, since he was merely a railroad-construction supervisor,” laments Judge Kozinski.
Society wants retribution

Such cases account for only a tiny share of the Americans behind bars, but they still matter. When so many people are technically breaking the law, it is up to prosecutors to decide whom to pursue. No doubt most prosecutors choose wisely. But members of unpopular groups may not find that reassuring. Ms Thompson, for example, was prosecuted just before an election, at a time when allegations of public corruption in Wisconsin were in the news. Some prosecutors, such as Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced ex-governor of New York, have built political careers by nailing people whom voters don’t like, such as financiers.

Prison deters? Not much, not the worst

Some people argue that the system works: that crime has fallen in the past two decades because the bad guys are either in prison or scared of being sent there. Caged thugs cannot break into your home. Bernie Madoff’s 150-year sentence for running a Ponzi scam should deter imitators. And indeed the crime rate continues to drop, despite the recession, as Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, an advocacy group, points out. This, he says, is because habitual criminals face serious consequences. Some research supports him: after raking through decades of historical data, John Donohue of Yale Law School estimates that a 10% increase in imprisonment brings a 2% reduction in crime.

Others disagree. Using more recent data, Bert Useem of Purdue University and Anne Piehl of Rutgers University estimate that a 10% increase in the number of people behind bars would reduce crime by only 0.5%. In the states that currently lock up the most people, imprisoning more would actually increase crime, they believe. Some inmates emerge from prison as more accomplished criminals. And raising the incarceration rate means locking up people who are, on average, less dangerous than the ones already behind bars. A recent study found that, over the past 13 years, the proportion of new prisoners in Florida who had committed violent crimes fell by 28%, whereas those inside for “other” crimes shot up by 189%. These “other” crimes were non-violent ones involving neither drugs nor theft, such as driving with a suspended licence.

And now the reckoning, in dollars

Crime is a young man’s game. Muggers over 30 are rare. Ex-cons who go straight for a few years generally stay that way: a study of 88,000 criminals by Mr Blumstein found that if someone was arrested for aggravated assault at the age of 18 but then managed to stay out of trouble until the age of 22, the risk of his offending was no greater than that for the general population. Yet America’s prisons are crammed with old folk. Nearly 200,000 prisoners are over 50. Most would pose little threat if released. And since people age faster in prison than outside, their medical costs are vast. Human Rights Watch, a lobby-group, talks of “nursing homes with razor wire”.

Jail is expensive. Spending per prisoner ranges from $18,000 a year in Mississippi to about $50,000 in California, where the cost per pupil is but a seventh of that. “[W]e are well past the point of diminishing returns,” says a report by the Pew Center on the States. In Washington state, for example, each dollar invested in new prison places in 1980 averted more than nine dollars of criminal harm (using a somewhat arbitrary scale to assign a value to not being beaten up). By 2001, as the emphasis shifted from violent criminals to drug-dealers and thieves, the cost-benefit ratio reversed. Each new dollar spent on prisons averted only 37 cents’ worth of harm.

Since the recession threw their budgets into turmoil, many states have decided to imprison fewer people, largely to save money. Mississippi has reduced the proportion of their sentences that non-violent offenders are required to serve from 85% to 25%. Texas is making greater use of non-custodial penalties. New York has repealed most mandatory minimum terms for drug offences. In all, the number of prisoners in state lock-ups fell by 0.3% in 2009, the first fall since 1972. But the total number of Americans behind bars still rose slightly, because the number of federal prisoners climbed by 3.4%.

A less punitive system could work better, argues Mark Kleiman of the University of California, Los Angeles. Swift and certain penalties deter more than harsh ones. Money spent on prisons cannot be spent on more cost-effective methods of crime-prevention, such as better policing, drug treatment or probation. The pain that punishment inflicts on criminals themselves, on their families and on their communities should also be taken into account.

“Just by making effective use of things we already know how to do, we could reasonably expect to have half as much crime and half as many people behind bars ten years from now,” says Mr Kleiman. “There are a thousand excuses for failing to make that effort, but not one good reason.”
http://www.economist.com/node/16636027?story_id=16636027&fsrc=rss

Posted by lois at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2010

Rural sheriffs dealing with new problem: more women in jail

Rural sheriffs dealing with new problem: more women in jail
Published: Friday, July 30, 2010, 9:41 PM
Richard Cockle, The Oregonian

An inmate in the 104-bed Malheur County Jail caused problems one day recently by stealing food from other inmates. Another refused to bathe, and the resulting odor triggered noisy objections that escalated into a fight.

This might not sound unusual in the 3,100 city and county jails around the nation; what might not fit the picture is that these are jails in rural Oregon and the inmates are women.

A handful of rural jails have a surprisingly high percentage of women behind bars -- far surpassing the already high state average. In Crook County last year, women totaled nearly 29 percent of the jail population. In Jefferson and Malheur counties, the number nudged 27 percent.

That compares to a 22 percent state average and 12 percent national average.

The glut is proving a serious logistical challenge for many rural sheriffs who don't have space for female inmates in their small jails and must get creative at some expense to separate the sexes and deal with their differences.

"A lot of people aren't in jail that should be," said Lt. Al Bond, who's worked in the Crook County Jail in Prineville for more than 20 years. "We need a new jail."

The rising tide of women behind bars follows a national cultural ascendancy for women in general: They now outnumber men in the American work force, they outdistance men by a 3-2 ratio earning bachelor's degrees and more women than men are in programs to become doctors and lawyers. It makes sense that they're getting more involved in crime, too.

Methamphetamine and sentencing policies may be the chief reasons so many Oregon women find themselves in county jails compared with other states, corrections experts say. Among those policies is Measure 11, an initiative passed by Oregon voters in 1994 to impose mandatory minimum sentences on certain violent criminals and barring early release.

Many female drug offenders in Oregon prefer meth over heroin and cocaine -- 34 percent convicted of meth possession in 2008-09 were women, said Craig Prins , executive director of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission.

"We have had a meth problem for years and years," Prins said. "Much of the East Coast has no meth problem. Some states literally have never had a meth lab."

Another factor is the state's sentencing protocols, he said. Most Oregon judges use county jails and community corrections programs as sanctions for drug and property crimes, he said. That steers women offenders into jails and away from state prisons, where more hard-core and violent offenders go, he said.

The phenomenon is even more stark in rural areas, where women have fewer places to hide, fewer alternatives to jail time and where nonviolent crime gets more attention than in big cities, which often concentrate on violent, male-oriented crime.

"Out here, it's more visible," said Capt. Craig Ward, Union County's undersheriff in charge of the jail in La Grande. "There is more anonymity in urban areas."

Lack of education contributes

The women who enter rural jails often are hooked on drugs -- including prescription pain medications such as oxycodone, several jail managers said. They then land in jail for identity theft, fraud and burglary to pay for the drugs.

"Forgeries, embezzlement, those types of things have gotten a lot of women into the jails," said Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe in Vale. Wolfe also says the trend could reflect a new tendency by rural residents weary of drug-related crimes to act when they spot crimes, even when the perpetrator is a woman -- rather than "give her another chance, people are reporting those kinds of crimes," he said.

Lack of education and money also play a part, said Georgia Lerner , executive director of the New York City-based Women's Prison Association , billed as the nation's oldest service and advocacy group for women with criminal justice problems.

Fewer than half the women she deals with behind bars ever had a legal job or completed high school or earned an equivalent diploma. A scarcity of effective rural drug treatment may result in more women in jail than in urban areas because judges don't have any other place to send them, Lerner said.

Additionally, a shortage of rural mass transit probably contributes to the higher percentage because once a woman loses her driver's license to a drunken driving conviction or no longer can afford a car, it can become impossible to reach treatment, Lerner said.

"Transportation is a big factor," said Ladonna Lauricella, a Union County Jail inmate. "There's a lot of help out there, it's just a matter of getting to it."

Lauricella recently turned 40 behind bars ("Believe me, it was rough"), and has noticed an increase in female inmates since the last time she was in jail a few years ago. Drugs, she acknowledged, are often the common denominator.

"The drugs were my way out, my way not to feel," said Lauricella, who is doing time for stealing narcotics. "Mine was pain medication. I ended up taking some from a lady's house."

Not much flexibility

The growing numbers of women entering jail poses profound problems for jail managers, they say. Virtually all the jails in rural Oregon were designed and built for men, even the ones that are only 10 to 20 years old.

The primitive Crook County Jail, built in the 1950s, has only 16 beds and employs antiquated key-locked slider-roller doors instead of modern automated electric air-lock doors. It houses no women at all, but rents 16 additional beds at the Jefferson County Jail, 32 miles away, for female inmates and male inmate overflow.

In Union County, more women started coming into the 37-bed jail about five years ago. Now, "we're almost never below 10 percent" and it isn't unusual for a third of the inmates to be women, Ward said.

If the county had the money, he'd like to replace the 33-year-old lockup with a "radial pod" jail -- cellblocks radiating from a central control booth like spokes on a wheel. But until then, male and female inmates can't be together in the visiting room, for example, without risking inappropriate advances, comments or touching by male inmates, he said. Empty beds set aside for women sometimes mean the jail must release men even when bed space is still available in the women's cellblock, he said.

His jail gets pregnant inmates from time to time and has a policy forbidding keeping them into the third trimester. "Their sentence has to be deferred," Ward said.

In Newport, the 161-bed Lincoln County Jail has 23 beds for female inmates and when they're full, somebody usually gets released early to prevent an overflow into the men's cell blocks, said Lt. Jamie Russell, jail spokeswoman and also president of the Oregon Sheriff's Jail Command Council.

Her biggest frustration is that women keep coming into the jail for the wrong reasons. She'd like to see women apply for corrections jobs instead of becoming inmates.

"For us, recruiting females is a challenge," she said.

– Richard Cockle
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2010/07/rural_sheriffs_dealing_with_new_problem_more_women_in_jail.html

Posted by lois at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2010

Prison Shouldn't be a Bar to Motherhood

"By allowing for greater flexibility in the foster care system, New York joins a small group of states that have adjusted their laws, including Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado and California. But in most of the country, parental rights remain in serious jeopardy.
Most women in prison are mothers, and they are five times as likely as imprisoned fathers to have children in foster care. "

Womens eNews
Prison Shouldn't be a Bar to Motherhood
By Rachel Roth, WeNews commentator

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Rigid foster care rules threaten to dissolve family ties when mothers are in prison or residential drug treatment. A new law in New York State takes steps to help these families weather the separation.

A 29-year-old woman whose mother went to prison when she was a baby says she is just like any other child.

"I need my mother. I've always needed her and in this way I am no different than any other child. Living away from her--having to live away from her because of something she did--has not changed how much I want her mothering," she said.

However, a well-meaning federal law passed in 1997 all too often overrides this sentiment, arbitrarily and permanently severing family bonds.

The Adoption and Safe Families Act, called ASFA, was intended to prevent children from bouncing indefinitely between foster homes and to increase their chances of being placed with permanent adoptive families. It set rigid time frames by which an absent parent loses legal rights to his or her child. Once a child spends 15 of 22 months in foster care, the foster care agency moves to terminate the parent's rights. Some states adopted even shorter timelines in their versions of the law, moving to terminate parental rights after as little as six months when a child was placed in foster care as a newborn.

Courts can terminate a parent's rights to take care of her child because she is unavailable by virtue of incarceration or residence in a treatment center, even when there is no evidence of child abuse and when the child wishes to be reunited with the parent.

One-third of children who were so "freed" from their biological parents in New York City between 2000 and 2004 were not adopted, according to a report published in 2006 by the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York. They stayed in foster care. These children are "legal orphans," children who have a parent but whose relationship to their parent is no longer recognized by the state.

'People Need More Time'

"I think people need more time," said Sharmaine, whose rights were terminated while she was in treatment. "Just because you're incarcerated or in substance abuse treatment doesn't mean that you don't want to be a mother to your child . . . I am his mother biologically, but the law says I'm not his mother."

In June, Gov. David Paterson of New York signed into law the "ASFA Expanded Discretion" bill to ensure that parents like Sharmaine do not lose rights to their children solely for bureaucratic reasons.

The new law allows for foster care agencies and courts to take into account the special circumstances of parents in prison or residential treatment when determining a child's fate. These circumstances include parents' difficulty seeing children in person, difficulty meeting with lawyers or social workers and difficulty making court appearances, especially for women from New York City who are sent to serve their time in distant upstate prisons. The median prison sentence for women in New York is 36 months, longer than the 15-month deadline in effect until the time the law was changed.

The new law also allows for parents to participate in meetings about their children by video conference or other means if meeting in person is impracticable.

Because foster care agencies have not always provided the reunification services that parents in prison are supposed to receive, the new law requires such agencies to give parents information about their rights and responsibilities, as well as referrals to services available to help maintain relationships with their children. (This provision warrants monitoring, as it is not clear how providing referrals would work when parents cannot access services without the assistance of prison or treatment center employees.)

New York Joins Select Group

By allowing for greater flexibility in the foster care system, New York joins a small group of states that have adjusted their laws, including Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado and California. But in most of the country, parental rights remain in serious jeopardy.

Most women in prison are mothers, and they are five times as likely as imprisoned fathers to have children in foster care. (When a father goes to prison, the children are most likely to live with their mother; when a mother is in prison, the children are most likely to live with a grandparent, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reports.)

ASFA therefore has a disproportionate impact on mothers in prison. Given the overrepresentation of poor women and women of color in prison--and the overrepresentation of poor children and children of color, particularly African American children, in foster care--it takes a heavy toll on already disadvantaged families and communities.

Earlier this year, the American Bar Association adopted new standards for the treatment of people in prison, including a provision saying they should be informed of the consequences for their parental rights of any arrangements contemplated for the care of a child. If put into practice, this standard would ensure that women are aware of the particular timeframes and risks inherent in each state's foster care system.

One of the barriers to changing the 1997 adoption law is the lack of data. In many cases, government agencies simply do not know how many children are in foster care because their parents are in prison, nor how many parents' rights have been terminated for this reason. Where something as fundamental as the parent-child relationship is at stake, governments need to provide a fuller accounting of how public policies affect the families who are subject to them.
New York Activist Example

Activists in other states can learn from the New York experience, which involved a sustained commitment by advocates and policymakers who believe that protecting family bonds is an issue of fundamental fairness.

Tamar Kraft-Stolar, director of the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York, says it took four years to get a bill through the legislature and onto the governor's desk. Before that came three years of research and consultations with stakeholders, including affected parents and children.

A critical part of the organizing strategy was to highlight the perspectives of women directly affected by the law.

Formerly incarcerated mothers met with legislators and spoke out at public events. Those still in prison wrote letters, which the Coalition for Women Prisoners collected and turned into a book, along with letters from children of imprisoned mothers.

One contributor to the book describes the pain of losing her children: "As the clock ticked away, I remained in constant fear wondering which monthly visit would be our last . . . I was told that if I agreed to a conditional surrender agreement then I would be allowed limited communication (cards, letters and photos) with my sons. Sadly, these stipulations were never honored . . . I love my sons! I want what I was promised, when I acted in good faith, and signed my agreement!"

Implementation of the new law should spare other families this fate.

http://www.womensenews.org/story/incarceration/100722/prison-shouldnt-be-bar-motherhood
This and other news about women and mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Rachel Roth writes about reproductive politics and the impact of imprisonment on women's rights and health. She is the author of the book "Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights."

Posted by lois at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2010

NPR : "Difficult Births: Laboring And Delivering In Shackles"

Difficult Births: Laboring And Delivering In Shackles
by Andrea Hsu, NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128563037

(To everyone who helped on the background for this story, thank you!...Lois)

Posted by lois at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2010

Behind the Bars | Kentucky had gaps in monitoring troubled CCA Otter Creek prison

Behind the Bars | Kentucky had gaps in monitoring troubled Otter Creek prison
By R. G. Dunlop-
Louisville Courier Journal July 5, 2010

WHEELWRIGHT, Ky. -- Kentucky's oversight of a privately run prison in Floyd County was so lax and uncoordinated during the time it housed female inmates that state monitors often failed to promptly recognize and report serious problems, including more than a dozen cases of inmates who complained they were sexually abused by male staff members.

And when the monitors did identify deficiencies at the Otter Creek Correctional Center, including substandard health care, state corrections officials never imposed financial penalties.

These and other problems regarding the management of Otter Creek emerged from hundreds of pages of documents, including copies of monitors' monthly reports and e-mail correspondence, that The Courier-Journal obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act from the state Department of Corrections and the Nashville-based Corrections Corp. of America, the prison's operator.

CCA, the nation's largest private prison provider, housed more than 400 female inmates at Otter Creek until January, when the state decided to transfer them to a state-run prison in Western Kentucky. That came after eight substantiated incidents in which female inmates were sexually abused, resulting in charges against at least six staff members.

State regulations require a full-time state employee to monitor each private prison -- a presence considered vital to safeguarding inmates' rights and the public's investment.

But at Otter Creek, there was only an intermittent state presence during the more than four years, beginning in late 2005, when Kentucky housed women inmates there, according to records obtained by the newspaper.

Several authorities on corrections policy and prison management said the state should have had full-time monitors at Otter Creek. The monitors, they said, should have promptly identified serious violations, and state corrections officials should have aggressively addressed them.

"That's what they're there for, to uncover the stuff that's really bad," said Gerald Gaes, the former director of research for the federal Bureau of Prisons, who is now a private consultant.

Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson acknowledged in an interview that she was dissatisfied with the quality of state oversight at Otter Creek, saying the monitors' monthly reports often were too general and that turnover among monitors was high.

"We went back and reviewed the entire situation, and we did see some gaps," including a lack of communication between state monitors and prison administrators, said Thompson, who has served as commissioner since February 2008. "And we have addressed those with our staff and also with the chain of command."

She also defended the state's decision not to fine CCA for contract violations.

"It had just not reached a level that we felt like it should result in a fine," she said.

Allegations of substandard health care at Otter Creek also received short shrift from the state's monitors, their own reports show.

Several health-care providers quit working at Otter Creek because of what they described as chronically unacceptable conditions, but the monitors' reports contain only a few references to inmates' complaints about substandard medical care. None of them mention the complaints of the providers who quit.

Dr. Mark Hovee, a clinical psychologist who worked at Otter Creek for six years until he resigned in October 2007, said in a court deposition last year and in a recent interview that lax state oversight was a significant problem.

Hovee said he was never asked to talk to a state monitor at length and at times didn't know who the monitor was.

The state also didn't penalize the company when the warden's secretary fatally shot herself in January 2008 with a handgun she smuggled into the prison, a "critical breach of security," the department later admitted.

By contrast, the Idaho Department of Correction fined CCA more than $68,200 in June after the company violated its contract by failing to have qualified drug and alcohol counselors at the Idaho Correctional Center, which is state-owned but run by CCA.

Gaes and Michele Deitch, an attorney who teaches criminal justice and juvenile-justice policy at the University of Texas, said Kentucky was remiss in not imposing financial sanctions on CCA for chronic violations at Otter Creek.

"If they don't enforce the requirement, what's the point?" Deitch said. "Chronic vacancies raise concerns, not only about safety but also about programming and the implications for inmates' rehabilitation and their ability to successfully re-enter society."

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100705/NEWS01/7050309/1008/Behind-the-Bars-Kentucky-had-gaps-in-monitoring-troubled-Otter-Creek-prison

Posted by lois at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

July 02, 2010

MA: More on the shackling of women in MA

My letter was published in The Valley Advocate in response to an article about the Prison Birth Project. http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=11952The article states:
"Pregnant women may not be afforded adequate nutrition, medical care or psychiatric services, and in some states they may be shackled or restrained during birth. The practices and policies depend largely on the state and facility where women are incarcerated. WCC policy doesn't permit women in active labor to be handcuffed, shackled or restrained in any way, and Bullock said she has never seen a pregnant woman in shackles at the facility."
I thought this was misleading and wrote the following letter to the Advocate which they published.

Pregnant in Prison
July 1, 2010 Valley Advocate
It is important for your readers to know that, unlike New York, New Mexico, Vermont, Illinois and Texas, Massachusetts has no law banning the shackling of women prisoners who are in labor (See "Mothers Behind Bars," June 24, 2010.) A Massachusetts Department of Correction policy allows the routine use of shackles on pregnant women, although during the second and third trimester women prisoners are to be handcuffed only. According to DOC policy, full restraints are to be used when returning a woman to jail or prison after birth. Waist shackles cannot be used. Despite the DOC directive, the experience of many women in Massachusetts is that they are shackled unless a medical practitioner attending the birth directly intervenes. Routinely, women are shackled to the bed by one foot within two hours after giving birth. For this to begin to change, H1490, An Act Relative to Pregnant and Postpartum Inmates, introduced by Rep. Kay Khan, needs to pass. Massachusetts would then have a law explicitly prohibiting shackling of women traveling to or from a hospital and shackling during delivery. Attention can be given to the woman's and the newborn's health and the burden would no longer fall on the doctor or nurse midwife, who now must convince a guard that a woman in labor poses no security or flight risk.

Lois Ahrens
Real Cost of Prisons Project
Northampton
http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=11986

Posted by lois at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)

Study to explore influences on women involved in the criminal justice system

Study to explore influences on women offenders
By Deborah Yetter
Louisville Courier Journal
June 28, 2010

As a young social worker, Seana Golder said she was profoundly influenced by her work with women inmates in a Louisiana prison -- many of whom had experienced abuse, poverty, addiction or mental illness.

"I would go home at night and those women were staying there," said Golder, now an associate professor at the University of Louisville's Kent School of Social Work. "To me, it's how do we keep those women from ending up in prison?"

Golder and three colleagues hope to answer that question through a $1.5 million, federally funded study aimed at developing research to better understand why women end up in the criminal justice system and how to help them stay out.

Within the next few weeks, the team will begin recruiting women in the Louisville area for the study, which eventually will examine circumstances of more than 400 women on probation and parole.

Other researchers on the team are Linda Bledsoe, an associate professor at the Kent School; George Higgins, an associate professor in justice administration at U of L; and TK Logan, an associate professor of behavioral science at the University of Kentucky.

The goal is to develop information that corrections officials and other researchers can use to help women avoid prison, a poorly researched area where most of the focus has been on male offenders, they said.

"This is a big study, but it's going to give us a lot of information that we just don't have," Higgins said.

The project is called "The Women's Health Research Study" and will focus on how participants were affected by victimization, a characteristic of many female offenders who were subject to physical or sexual abuse as children and violence from partners as adults, Golder said.

The researchers said they aren't aware of any other similar research on the scale of their project, which is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"It really is a unique opportunity," Golder said. "It will form so much policy and practice in corrections."

Officials with the Kentucky Department of Corrections, which is assisting by providing information and data, said they are delighted researchers are undertaking the project at a time when the state is seeking to contain corrections costs and reduce its growing offender population.

"We are thrilled to see that develop," said Lee VanHoose, the department's director of probation and parole. "It's going to be such a benefit to us."

The number of women offenders in Kentucky is growing rapidly -- about 2,200 are incarcerated and another 15,000 are on probation and parole. VanHoose said she's especially pleased the research project aims to produce specific findings corrections officials can use to try to steer women out of the criminal justice system.

"Statistics are good, but it's also good to have some real-world opportunities and direction," she said.

Researchers plan to collect a detailed history from women who agree to participate and then check in with them twice more over five years to see how they have fared while on probation and parole. Golder said all information from interviews will be confidential and will not be shared with the Corrections Department.

To increase the comfort of the subjects, only females will conduct the interviews. Golder said that's particularly important when subjects have a history of abuse or sexual exploitation. Participants will be paid a small stipend for their help.

Not only could the findings help corrections officials save money, researchers said, but it could reduce the terrible costs to families when a woman is incarcerated. While the costs are always high, incarceration of women tends to have a more severe impact because they often are the primary caregivers for children, Bledsoe said.

In a previous career as a social worker, Bledsoe said she sometimes had to take children to visit their mothers incarcerated at the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women at Pewee Valley. Often, the children were in foster care and couldn't understand why, or why their mothers couldn't come home.

"It was very hard," she said. "It was very emotional for both parties."
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100628/NEWS01/6280372/Study+to+explore+influences+on+women+offenders

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

Notorious Private PRison in Brush, CO, women's prison closing.

Local jobs lost as Brush prison closes
Jesse Chaney, Brush News-Tribune staff writer
Posted: 06/29/2010

High Plains Correctional Facility will close down after the state takes the remaining inmates away from the Brush prison today.

Most of the employees at High Plains Correctional Facility will lose their jobs after the state removes the last remaining inmates from the Brush women’s prison today.

“We have already notified our staffs that most of them unfortunately have to be laid off for now,” said Charles Seigel, spokesman for Houston, Texas-based Cornell Companies, Inc., which owns the Brush prison.

The local facility normally employs 83 people, Seigel said, but management has left about half of the positions vacant in anticipation of the closure. “In the last few months we haven’t filled positions, knowing this was going to happen,” he said.
Three of the roughly 40 current employees will remain on staff to maintain the facility and prepare for any potential new business, but the rest of the workers will lose their jobs, Seigel said.
Cornell has offered to transfer some of the employees to company facilities in other areas, he said. At least 10 of the employees have accepted jobs at a Cornell prison in Hudson, but workers are reluctant to take jobs any farther away.

“We’re still working on trying to find positions as much as possible for people,” he said.

The closure of the facility will also result in a loss of revenue for the city of Brush, said city Finance Officer Joanne Gosselink.
The city will lose roughly $22,000 in annual income it received for processing the prison’s payments from the state, she said. In addition, the city will no longer receive revenue from sales tax on purchases made by the inmates, she said.

“We’re hoping that something comes back in there relatively soon,” she said.

The inmates housed at High Plains Correctional Facility were placed at the private prison through a contract with the Colorado Department of Corrections.

State officials are moving inmates from the Brush facility to various state prisons due to a decline in the number of female prisoners throughout Colorado, Seigel said.

The Brush prison can house up to 272 female prisoners, but Seigel said the facility’s inmate population has been declining.
Cornell will maintain ownership of the Brush facility, and company officials are currently exploring potential ways to put it back to use, he said.

The facility might be converted to a male prison or house inmates from other states if the Colorado Department of Corrections will not use it for female inmates in the future, Seigel said. “It’s always a long-term process,” he said. “It doesn’t happen quickly usually.”
If Cornell officials are able to secure a new operating contract, they might offer to again employ the Brush prison workers who lost their jobs, Seigel said.

The Brush facility opened in 2003 and became High Plains Correctional Facility when Cornell took ownership in 2007, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Located on 22.5 acres of land in northeast Brush, the medium-security prison has more than 5,000 square feet of vocational space, more than 300,000 square feet of outdoor recreational space, a computer lab, 15 classrooms, an indoor gymnasium, a football field, a quarter-mile asphalt track, and a regulation-sized soccer field, baseball field and volleyball court.
http://www.journal-advocate.com/sterling-local_news/ci_15401670

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

June 14, 2010

OR: Plan will reactivate women's prison. Crowding at Coffee Creek facility prompts transfers to a converted State Street site.

Plan will reactivate women's prison
Crowding at Coffee Creek facility prompts transfers to a converted State Street site

Nearly a decade after the state closed its crowded and obsolete prison for women in Salem, corrections officials plan to move female convicts back to the same lockup here.

Here's why: The Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon's prison for women in Wilsonville, is packed with nearly 1,150 inmates.

Prisoner managers are double-bunking inmates and using nearly 60 emergency beds as makeshift measures at Coffee Creek.

To ease the crunch, officials plan to shift some convicts to Salem. The women will occupy a fenced compound along State Street, formerly the Oregon Women's Correctional Center.

The compound currently operates as a 176-bed men's minimum-security prison, next door to the walled Oregon State Penitentiary, a maximum-security men's prison.

"We have a pretty immediate need to carve out some additional women's beds somewhere in the system," said Nathan Allen, planning and budget administrator for the state Department of Corrections. "That unit, based on its size and proximity here in Salem to some work opportunities for women, just made a lot of sense."

Tentative plans call for moving the women inmates to Salem in September, said Jeanine Hohn, a Corrections Department spokeswoman.

Relocation plans for male inmates now occupying the minimum-security prison haven't been determined, officials said.

"We're working out the details of it," Allen said. "The men that are currently there would be relocated to other housing environments, probably in some temporary emergency beds somewhere in another existing facility."

The state prison system consists of 14 institutions, collectively housing about 14,000 inmates.

Coffee Creek is the sole prison for women.

Five men's prisons operate in Salem: Oregon State Penitentiary and the adjacent minimum-security lockup, Oregon State Correctional Institution, Mill Creek Correctional Facility and Santiam Correctional Institution.

Corrections Department administrators recently proposed closing three prisons, including Mill Creek and Santiam, as part of a $52 million budget-cutting plan. The cuts were fashioned in response to Gov. Ted Kulongoski's order that state agencies slice 9 percent from the final 12 months of their 2009-11 budgets.

Kulongoski nixed the prison closures, saying he wasn't willing to use his powers to commute the sentences of nearly 1,000 convicted felons. Instead, the governor plans to ask the Legislative Emergency Board to dip into a reserve fund to cover the $15.3 million cost of keeping the three prisons open.

Officials said a prison work group has been studying ways to deal with Coffee Creek's crowding issue for a couple months.

Converting the Salem prison back into a women's prison emerged as the best option.

"It's moving forward," Allen said. "It's really a question now just of timing."

The Wilsonville prison opened in autumn 2001, becoming Oregon's first new women's prison in 36 years. After women inmates moved to Coffee Creek, OWCC was converted into a minimum-security men's prison.

Salem residents best remember OWCC for an escape by child killer Diane Downs.

In one of Oregon's most infamous crimes, Downs fatally shot one of her children and badly wounded two others in 1983. In 1987, Downs scaled a prison fence in broad daylight, then hitched a ride and spent 10 days on the lam with three men living in a rundown house along State Street, less than a mile from the prison.

Downs was recaptured after investigators searched her cell and discovered a blank piece of paper with indentations that turned out to be a map to the house where she was hiding.

Sent out of state by Oregon prison officials, Downs hatched other escape plots that were foiled in New Jersey and California.

In December 2008, Oregon's parole board denied her first request for parole, and she's still locked up in California.

The headline-grabbing escape by Downs placed a rare spotlight on OWCC. State leaders long neglected the women's prison as they built new prisons for male offenders. By the 1990s, OWCC was overcrowded and obsolete, lacking space for treatment and work programs.

Plans to build a new women's prison surfaced in the mid-1990s, stirring controversy about where it should be located. Salem leaders argued against building it here, stressing the presence of a handful of state prisons and the Oregon State Hospital.

In 1996, a strong united front in Salem persuaded a prison siting committee to rule out the capital city. The panel opted for Wilsonville, and then-Gov. John Kitzhaber concurred.

However, Wilsonville residents put up a fierce fight against the prison complex, consisting of medium-security and minimum-security sections for women, plus a co-gender intake center for inmates entering the prison system.

After years of political wrangling and legal challenges, the Oregon Supreme Court in 1999 rejected the last attempt by neighbors to block construction of the prison in Wilsonville.

The $171-million Coffee Creek complex, billed as a state-of-the-art replacement facility for OWCC, opened in October 2001. Female inmates in Salem were bused to Coffee Creek to occupy the new complex.

Nearly a decade later, prison population forecasters predict steady growth in the female inmate population, and prison managers are scrambling to find enough space for them.

Read more: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100613/NEWS/6130347/1001/news#ixzz0qpvDgKhb

Posted by lois at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2010

IN: Women prisoners raise money to help Indiana prison nursery

Inmates raise money to help Ind. prison nursery
Associated Press
June 7, 2010

INDIANAPOLIS —Inmates at prisons across Indiana have raised more than $5,600 to help support a parenting education program for pregnant offenders at the Indiana Women's Prison.

The state Department of Correction says the money was raised over a few weeks and donations are still coming in. Staff at the DOC's intake center at Plainfield also collected cash and other donations. Another $1,000 is still expected.

The money raised from cash donations and fundraisers such as food sales goes to help the Wee Ones Nursery, a prison unit that provides parenting education and ensures quality time to strengthen the mother-child bond.

To live with their newborns in the separate unit, mothers must have never been convicted of violent crimes and have less than 18 months left on their sentences.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-pregnantprisoners,0,6000900.story

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

June 06, 2010

Review- The Real Cost of Prisons Comix in Culture Magazine-So. Cal's Medical Marijuana Lifesytyle Magazine

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix
Thu, Jun 3, 2010

Entertainment Reviews, Reviews
The Real Cost of Prisons Comix

The Real Cost of Prisons Project (RCPP) director Lois Ahrens created the organization in 2000 to shine a spotlight on the more than 2 million people currently incarcerated in the U.S. Ahrens and her team are not interested in relieving convicts of personal responsibility, but instead focus on why so many people in our country are currently locked up—or mass-incarcerated. One of her goals was to create educational materials that could communicate complex ideas in real terms and make them interesting to people who had little use for data sheets and political talk. That led to 2008’s The Real Cost of Prisons Comix, a three-chapter graphic book illustrated by a host of talented artists and writers and filled with easy-to-understand histories of who really pays for the prison system, the “builders of the drug prison boom,” and the cycle of incarceration via government agencies such as multiple foster homes, low-paying jobs and the shame of circumstances. The book has been hailed by a dozen social activists, A People’s History of the United States author Howard Zinn among them. An innovative book, RCPP’s book is a harsh reality check for anyone who thinks every broken law deserves the maximum penalty, and should be a welcome resource for government agencies and drug law reformation advocates alike. The book retails for $12.95. For more information, visit www.realcostofprisons.org. (Stacy Davies)

Posted by lois at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2010

JAIL POPULATION DECLINES BY MORE THAN TWO PERCENT IN THE 12 MONTHS ENDING JUNE 30, 2009

JAIL POPULATION DECLINES BY MORE THAN TWO PERCENT IN THE 12 MONTHS ENDING JUNE 30, 2009
June 3, 2010 (Bureau of Justice Statistics)

WASHINGTON – As of midyear 2009, 767,620 inmates were held in custody of county and city jail authorities, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, announced today. During the 12-month period ending June 30, 2009, the local jail population declined by 2.3 percent (down 17,936 inmates). This is the first decline in the U.S. jail population since BJS implemented the Annual Survey of Jails in 1982. The number of male inmates decreased 1.7 percent (down nearly 12,000) and female inmates decreased 6 percent (down more than 5,900).

Local jails, unlike prisons, are confinement facilities usually operated by a local law enforcement agency. In 2009 approximately 62 percent of jail inmates were unconvicted and being held pending arraignment, awaiting trial, or conviction. The remainder (38 percent) had been convicted and awaiting sentencing, had been sentenced to serve time in jail or were awaiting transfer to serve time in state or federal prisons. At midyear 2009, jail authorities were also responsible for supervising more than 70,000 offenders outside of the jail facilities, including 11,800 under electronic monitoring, 11,200 in weekend programs, 17,700 in community service programs, and 12,400 in other pretrial release programs.

The total rated capacity for all jails nationwide reached 849,544 beds at midyear 2009, up from an estimated 828,413 beds at midyear 2008 (an increase of 2.6 percent) The percent of capacity occupied at midyear 2009 (90.4 percent) was the lowest since 2001 (90.0 percent).

Jail population declines were mostly concentrated in large jails. Among the 171 jail jurisdictions with 1,000 or more inmates on an average day, two-thirds reported a decline. Seven jurisdictions reported a drop of more than 500 inmates (accounting for 29 percent of the decline nationwide). Miami-Dade County, FL, with a drop of 1,090, and Orange County, FL, with a drop of 944, led the nation in overall decline in their inmate population.

Local jails admitted an estimated 12.8 million persons during the 12 months ending June 30, 2009, or about 17 times the size of the midyear inmate population (767,620 inmates). More than four in 10 (42 percent) admissions during the last week of June 2009 were to the largest jail jurisdictions with an average daily jail population of 1,000 or more inmates. Small jail jurisdictions holding fewer than 50 inmates accounted for 6.0 percent of all jail admissions, but they admitted about 35 times the size of their inmate population.

The report, Jail Inmates at Midyear 2009 – Statistical Tables (NCJ 230122), was written by BJS statistician Todd Minton. Following publication, the report can be found at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2195.

Posted by lois at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2010

NH: Justice system overhaul: Bill's goal is to save money, reduce prison recidivism

"Some of these violations are a new crime entirely, but many are technical in nature," he said. "We've never had the flexibility of having intermediate sentences for parole violations, it's been easy to do it the old way, without thinking about the cost."
Another harsh reality that needed to be acknowledged is that many parolees reoffend because they have some sort of substance abuse or mental problem and can't get the proper treatment in prison because of a lack of resources, according to Broderick.
Of the 160 women incarcerated at the women's prison in Goffstown, 70 percent have some sort of mental health or substance abuse problem, he said.
"It's not a coincidence that people with these issues are behind bars," he said. "We had to ask ourselves how can we ensure them better success when they leave prison? We can pretend there's no problem or pretend that being incarcerated would solve all their mental health or substance abuse problems, or we can do something about it." ---New Hampshire Chief Justice John Broderick

Justice system overhaul: Bill's goal is to save money, reduce prison recidivism

By Aaron Sanborn
asanborn@fosters.com
Sunday, May 16, 2010

DOVER — Budget restraints and a growing prison population have led lawmakers to take a closer look at the parole system and consider alternatives to incarceration.

Officials are hoping Senate Bill 500, a bill on the way to Gov. John Lynch's office, will address both issues and then some.

Lynch supports and is expected to sign the measure, according to spokesman Colin Manning. The legislation focuses on preventing repeat offenders from going back to jail by increasing the availability of substance abuse and mental health treatment as well as increasing supervision for high-concern individuals who are most likely to reoffend.

It also calls for the release of all nonviolent offenders after they have served 120 percent of their minimum prison sentences, a move geared toward freeing up the courts from holding unnecessary parole hearings. Other stipulations include a 90-day prison sentence spent in special programming for parole violators, instead of making violators serve their remaining maximum sentence.

Finally, all prisoners who haven't been previously paroled would be released nine months before their maximum sentences expire.

The logic behind the bill is to reduce the prison population and costs to the state.

Lawmakers say New Hampshire has been one of the safest states in the nation for the last 10 years, but despite that, the state prison population has increased by 31 percent in that period, resulting in the corrections budget doubling from $52 million to $104 million.

The main causes are probation and parole revocations, which account for 57 percent of admissions to state prison, according to lawmakers.

Senate President Sylvia Larsen, D-Concord, is the primary sponsor of SB500 and said it has the potential to reduce recidivism by promoting community-based programming.

"It has both good implications for improving better public safety outcomes and reducing state spending, making wiser investments with our state dollars," she said.

New Hampshire Chief Justice John Broderick said focusing on community-based programming and adjusting parole is the only way to get the corrections budget down, which at $104 million far surpasses the court system's budget of $76.2 million.

Broderick, Attorney General Michael Delaney and several others were on a state task force assigned to examine ways to control the corrections budget. The group developed SB500 with the help of the Council of the State Governments' Justice Center, which helps states create policies based on research.

"Corrections is something we looked at extensively and we noticed it was becoming increasingly expensive and the failure rate was growing," Broderick said.

He said parole violations really stuck out to him and it became immediately apparent that something needed to be done about minor probation violations.

For example, a person could violate their probation by drinking a beer, and while it's still a violation, it doesn't make fiscal sense to make that person go back to prison and serve their maximum sentence.

"Some of these violations are a new crime entirely, but many are technical in nature," he said. "We've never had the flexibility of having intermediate sentences for parole violations, it's been easy to do it the old way, without thinking about the cost."

Another harsh reality that needed to be acknowledged is that many parolees reoffend because they have some sort of substance abuse or mental problem and can't get the proper treatment in prison because of a lack of resources, according to Broderick.

Of the 160 women incarcerated at the women's prison in Goffstown, 70 percent have some sort of mental health or substance abuse problem, he said.

"It's not a coincidence that people with these issues are behind bars," he said. "We had to ask ourselves how can we ensure them better success when they leave prison? We can pretend there's no problem or pretend that being incarcerated would solve all their mental health or substance abuse problems, or we can do something about it."

The state is hoping to reinvest whatever savings comes from SB500 back into community-based programming dealing with mental health and substance abuse, according to Broderick.

Some, including the state Parole Board, have criticized the bill for being too soft on crime, but Broderick says something needs to change because "failure is expensive."

"If we don't change anything, nothing will change other than we'll incarcerate more people," he said.

Programs similar to SB500 are being tried in Kansas and Texas, he added.

The state Department of Corrections is in favor of bill, according to department spokesman Jeff Lyons.

He said the state now relies on county-level programs but is limited itself, outside of traditional probation, electronic monitoring and administrative home confinement.

"We're supporting the bill because we feel strongly it will go quite a ways to making offenders successful in the community," he said. "There's more emphasis on community-based treatment in an effort to keep them from returning."

The DOC estimates the bill will decrease state general fund expenditures by $22,862 in fiscal year 2011 and could result in a savings of $3,210,247 by 2014. Most of the initial savings would come from marginal savings, such as costs for medical, food, clothing and inmate pay.

By 2013, the state would start to see more savings from staff and the elimination of contracts they have with county facilities to house overflow inmates.

Lyons said he's optimistic about a portion of the bill that calls for the early release of inmates nearing the end of their maximum sentence.

"We have over 200 prisoners a year that max out of their sentences, and once they're done, they're done, and we have no authority over them whatsoever," he said.

Being released into society without any structure often leads to these prisoners reoffending and ending up back in prison, Lyons said.

"If we can get them out nine months early and get them some treatment, at least we can help them make an attempt of getting back on track," he said.

The DOC also has taken its own steps to reduce recidivism by expanding its division of community corrections. It was expanded through a federal grant and by using leftover funds from a discontinued academy program.

Lyons said the academy program was limited to only first-time offenders and involved multiple treatment programs. He said the state's focus now is to open up treatment programs to a wider range of prisoners.

The state also is looking to hire case counselors to help develop treatment programs for inmates, a job that now falls to the parole officers, Lyons said.

"This would allow for the parole officers to focus more on law enforcement, while councilors can focus on counseling," he said.

Community-based programming and alternative sentencing programs have been successful on the jail population at the county level.

Strafford County has numerous community programs and alternative sentencing options available, including a drug court and drug academy, mental health court, therapeutic communities within the jail, community work programs and traditional pre- and post-trial monitoring.

County Administrator Ray Bower said the county has a less than 10 percent failure rate in its programs, which save the county more than $6 million annually.

"Based on our success from early release and monitoring, as long as the state is committed to helping these early release inmates be successful, I have no doubt it will be successful," he said.

However, he did caution there are sometimes differences between a jail inmate and prison inmate, based on seriousness of crime, and notes the state needs to be cautious about how they apply some of the new policies.

SB500 does call for a risk assessment of all parolees to determine their risk of reoffending.

Other bills geared toward reducing the recidivism rate include:

— House Bill 621: Establishes earlier time frames for conducting a pretrial examination by a psychiatrist or psychologist, requires the establishment of mental illness screening procedures and establishes new procedures for the appointment of counsel for a person with a mental illness. This bill has a Senate hearing set for May 26.

— HB1177: Establishes a committee to study educational and career development programs for youths and young adults in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. That bill has passed both the House and Senate.
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100516/GJNEWS_01/705169872/-1/fosnews

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

May 05, 2010

Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment: Family Survivial Guide

FREE Family Survival Guide

FREE! is a grassroots collective of people impacted by the hardships resulting from a loved one‘s imprisonment. Our mission is to support, strengthen and empower impacted families through peer-to-peer support –“each one teach one,” self-advocacy and self-development through trainings, public education and community dialogue, waging and supporting grassroots and policy campaigns (such as the NY Campaign for Telephone Justice) and creating and promoting media products that reflect the voices and experiences of those most impacted by a culture of mass incarceration.

This publication was written by family members of people who are incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. This resource guide was created in the spirit of unity, and as a companion for understanding, navigating and healing.
This guide is focused on NY but is a great model for other states.

Each chapter of the survival guide contains answers to common questions as well as personal stories from our members who have experienced what you are going through now or may come to face in the future. These personal stories and resources can help guide you in your decision-making and action processes. The Appendix contains a list of resources that members of FREE have engaged to continue this work.
To get a copy of this 100 page guide contact:
Families Rally for Emancipation and Empowerment
PO Box 90, Syracuse, NY 13201
Email: freefamiliesinc@gmail.com
http://www.freefamilies.us/

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

A conversation with authr Piper Kerman, author of "Organge is the New Black"

A conversation with author Piper Kerman: How a Smith grad's post-college path led to prison
By Suzanne Wilson
Created 05/05/2010

Piper Kerman's memoir, "Orange Is the New Black: My Year In a Women's Prison," begins with her graduation from Smith College on what she describes as a perfect spring day in 1992.

"In the sun-dappled quad, bagpipes whined and Texas governor Ann Richards exhorted my classmates and me to get out there and show the world what kind of women we were. My family was proud and beaming as I took my degree."

Many of Kerman's friends went on to graduate school or jobs in big cities. "I, on the other hand, stayed on in Northampton, Massachusetts. ... I was a well-educated young lady from Boston with a thirst for bohemian counterculture and no clear plan."

That lack of a plan, plus a taste for adventure, would eventually lead Kerman to prison, the experience that is the subject of her recently released book. The reference to orange in the title is a play on the two worlds that collide in Kerman's story. One was Manhattan, where orange was experiencing a surge of popularity rivaling black among the fashionista set, according to a story in The New York Times around the time Kerman was sent away; the other, of course, was prison, where inmates were often issued orange jumpsuits.

Bad influence

How did Kerman wind up behind bars?

She got a job waiting tables at a local micro brewery and fell in with what she describes as a loose social circle that included "a clique of impossibly stylish and cool lesbians in their mid-thirties." She got involved with a woman who is called Nora Jansen in the book; most names in the book were changed.

Jansen, Kerman learns over drinks one January night at the Hotel Northampton, turns out to be making good money as part of a drug-smuggling enterprise headed by a West African drug kingpin.

"I was completely floored," Kerman writes. "It all sounded dark, awful, scary, wild - and exciting beyond belief." After the two women grow close, Jansen asks Kerman to come with her to Indonesia, where Kerman starts out handling some of the financial wire transactions related to the heroin smuggling business and winds up running drug money herself.

Kerman's narrative begins in 1993 with her description of landing one day in Brussels, Belgium, dressed like a 24-year-old professional, and discovering that her cash-stuffed suitcase hasn't made the flight.

"Had my bag been detected? I knew that carrying more than $10,000 undeclared was illegal, let alone carrying it for a West African drug lord. Were the authorities closing in on me?"

Though her suitcase shows up on the next flight, Kerman's panic that day in Brussels makes her realize she's in way over her head. When Jansen later asks her to get in even deeper by transporting the heroin itself, Kerman decides she has to make her break. She severs her ties to Jansen in 1994, relocates to California, and, she writes, puts her criminal life behind her.

Knock at the door

Years later, in 1998, Kerman is happily settled in New York City, where she is working as a freelance producer and living with Larry Smith, a magazine editor who will become her husband. One day, while she's at home, two U.S. customs officers show up at her door.

"We are here to notify you that you've been indicted in federal court in Chicago, on charges of drug smuggling and money laundering," one tells her. Nora Jansen and 14 others were also indicted. Jansen served about nine years, Kerman said.

To get a relatively short sentence - Kerman wound up serving 13 months - she pleaded guilty in October 1998 rather than face trial. Proceedings against the other players, however, notably the drug kingpin himself, dragged on for years. Because the authorities had wanted Kerman to be able to testify against him, she didn't actually begin serving her sentence until Feb. 4, 2004. "We had spent the previous night at home; Larry had cooked me an elaborate dinner, and then we curled up in a ball on our bed, crying. Now we were heading much too quickly through a drab February morning toward the unknown. As we made a right onto the federal reservation and up a hill to the parking lot, a hulking building with a vicious-looking-triple-layer razor-wire fence loomed."

Most of "Orange Is the New Black," which was published by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House Inc., is about what happens after that. Kerman vividly portrays the details of prison life - the uniforms, the strip searches, the endless rules and regulations, the five-times-a-day head counts, the bordering-on-obsessive interest in exercise and food.

"Institutional food required a Zen outlook," she writes. The inmates would go crazy when they got something decent like chicken, she writes, but that was rare. "Far more often lunch was bologna and rubbery orange cheese on white bread and endless amounts of cheap and greasy starch in the form of rice, potatoes, and horrible frozen pizzas."

Woven into her portrayal of prison life are portraits of some of the inmates Kerman got to know, nearly all of whom came from backgrounds vastly different from hers. "What I've written," she told me, "is my own experience and I don't purport to speak for all of them. Most of the women in prison come from poor and vulnerable communities - and they certainly didn't have the opportunity to go to Smith College."

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the mega-bestselling "Eat, Pray, Love," writes of Kerman's memoir: "I loved this book, to a depth and degree that caught me by surprise. ... What I did not expect from this memoir was the affection, compassion, and even reverence that Piper Kerman demonstrates for all the women she encountered while she was locked away in jail. That was the surprising twist: that behind the bars of women's prisons grow extraordinary friendships, ad hoc families, and delicate communities. In the end, this book is not just a tale of prisons, drugs, crime, or justice; it is, simply put, a beautifully told story about how incredible women can be, and I will never forget it."

Kerman, now 40, is a vice president at a communications firm that works with foundations and nonprofits. She and her husband live in Brooklyn.

I recently interviewed her by phone about her newly released book. What follows are edited excerpts from that conversation.

*****

Q: You described yourself in the book as having been a "reckless, audacious fool." How would you describe the person you are now?

A: Older and wiser. The really important change is that I have a much deeper understanding of the impact of my actions on others. That's what lies at the heart of crime - indifference to the suffering of others. A criminal justice system that brought people to confront the harm they've caused would be a productive system. But that's not the way these sentences work now.

Q: Now that the book is out, have you been hearing from people at Smith?

A: Throughout the process of writing the book, my old college friends were a huge cheering section. Since it's come out, I've heard from lots of people from Smith through Facebook or email, not necessarily women I went to college with.

Q: What's been the reaction?

A: There are many, many accomplished Smith women who have accomplished great things. My story is about screwing up and confronting failure. It's unusual for someone who enjoyed as many opportunities as I did to screw up so badly so I think that's one reason people are interested in the story.

Q: But it struck me that the way you got in trouble - through someone you'd gotten romantically involved with - wasn't hard to understand.

A: I think one of the things that's unsettling for a lot of folks is just how happenstance these things are. You cross paths with the wrong person at the right time and you make a bad decision and certainly I made some really bad decisions in my early 20s. The fact is that those decisions are not so deliberate, but are quickly and thoughtlessly made. That's often how things happen.

Q: What are you hearing from women who have served time in prison?

A: In recent weeks, I have heard from quite a few women who were in Danbury with me. They're very enthused about the book. I've also heard from many women who are excited that someone is talking about [women in prison.] Women are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population and that's a sad fact. Many of them are mothers and a large percentage of them had custody of their children before they were locked up, so it has a ripple effect on the whole family.

Q: How are the women you knew at Danbury faring now?

A: Most of the ones I've heard from who are doing well were probably the ones who had more of a support network [on the outside] in the first place. There are others I think about often. I wonder how they are and how they're doing, and I don't know. Some are back in, and that's very sad because it's such a wasted opportunity. There were many 18- and 19-year-old girls there and at that age they are so receptive to positive or negative influences. The fact that there's so little rehabilitative effort built into the system is really a missed, wasted opportunity.

Q: You write that prison changed you. What stayed with you after you got out - or did you just want to put the whole experience behind you?

A: There's not a day that goes by that I don't think at some point about the experience. Whether it's the food on your plate or the brand of shampoo you're pulling off the shelf at CVS, there's always some touch point that can trigger a memory about prison.

There are some good memories because you forge these powerful relationships. The misconception about prison is that it's always violent, and all the prisoners are uncontrollably violent. That really ran counter to my experience. In fact, prison is a horrible experience but for the most part, the women there are trying to navigate that bad experience as best they can and when they can they help each other out. That's not something people think about when they think about prisoners.

Q: What was it like to come back to the outside world?

A: Overwhelming, but at least I had so much help. There are three consistent stumbling blocks people face when they come out: finding safe and stable housing; getting a job; and reuniting with family. I was very fortunate. I had a home and job - a friend had created a job for me and that's so unusual. That's not true for most folks. I'm also not a mother so I think in ways I had a much easier time.

Q: Having Larry in your life must have made a huge difference.

A: He was incredible during the entire ordeal. The ties prisoners are able to keep with family and friends on the outside make a very, very big difference to coming home successfully. It was amazing to come home and he took great care of me. We got married in 2006 and we're doin' good.

Q: There's a sad passage in the book when you write about the women who seemed to have absolutely no one in their lives who visited or stayed in touch.

A: It's not that uncommon and again, with the long sentences, it's especially true that their ties to the outside world become more tenuous.

Q: How did your experience affect your views about prison sentences for drug crimes?

A: There are so many nonviolent drug offenders in prison and prison cells cost about $20,000 per prisoner, per year. So especially for folks addicted to drugs, it seems like there should be much more sensible ways to deal with them. There's a program in Hawaii, called Project Hope. Folks who commit low-level offenses are sentenced to probation or parole, in other words, to supervision in the community. If they screw up, they'll get locked up for short periods of time.

When I was in prison, I found myself standing next to women who were serving seven or 10 years and it was hard to believe my offense was so different from what they had done. The sentences are an outgrowth of the court system not working. They had probably had to rely on a public defender because they were poor.

Q: You've gotten involved in prison reform work since your release, is that right?

A: I don't know how anyone could go through this experience and not think about it all the time. I don't know how anyone could witness the waste of money and human potential and not be deeply affected. Every single person who pays taxes should be asking how money is spent on the prison system because I don't think it's spent very productively.

I'm on the board of the Women's Prison Association, a nonprofit in New York that's been around about as long as Smith. It's a great organization. We can help provide immediate housing for women when they come out, we can help with apartment placements and family issues. We work with women who have committed low-level offenses and try to find alternatives that will prevent them from being sent to prison. We do some advocacy work - we worked on a law in New York that stopped the barbaric practice of shackling women prisoners when they're in labor.

Q: One last thing: You learned yoga at Danbury from one of the inmates and you also write about running as a way to cope. Are you still running and doing yoga?

A: Yes, but not so obsessively. My life is a lot less stressful now.

Suzanne Wilson can be reached at swilson@gazettenet.com.
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2008 All rights reserved
Source URL: http://www.gazettenet.com/2010/05/05/a-conversation-with-author-piper-kerman

Posted by lois at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2010

Book review: ‘Orange Is the New Black' by Piper Kerman. An educated, middle-class white woman ends up in federal prison for a drug offense.

Book review: ‘Orange Is the New Black' by Piper Kerman
An educated, middle-class white woman ends up in federal prison for a drug offense.
By Diana Wagman
April 25, 2010

Many of us have done something that could have gotten us arrested. The pot we smoked in college, the time we sold a couple of hits of ecstasy to a friend, even being in the room when a bigger drug deal went down could have sunk us. Had it gone just a little awry or had the wrong person shown up at the wrong time, we could be wearing that orange jumpsuit.

Piper Kerman's wild youth came back and kicked her in the butt. She had followed her drug-dealing lover halfway across the world and been persuaded to ferry some money — one time only — through international customs. Five years later, the Feds appeared at her door and busted her. It was a conspiracy charge, someone had named her and under the specifics of the law she was almost definitely going to jail. This was despite the top-notch attorney she could hire, despite the support of her parents, her boyfriend, her boyfriend's parents and all her friends, and despite the fact that she had lived an exemplary life in the meantime. She had done the crime. She pleaded guilty and in return was awarded a relatively light sentence, 15 months.

Doesn't sound like a long time, and "compared to most of these women's sentences, fifteen months were a blip" — but not to Kerman her "first time down." To those of us "on the outs," able to run to the grocery store, use the phone and take a shower in private, a year can pass in a blink. But in "Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison," Kerman puts us inside, from the first strip search (yes, even women have to squat and cough) to the prison-issue unwashed underwear to the cucumbers and raw cauliflower that count as salad. The 13 months she serves, two off for good behavior, are by far the longest of her life.

This is not Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment." It's not Chester Himes' "Yesterday Will Make You Cry." When Kerman looks up at the sun, she sees the sunshine and it feels warm. She is not a poet or a master of metaphor. But this book is impossible to put down because she could be you. Or your best friend. Or your daughter. She's a graduate of Smith College who fell in love with a romantic idea of being bad and dangerous. Her flirtation with the underworld was very brief, and she got out, came home, met a nice man and landed a good job. And then she went to prison.

Don't think this is a "white girl goes to prison and finds meaning in her life" kind of book. Kerman had plenty of gratitude for how good her life was before those two federal agents came knocking. It's not about the "colorful characters" she meets or how she gets to know — and like — women from the projects. From the beginning, she has a lot of self-awareness and appreciation for how lucky she is. She is educated and pretty, so the prison officials treat her better. Her fiancé comes to visit her every single week. Her parents come almost as often. Her friends send her books and letters daily. She knows many of her fellow inmates have committed crimes no worse than hers, but because of overworked Legal Aid lawyers and limited resources they are in for many years while she has only months. Kerman went to Danbury Federal Prison in Connecticut not long before Martha Stewart went to Alderson (in West Virginia) and Stewart is a kind of running joke throughout. There are obvious parallels between the two blond, advantaged WASPS. Kerman is well aware that when she and Stewart are released, they each have a family, a house and a job waiting.

So much of this book is funny and warm, but the most striking thing is the hopelessness of it. This is not a book about redemption in the penal system. Kerman worries about every inmate who "packs out" and goes home. Will she make it? She notes that "about eighty percent of the women in U.S. prisons have children," but when they leave, some after many years, with only the clothes they're wearing and a few dollars, without jobs or places to live, what kind of parents will they be? The pre-release classes are a joke. No one tells these women how to survive, much less thrive on the outs. No wonder "two-thirds of all released prisoners are locked up again." Before they leave, rather than celebrating, many prisoners get depressed.

Through these women, Kerman comes to understand the seriousness of her crime. Not because it was illegal, or because she is in prison, but because of the women she meets, many of whom suffer from addiction. "[F]or the first time I really understood how my choices made me complicit in their suffering. I was the accomplice to their addiction." She continues: "A lengthy term of community service working with addicts on the outside would probably have driven the same truth home and been a hell of a lot more productive for the community. … Instead, our system of ‘corrections' is about arm's-length revenge and retribution. … Then its overseers wonder why people leave prison more broken than when they went in."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-piper-kerman-20100425,0,5173956.story

Posted by lois at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2010

Mothers among the fastest growing prison population

Mothers among the fastest growing prison population
by Cat Mayin Koo
March 11, 2010

She squared her posture and with a piercing, straight-ahead look, the 49-year-old grandmother of six said, “Crack. I was ad­dicted to crack for over 20 years.”

Darlene Horton, now an advocate at Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers, paid the price for her addiction. The Peoria native went to prison twice, the first for most of a year in 1997 and the second for two and a half years less than a decade later.

Both were nonviolent offenses that left her four children without a parent.

Horton’s tale is emblematic of one of the fastest growing prison populations in the state and county: mothers.

Between 1990 and 2005, the number of women in Illinois prisons quadrupled, according to the state Department of Corrections.

At both the state and county level, about 80 percent of women are convicted of nonviolent crimes and around 80 percent of them are single mothers, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Cook County Sheriff's office.

A main reason for this dramatic upswing is most of these crimes – up to 80 percent - are drug related, said Gail Smith, executive director of the advocacy group.

"Sentencing has gotten much, much harsher on drugs since the ‘war on drugs’ began in the 1980s," Smith said.

Changed laws impacted more women, poor and African-Americans, said Patricia O’Brien, a social work researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago who studies incarcerated mothers.

Penalties for crack cocaine, found more often in poor black neighborhoods, are 10 times more severe than penalties for powder cocaine, which is more expensive and found more in affluent white communities.

“It did next to nothing to the drug king pins, but it destroyed many, many lives,” Smith said.

Stacking trauma

Back in the downtown office, Horton unravelled her personal history of abuse, incest and rape.

Horton began using drugs to “start looking for love and the feeling of not feeling,” she said.

In Cook County, eight of 10 female offenders have been physically or sexually abused and more than three-quarters of them are addicted to drugs.

O’Brien found the link between abuse and addiction common in her research.

“Women tend to internalize their pain and that’s where the drug use and the alcohol come to play – self-medication,” O’Brien said.
Smith described imprisonment as adding to this pain.

“Most women who come out of prison have been abused, so you’re putting trauma on trauma,” Smith said

O’Brien’s research shows that trauma is one of the pathways that lead women to crime. Others include early exposure to crime and the absence of a parent.

Missing moms

Horton’s children never came to visit her when she was in prison. They were hours away and didn’t have the money or means to get to the Decatur Correctional Center.

Phone calls were a rare luxury. The only contact with her children Horton had was when her oldest daughter, Nicole, who was 17 at the time of Horton’s first incarceration, would write.

One letter stuck out to Horton.

“I wasn’t allowed an emergency phone call when my son got shot in the head,” Horton said.

Horton found out about the incident in a letter and was threatened with more severe punishment when she kept asking for the call.

Her incarceration devastated her children and the effects still linger, Horton said. Jeffrey and Randy, her sons were both imprisoned as young men.

“My oldest daughter, she stressed to me on many occasions that she hated me,” Horton said. Rebuilding that relationship was a slow process, Horton said.

Smith agreed that incarceration tears a family apart.

“Any time you’ve had a separation,” Smith said, “the mom and kids need to overcome the trauma of the separation and the mistrust and anger and everything that ensued from that arrest.”

Treatment

In Illinois, imprisoned mothers get little or no contact visits with their children, O’Brien said.

Yes, there are programs geared specifically for mothers, such as the 15-bed MOM’s program offered to pregnant or postpartum offenders through the county’s Women’s Justice Services.The off-site program rewards good behavior for non-violent offenders and allows women to serve a portion of their sentences with their children.

But these programs are available to a scanty few of the women who need them. Most women who give birth in prison usually have less than two days with their child, O’Brien said.

“As the population increased, money for programs decreased,” O’Brien said.

Drug treatment is another area that lacks adequate resources.

Roughly 80 percent of women in state prisons need substance abuse treatment, but only 16 percent will ever receive it, according to data from the Illinois Department of Corrections.

“People don’t understand that addiction keeps going even though you’re locked up,” Horton said, “and the next time you decide to get high, it takes off full speed, like you never quit.”

Within a year, 39 percent of released women will re-offend and within three years, 58 percent of women will re-offend, according to a study by the National Institute of Justice.

Part of the reason why incarceration is ineffective at preventing second offenses is because of the way women are put through the system, Smith said.

“Corrections tend to be based on a male model,” Smith said. “The assumption is that you are dealing with someone who is incarcerated for a violent offense.”

Better options might be what Smith calls gender-specific, trauma-informed treatment that would take into account abuse and drug dependency.

The Women’s Treatment Center offers such treatment, allowing women convicted of nonviolent drug offenses to receive dependency treatment and complete their sentences with their children.

Out of the 45 participants who completed the program over the last three years, none have been reincarcerated. State recidivism rates for women hover above 45 percent.

“Until we understand that this is more a public health problem than a criminal issue, we’re going to continue to have people recidivate,” Smith said.

“We know we’re hurting families and we’re failing to address something that prevents futures crimes and in the next generation,” she said.
Side Bar: and URLs for Graphs on Women and Incarceration: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=161609

'War on drugs'

The modern “war on drugs” that began in the 1980s marked a metamorphosis in the way America policed and punished.

A slew of drug laws were altered to have heavier penalties.

One of the effects of this is drug offenders in the nation’s prisons skyrocketed by almost 1,100 percent from around 41,000 in 1980 to 490,000 in 2003, while national violent crime rates plummeted, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

In Chicago, drug arrests in 1980 made up only 5 percent of total arrests. By 2003 they made up 28 percent of all arrests, according to a report by the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice nonprofit.

Girls and justice

Girls make up the fastest growing population of juvenile delinquents, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

National trends show that crime is dropping, but in Illinois in 2006, there were 26 percent more female juveniles incarcerated than in 1996, according to the state Department of Corrections.

“Changes in enforcement mean that girls are being put away more,” said Meda Chesney-Lind, a researcher at the University of Hawaii-Manoa who studies girls in gangs.

Even if crimes that girls commit tend to be less violent than those of boys, sentencing has gotten more severe, Chesney-Lind said.

“If a girl runs away and she comes back home, her family could call her in on burglary,” she said.

Most girls that get in trouble have a history of trauma or abuse, according to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. Experts like Chesney-Lind say that girls in juvenile facilities need trauma-informed treatment that consider histories of abuse.
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=161609

Posted by lois at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2010

Woman charged in breast milk assault on jailer

Woman charged in breast milk assault on jailer
March 7, 2010

OWENSBORO, Ky.—A woman in jail for public intoxication was accused of assaulting a jailer by squirting breast milk at her. WYMT-TV reported that a 31-year-old woman was arrested Thursday on a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication. But as she was changing into an inmate uniform, she squirted breast milk into the face of a female deputy who was with her.
The woman now faces a felony charge of third degree assault on a police officer. Her bond was set at $10,000.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2010/03/07/woman_charged_in_breast_milk_assault_on_jailer/?s_campaign=8315

Posted by lois at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2010

Utah Anti-Abortion Bill Citing ‘Reckless Act’ Is Withdrawn

Utah Anti-Abortion Bill Citing ‘Reckless Act’ Is Withdrawn
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: March 4, 2010
NY Times

DENVER — A sweeping anti-abortion statute in Utah that would have allowed up to life in prison for a woman whose fetus died from her intentional or reckless behavior was withdrawn by its sponsor on Thursday and will be revised to be narrower in scope.

The original bill, which was sent to Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, for his consideration — and set off a firestorm of anxiety and criticism from abortion rights and women’s advocacy groups around the country — now goes back to the Legislature, neither signed nor vetoed.

The sponsor, Representative Carl D. Wimmer, a Republican, said he had removed a key clause that would have allowed prosecution under Utah’s criminal homicide laws for a “reckless act of the woman” that resulted in death to a fetus. Language will remain, he said, that makes a woman’s “intentional” actions, if resulting in the death of her fetus in an illegal abortion, a felony.

The bill was prompted by a case last year in which a 17-year-old who was seven months pregnant sought to induce a miscarriage by paying a man to beat her. She was arrested, but released by a judge who said seeking an abortion was not a crime.

Legal abortions, performed by a doctor, would not be affected by the old bill or its replacement. But Utah has statutes on the books intended to discourage abortions, including a parental consent requirement for minors.

The Legislature adjourns Thursday. Abortion rights groups had urged the governor to veto the bill, saying the language about “reckless” acts could open the door to a witch hunt where every miscarriage was potentially subject to police questioning.

Angie Welling, a spokeswoman for the governor, said Mr. Herbert supported the bill’s aims but “also believes very strongly that the state should not enact a law with unintended consequences.”
A version of this article appeared in print on March 5, 2010, on page A15 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/us/05utah.html?ref=us

Posted by lois at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2010

Lynn Paltrow of National Advocates for Pregnant Women on Democracy Now on Utah Abortion Bill That Could Punish Women for Miscarriages

See/hear an excellent interview with Lynn Paltrow at:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/3/pregnant_women_utah
and...

Utah Bill Would Criminalize Illegal Abortions
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: February 28, 2010- NY Times

DENVER — The origins of Utah State House Bill 12 lie in an act of dark and desperate violence.

Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, has said he agrees generally with the goals of legislation that would criminalize illegal abortions. The measure is now awaiting his signature or veto.

Last May in a small town in eastern Utah, a 17-year-old girl, seven months pregnant, paid a man she had just met $150 to beat her up in hopes of inducing a miscarriage that would resolve her crisis. He obliged, taking her to a basement and kicking her repeatedly in the stomach.

The fetus survived the assault and was born in August. The attacker went to jail. And the girl, whose name was never released because she was under age, became the center of a legal debate — and the piece of legislation now awaiting the governor’s signature or veto. The bill would formally criminalize what she did, that is, to seek an illegal abortion.

If it is signed into law by Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican, who has said he agrees generally with its goals but is still studying the particulars, Utah would still allow legal abortions performed by a doctor. But it would go further than any other state, several legal experts said, in mapping out a much murkier question: when is a woman criminally liable for trying to end a pregnancy through other means or self-infliction?

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Carl D. Wimmer, a Republican and former police officer from the suburbs of Salt Lake City, said the beating case, and the decision by a judge last fall that the girl had committed no crime because seeking an abortion is not illegal, revealed “a loophole” in the law.

“A woman going out to seek any way to kill her unborn child, no matter how heinous or brutal, couldn’t be held liable,” Mr. Wimmer said.

But critics say legislation inspired by an unusual, perhaps even freakish criminal case, could open up a vast frontier around the question of intent and responsibility and give local prosecutors huge new powers to inquire about a woman’s intentions toward her unborn child.

For example, if a pregnant woman gets into a vehicle, goes on a wild ride way over the speed limit without wearing a seatbelt and crashes and the fetus is killed, is she a reckless driver? Or is she a reckless mother-to-be who criminally ignored the safety of her fetus?

Under the bill, a woman guilty of criminal homicide of her fetus could be punished by up to life in prison.

“So many things can happen, and it’s all in the eye of the beholder — that’s what’s very dangerous about this legislation,” said Marina Lowe, the legislative and policy counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, which has urged Mr. Herbert to veto the bill.

Some women’s advocacy groups say the bill simply codifies what many states are already doing, using existing laws about the unborn to prosecute apparently errant mothers.

Just last month in Iowa, for example, a pregnant woman who fell down the stairs at home confided to emergency workers that she was not sure she really wanted to have her child. Though the woman did not immediately miscarry from the fall, she was arrested anyway under a state law that makes it a criminal act to harm a fetus. She was released after two days in jail, and the charges were dropped.

At least 38 states have laws against fetal homicide, generally intended to create additional penalties when a pregnant woman is assaulted or killed. And two states, Delaware and New York, also have laws specifically making self-abortion a crime. Both laws were passed before the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

Some opponents of abortion also do not like the Utah bill because of the very fact that it does codify the language and limits of abortion law, with specific delineations about when ending a pregnancy in Utah is legal and when it is not.

“Well, it’s all right to kill a human being in this case, but not in this case,” said Jim Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, a national group that works for what it calls “pro-life concerns.”

“I would urge him to not sign this law and to send it back,” Mr. Sedlak said, referring to Mr. Herbert. “He should ask the Legislature to address the real problem of personhood in the womb.”

Whether the bill, if it does become law, would be a rarely used symbolic declaration or a widely used law enforcement tool is part of the debate as well.

“Prosecutors have a lot of discretion, and miscarriage is a sad but common event in connection with pregnancy,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a nonprofit advocacy group for birth control and abortion rights. “This bill would cast suspicion, potentially, on every single miscarriage.”

Nonsense, said Mr. Wimmer, the sponsor. He said the language in the bill requiring “intentional, knowing or reckless” acts by a woman against her unborn child sets a high bar that would allow questions to be asked only in the most glaring of cases.

Behavior by a mother that might harm but not kill her fetus, including use of alcohol or tobacco, would not be covered by the bill, he said. But, he added, a mother who killed her fetus by taking illegal drugs might conceivably be charged.

The 17-year-old girl’s child, meanwhile, was adopted by a Utah couple.

Supporters of the bill said a letter from the baby’s adoptive mother, read aloud by Mr. Wimmer at a legislative hearing on the bill, was a powerful emotional moment that may have swung some votes.

The bill was ultimately approved by overwhelming majorities in the Republican-controlled Legislature: 59 to 12 in the House and 24 to 4 in the Senate.

“When Representative Wimmer read the letter, about the little girl playing with bubbles in the bathtub and learning to crawl and so full of life, you could have heard a pin drop,” said Laura Bunker, director of United Families Utah, a group that worked on behalf of the bill. “And all of a sudden people realized that there was a victim here, and the victim was alive and had a future.”

Lynn M. Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a nonprofit group based in New York, said the focus on the child obscured the bleak story of the teenager, who also deserves, she said, empathy from the world, and the law.

“Almost nobody is speaking for her,” Ms. Paltrow said. “Why would a young woman get to a point of such desperation that she would invite violence against herself? Anybody that desperate is not going to be deterred by this statute.”

A version of this article appeared in print on March 1, 2010, on page A16 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/us/01abortion.html?scp=2&sq=utah&st=cse
This and other news about the criminalization of women can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

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

February 26, 2010

KY: Former woman prisoner files rape suit against CCA guard & CCA

Former inmate alleges rape at private prison

By Stephenie Steitzer February 25, 2010
Louisville Courier Journal

A former inmate at the beleaguered private women’s prison in Eastern Kentucky has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was repeatedly raped by a prison employee in 2007.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pikeville, alleges that the employee at the Otter Creek Correctional Center forced her to engage in non-consensual sexual acts between March and October 2007 and threatened to block her parole if she reported him to authorities.

The alleged victim also names Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America, which operates the prison under contract with the state, and the Department of Corrections as defendants. It alleges that they failed to properly screen, train and supervise the employee.

CCA spokesman Steve Owen said in an e-mail Thursday that the employee was terminated last March.

Owen said CCA has not yet received a copy of the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday, and could not comment further at this time.

Department of Corrections Commission LaDonna Thompson said Thursday that she had not yet seen the suit and could not comment.

It could not be determined whether the employee is facing criminal charges relating to the allegations.

A Kentucky State Police spokesman familiar with cases against former Otter Creek workers could not be reached for comment Thursday.

At least six workers at Otter Creek have been charged with sex-related crimes involving inmates at the facility.

Gov. Steve Beshear announced last month that the state will move more than 400 women prisoners out of Otter Creek given the allegations of sexual misconduct by male workers there.

The women prisoners will be transferred to the state-run Western Kentucky Correctional Complex in Fredonia this summer, and the nearly 700 male inmates now there will be moved to Otter Creek, which has more than 650 beds, and other prisons in the state.

CCA has been under fire since last summer after multiple inmates at Otter Creek made allegations that they were sexually assaulted by corrections officers and other workers there.

A Department of Corrections investigation found that prison authorities failed to investigate seven alleged incidents of sexual contact between workers and inmates since 2007. In four of those cases, the workers involved were fired.

But investigations required under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act were not conducted.

The suit filed this week states that the alleged victim originally denied that she had been raped because “she was so afraid of (the employee’s) threats regarding her parole.”

It says she told investigators last July that the incidents had occurred.

The suit says that the alleged victim was released on parole in September 2008 under the condition that she remain free of any parole violations for six years.

She seeks damages, including punitive damages, in an amount to be determined by a jury, according to the lawsuit.

Her attorney, William Butler Jr. of Louisville, did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100225/NEWS01/2250359/1008/Former+inmate+alleges+rape+at+private+prison

Posted by lois at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2010

Susan Burton, Founder of A New Way of Life nominated as a CNN hero

Dear Friends of A New Way of Life,

I am honored to share with you my nomination as a CNN Hero—hopefully we’ll make it to the top 10!

This week I am featured as “hero of the week”—please follow the link to a short video clip and post a comment. Thanks to all of you for your support. It feels wonderful to have A New Way of Life recognized for its efforts.

Yours,

Susan

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/cnnheroes.burton/index.html

Posted by lois at 08:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2010

Pregnant and Shackled: Hard Labor for Arizona's Immigrants

Pregnant and Shackled: Hard Labor for Arizona's Immigrants
By Valeria Fernandez, New America Media
Posted on January 28, 2010, Printed on January 30, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/145428/

PHOENIX, Ariz.-- Miriam Mendiola-Martinez, an undocumented immigrant charged with using someone else’s identity to work, gave birth to a boy on Dec. 21 at Maricopa Medical Center. After her C-section, she was shackled for two days to her hospital bed. She was not allowed to nurse her baby. And when guards walked her out of the hospital in shackles, she had no idea what officials had done with her child.

Like Mendiola-Martinez, pregnant inmates in Maricopa County Jail are routinely denied bond because they are undocumented immigrants. That means they can’t get out of jail for their childbirth, even if they are awaiting trial for a minor offense.

In some cases, undocumented immigrants are shackled as they are transported to the jail-contracted hospital, and shackled during and after childbirth.

Hospital authorities don't control this practice and medical personnel involved in these cases declined to be interviewed.

All hospitalized inmates are treated in the same manner as Mendiola-Martinez, according to Lt. Brain Lee, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. He said she had a “soft restraint” attached on one leg to her bed to prevent escape.

That soft restraint was a 12-foot-long chain.

“I could barely walk, I don’t think I could have escaped or even dared to run. I don’t think there was a need for them to do that,” said 34-year-old Mendiola-Martinez.

She says she was shackled during the two last months of her pregnancy too. Every time she had a pre-natal appointment, she waited in a small un-ventilated room with 20 other women. She had to sit in the floor. The chains were heavy and hurt her waist. Mendiola-Martinez often wept. She feared that her sadness could hurt the baby.

Unequal Justice

Mendiola’s story would have been different if she hadn’t been undocumented. She would have been released on bond before her baby was born because she had committed a non-violent crime, according to David Black, a criminal defense attorney who took her case pro-bono.

But in November 2006, Arizona voters approved a law that denies undocumented immigrants the right to post bail. Proposition 100 was authored by Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, as a way to keep undocumented immigrants who had been charged with “serious crimes” from being released.

The Arizona legislature included among those accusations minor offenses like possession of false documents, which undocumented immigrants frequently use to obtain employment.

The law, which is unique in the nation, is being challenged in the U.S. District Court of Arizona by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on the basis that it violates the Constitution by unjustly denying a select group of people a fair hearing. The lawsuit, however, doesn’t include the cases of pregnant women.

“I think Prop. 100 puts migrant women at a disadvantage and treats them unfairly,” said Bob McWhirter, a senior attorney with the Maricopa Legal Defender’s office.

About 1,500 pregnant women come through the Maricopa County Estrella jail every year. In 2009, 35 of them gave birth while in custody, according to Maricopa Medical Center records. More than 70 percent of the women detained in Maricopa County jails are accused of non-violent crimes and haven’t been sentenced yet. About 11 percent of them are undocumented immigrants. Health and county authorities say they don’t keep records on the immigration status or ethnicity of the women who give birth.

In October 2008, a federal judge ruled that conditions at the Maricopa County Jail, overseen by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, were unconstitutional and jeopardized the health and safety of the prisoners. The judge ordered jail officials to ensure that detainees received proper medical care, medicine and food that complied with federal standards. That same year, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care said the county’s jails did not comply with federal standards due to their failure to submit reports on jail conditions.

More Shackling Cases

Although Mendiola-Martinez’s story is not unique, it is difficult to track how many other women have shared her experience because most of them have been deported. Yet other detainees attest to the poor treatment of pregnant immigrants inside the county jails.

In October 2008, Alma Chacón, an undocumented immigrant arrested during a traffic stop for having outstanding unpaid tickets, delivered her baby in a “forensic restraint,” according to hospital records. Chacón said detention officers shackled her hands and legs during childbirth. She couldn’t nurse or hold her baby until she was released from immigration custody almost 70 days later.

Chacón’s case caught the attention of the federal Department of Justice, which is currently conducting a civil rights investigation into Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office.

The sheriff’s office says it doesn’t have a policy regarding the shackling of pregnant women. Spokesperson Aaron Douglas said they had no intention of changing the practice. But when questioned directly by New America Media about these cases, Arpaio said that everything was done “legally.” Yet, he added, he may consider reviewing the practice.

Still, critics point out that pregnant inmates who have been sentenced to state prison are treated better than inmates who are awaiting their sentencing in Maricopa County jails.

The Arizona Department of Corrections, which oversees state prison inmates, initiated a policy in 2003 that states: “A pregnant women will not be restrained in any manner while in labor, while giving birth, or during the postpartum recovery period.”

In 2008, the Federal Bureau of Prisons barred the shackling of pregnant inmates in federal prisons except when it was necessary for security concerns. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doesn’t have a specific policy prohibiting their use. But advocates at the Rebecca Project, which is part of a national anti-shackling coalition, said they are in conversation with ICE to put regulations in place.

The practice of shackling women during childbirth is frowned upon by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. They say that shackling women during labor, delivery and post-partum is dangerous to a woman’s health and that of her unborn child.

Maricopa County is not unique in the practice of shackling pregnant women. Only six states in the nation have laws regulating the use of restraints on pregnant inmates: California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Texas and Vermont.

Advocates are hoping to include Arizona on the list.

Voces por la Vida, a pro-life group in Phoenix directed by Rosie Villegas-Smith, is leading the charge for anti-shackling legislation.

“Undocumented women are the most vulnerable here because they don’t have a right to be released on bond,” she said.

Villegas-Smith says Arizona lawmakers are endangering the health of women and children in the name of fighting illegal immigration.

“I think a distinction has to be made and some humanity brought into Maricopa County laws, to allow [undocumented] nursing mothers and pregnant women to have their children outside of detention,” said Delia Salvatierra, Mendiola’s immigration attorney.

When contacted by New America Media, Rep. Martha Garcia, D-Phoenix, said she would try to introduce a bill to ban the use of shackling.

“My main concern is that women are traumatized by being shackled and what this does to their babies, too,” said the legislator, who is involved in the public health outreach program Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies.

“It makes me really angry that this is happening in the state of Arizona, because I believe the treatment of immigrants is worse here than anywhere else,” Garcia added.

The issue will be hard to push in the Arizona state legislature. Over the last five years, conservative Republicans have supported a series of anti-immigrant laws, aimed at creating a hostile environment in the state to push migrants out.

The most recently enacted law, House Bill 2008, requires state employees to report immigrants who apply for public benefits to ICE. The law, sponsored by Republican leadership as part of a special session budget package, is causing pregnant immigrant women to be afraid of requesting free pre-natal services and health care.

Humanitarian Release

On Dec. 24, the date of her sentencing, Mendiola-Martinez was brought into the courtroom in a wheel chair, her hands and legs shackled.

“It was never my intention to hurt the victim. Please forgive me and let me go back to my children,” she told the judge. She was sentenced to time served and two years of probation. ICE didn’t take her into custody after her release from jail for “humanitarian reasons,” according to Vincent Piccard, a spokesperson for that agency.

Mendiola-Martinez was able to hold her baby again on Christmas Day. She takes joy in being with him and smiles when she watches him sleep. Secretly, though, she searches his face for any sign that her depression in jail might have had a negative effect on him while he was in her womb. Her children are U.S. citizens, but her future in the country where she’s lived for the past 15 years is still uncertain.

“I wish they would change things,” she said of current immigration laws. “Because when they do this to us, they do it to our children.”

© 2010 New America Media All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/145428/

Posted by lois at 05:39 PM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2010

New Orleans: Sex Workers Now Being Charged as "sex offenders"

Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans
By Jordan Flaherty
ColorLines magazine
With police charging sex workers as sex offenders—the majority of them Black women—activists hope the city’s mayoral elections next month will pave the way for fighting the law.

January 13, 2010

Tabitha has been working as a prostitute in New Orleans since she was 13. Now 30 years old, she can often be found working on a corner just outside of the French Quarter. A small and slight white woman, she has battled both drug addiction and illness and struggles every day to find a meal or a place to stay for the night.

These days, Tabitha, who asked that her real name not be used in this story, has yet another burden: a stamp printed on her driver’s license labels her a sex offender. Her crime? Sex work.

New Orleans city police and the district attorney’s office are using a state law written for child molesters to charge hundreds of sex workers like Tabitha as sex offenders. The law, which dates back to 1805, makes it a crime against nature to engage in “unnatural copulation”—a term New Orleans cops and the district attorney’s office have interpreted to mean anal or oral sex. Sex workers convicted of breaking this law are charged with felonies, issued longer jail sentences and forced to register as sex offenders. They must also carry a driver’s license with the label “sex offender” printed on it.

Of the 861 sex offenders currently registered in New Orleans, 483 were convicted of a crime against nature, according to Doug Cain, a spokesperson with the Louisiana State Police. And of those convicted of a crime against nature, 78 percent are Black and almost all are women.

The law impacts sex workers in both small and large ways.

Tabitha has to register an address in the sex offender database, and because she doesn’t have a permanent home, she has registered the address of a nonprofit organization that is helping her. She also has to purchase and mail postcards with her picture to everyone in the neighborhood informing them of her conviction. If she needs to evacuate to a shelter during a hurricane, she must evacuate to a special shelter for sex offenders, and this shelter has no separate safe spaces for women. She is even prohibited from very ordinary activities in New Orleans like wearing a costume at Mardi Gras.

“This law completely disconnects our community members from what remains of a social safety net,” said Deon Haywood, director of Women With A Vision, an organization that promotes wellness and disease prevention for women who live in poverty. Haywood’s group has formed a new coalition of New Orleans activists and health workers who are organizing to fight the way police are abusing the 1805 law.

Activists like Haywood believe that using the law in this way is part of an overall policy by the New Orleans Police Department to go after petty offenses. According to a report from the Metropolitan Crime Commission, New Orleans police arrest more than 58,000 people every year. Of those arrested, nearly 50 percent are for traffic and municipal offenses, and only 5 percent are for violent crimes.

“What this is really about is over-incarcerating poor and of-color communities,” said Rosana Cruz of VOTE-NOLA, a prison reform organization that is also a part of the new coalition.

Haywood, Cruz and other activists believe they have an opportunity with the mayoral and city council elections next month to change the system. With all of the candidates attempting to distance themselves from Mayor Nagin, who is prevented by term limits from running again, the new mayor is likely to be open to making changes. This includes hiring a new police chief, as all the candidates have pledged to do. Advocates are hoping this is an opportunity to shift the department’s focus. “When there's a new police chief, we can educate them,” said Haywood.

Many of the women Haywood’s group works with are at the most high-risk tier of sex work. They meet customers on the street and in bars, Haywood said. Most women are dealing with addiction and homelessness, and many cannot get food stamps or other public assistance because of felony convictions on their record.

“I’m hoping that the situation will look different because of this coalition,” Haywood said. “I can’t tell you how overwhelmed we’ve been from the needs of this population.”

Miss Jackie is one of those women. A Black woman in her 50s, she was arrested for sex work in 1999 and charged as a sex offender. Her real name, which she declined to give for this story, was added to the registry for 10 years. Miss Jackie says that when the registration period was almost over she was arrested for possession of crack. She says the arresting officer didn’t find any drugs on her person, but the judge ruled that she needed to continue to register as a sex offender for another 15 years (the new federal requirement for sex offenders) because her arrest was a violation of her registration period.

"Where is the justice?” she asked, speaking through tears. “How do they expect me to straighten out my life?” Struggling with basic needs like housing, Miss Jackie added: “I feel condemned."

Advocates and former defendants claim that the decision over who is charged under which penalty is made arbitrarily, at the discretion of police and the district attorney’s office, and that the law disproportionately affects Black people, as well as transgender women. When asked about the allegations of abusing the crime against nature statue, New Orleans Police Department spokesman Bob Young responded: “Persons are charged according to the crime they commit.”

Wendi Cooper’s story, however, paints a different picture.

In 1999, Cooper had recently come out as transgender. A Black transwoman, she tried prostitution a few times and quickly discovered it wasn’t for her. But before she quit, she was arrested. At the time, Cooper was happy to take a plea that allowed her to get out of jail and didn’t think much about what the “crime against nature” conviction would mean on her record. As she got older and began work as a healthcare professional, the weight of the sex offender label began to upset her more and more. “This is not me,” she said. “I’m not that person who the state labeled me as…it slanders me.”

Cooper appealed to the state to have her record expunged and talked to lawyers about other options, but she still must register for at least another five years and potentially longer. “I feel like I was manipulated, you know, pleading guilty to this crime…And it’s hard, knowing that you are called something that you’re not,” she said. She is also afraid now that the conviction will prevent her from getting her license as a registered nurse or from being hired.

Although some women have tried to fight the sex offender charges in court, they’ve had little success. The penalties they face became even harsher in 2006 when Congress passed the Adam Walsh act, requiring tier-1 (the least serious) sex offenders to stay in the public registry for 15 years. There’s also an added danger to fighting the charges, according to Josh Perry, a former attorney with the Orleans Public Defenders office.

“The way Louisiana’s habitual offender law works, if you challenge your sentence in court and lose, and it’s a third offense, the mandatory minimum is 20 years. The maximum is life,” he explained.

Perry estimates that on an average day two or three people are arrested for prostitution in New Orleans, and about half of them are charged under the crime against nature statute. “Right now, there are 39 people being held at Orleans Parish Prison [for] crimes against nature,” Perry told a gathering of advocates last August. “And another 15 to 20 people…charged with failure to register as a sex offender.”

Sex workers accused as sex offenders face discrimination in every aspect of the system. In most cases, they cannot get released on bond, because they are seen as a higher risk of flight than people charged with violent crimes. “This is the level of stigma and dysfunction that we’re talking about here,” said Perry. “Realistically, they’re not getting out.”

Advocates have said the ideal solution would be to get state lawmakers to change the law, but they feel there’s little hope of positive reforms from the current legislature. For now, organizers want to put pressure on police and the district attorney’s office to stop charging sex workers under the crime against nature statute.

There is a great deal of work that needs to be done. Haywood is working with lawyers and national allies to develop a legal strategy, as well as a broad local coalition that includes criminal justice reform organizations like VOTE-NOLA and activist groups like the New Orleans chapters of Critical Resistance and INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence.

“We’re trying to organize, but we’re also working on the human rights side of how it’s affecting their lives,” she said. “This is a population that works in crisis mode all the time.”

Jennifer, a 23-year-old white woman who asked that her real name not be used in this story, has been working as a prostitute since she was a teenager, and also works as a stripper at a club on Bourbon Street. She recently broke free of an eight-year heroin addiction. Unless the law changes, she will have the words “sex offender” on her driver’s license until she is 48 years old.

Haywood said that stories like this show that the law has the effect of forcing women to continue with sex work. “When you charge young women with this—when you label them as a sex offender—this is what they are for the rest of their lives,” she said.

Jennifer said it’s affected her job options. “I’m not sure what they think, but a lot of places wont hire sex offenders,” she said.

Haywood said the women she sees have few options. Many of them are homeless. They are sleeping in abandoned houses or on the street, or they are trading sex for a place to stay. “The women we work with, they don't call it sex work,” she said. “They don't know what that means. They don’t even call it prostitution. They call it survival.”

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist, an editor of Left Turn Magazine, and a staffer with the Louisiana Justice Institute. He was the first writer to bring the story of the Jena Six to a national audience and audiences around the world have seen the television reports he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, GritTV, and Democracy Now. His post-Katrina reporting for ColorLines shared an award from New America Media for best Katrina-related reporting in ethnic press. Haymarket Press will release his new book, FLOODLINES: Stories of Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six, in 2010. He can be reached at neworleans@leftturn.org
http://www.colorlines.com/printerfriendly.php?ID=673

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

January 15, 2010

Court Decides Privte Prisons Responsible for Infants

Court Decides Prisons Responsible for Infants

On January 11, 2010, the California Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a ruling holding that private community-based prisons contracted with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have a legal duty to provide needed medical care to infants living in those facilities with their incarcerated mothers. The Court further held that the State might also be liable for failure to provide these children with medical care where on-site state employees are negligent.

The case stems from a 40-bed facility known as Family Foundations—San Diego, which houses women prisoners with short sentence and their infant children. The statute, which authorizes this program, has the express purpose of preventing future criminal recidivism within the family unit by keeping mothers and their infant children together during their formative years. Center Point, Inc., the private corporation that ran the prison facility in 2007, and the State of California argued that they had no legal duty to provide medical care to infant children under their control.

Plaintiff Denisha Lawson alleges that during her incarceration at the facility her newborn daughter Esperanza developed breathing problems and that she begged her jailers for over a week to take Esperanza to the hospital. Center Point and Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation staff failed to have any medical personnel present at the facility and failed to take Esperanza to the hospital. Eventually, five-week-old Esperanza stopped breathing and was taken to the emergency room with life-threatening viral pneumonia. Esperanza was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit and intubated for several weeks. She survived, but was left with permanent lung impairment.

This incident has already been the subject of a New York Times article written by Solomon Moore on July 6, 2007. Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, a non-profit advocacy organization, filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs’ attorney John T. Richards, who also represents other mothers and children who were injured in this same facility, stated, "Any time we can get a law on the books to protect the most vulnerable among us, it is a good day for justice. I can't think of anyone more vulnerable than a 5-week-old infant sent to the custody of a private prison, run by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which has no medical staff."

Carol Strickman, staff attorney for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, hailed the ruling, stating, “Denisha Lawson heroically fought to save her daughter’s life, risking her own well-being. We are thrilled that the court is allowing Denisha and Esperanza access to justice.”

The full opinion in this case, Lawson v. Superior Court (Center Point, Inc. et al., Real Parties in Interest), which the Court certified for publication, may be viewed on the Court website at http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/documents/D055396.PDF.

# # #

This was sent by Tandrea Madison, Media Coordinator
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, San Francisco, CA 94102
tandrea@prisonerswithchildren.org

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

December 30, 2009

CT: Rell Pushing Ahead With Plan For Detention Center

Rell Pushing Ahead With Plan For Detention Center
By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
December 30, 2009

Plans to build a girls' juvenile detention center in Bridgeport are back on, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced Tuesday, two months after her administration temporarily withdrew the proposal amid criticism from the city's legislative delegation.

The State Bond Commission is expected to approve $15 million for the facility's design and construction when it meets Jan. 8, Rell said in a statement Tuesday.

The proposed 36,000-square-foot, 24-bed facility is meant for girls 18 and under who have been convicted of delinquent offenses. The state has not had a secure facility for girls since Long Lane School in Middletown closed in 2003. Since then, some girls have been confined at York Correctional Institution for adult women, a situation that child welfare officials have decried.

Plans to locate the detention center on state-owned land in Bridgeport have angered area residents and lawmakers, who say they were kept in the dark about the proposal and who feel that the facility should not be built in a residential area.

Opponents say they will fight the decision. They plan to form a "De-Rail The Jail" committee, demand a meeting with Rell, and lobby the bond commission. It is unclear how much recourse they have, however. Rell is chairwoman of the bond commission and controls its agenda.

Rell initially announced plans for the facility in October in advance of a scheduled bond commission vote. After lawmakers raised objections and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said postponing action would help, Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele withdrew all items related to the project from the bond commission's agenda. At the time, Rell's budget director, Robert Genuario, said the delay would allow commissioners to review environmental and other concerns.

On Tuesday, Department of Children and Families spokesman Gary Kleeblatt said the decision to move ahead with the proposal followed meetings last month with Bridgeport residents and service providers, which he said allowed the department to describe the program and point out reasons for picking Bridgeport: The site is close to highways and public transportation and is within a half hour of New Haven and Waterbury.

Kleeblatt said the department would create an advisory committee of residents and city officials to get input on construction, how to minimize impact on neighbors, and operations of the facility.

"We're convinced that this is a much needed program located in the most suitable spot," he said.

But state Rep. Christopher Caruso, D-Bridgeport, questioned the suitability of putting the detention center in a dense residential area. He blasted the plan as "arrogance and a total disregard for the people who live in Bridgeport."

"It's disturbing to me because I wonder if [Rell] would use the same determination, the same energy, the same zeal if this was being located to a suburban community," he said. "It just underscores once again how cities are treated by this state. We already have a juvenile facility in Bridgeport. We already have a major jail in the city of Bridgeport. And here the state wants to put another jail and doesn't really care what the people have to say."

Bridgeport resident Joel Bing, who said he lives within 400 feet of the proposed site, is organizing neighbors against the plan. He said the meeting with state officials seemed to make little difference, even though about 250 people showed up, residents voiced opposition and some, including the mayor, have offered alternatives.

"Why Bridgeport?" he asked. "Why in a residential area? There's so many other places it could go."

A statement released by Rell's office said other state-owned sites were considered, but the Bridgeport parcel met "important criteria":

•It is at the junction of Routes 8 and 15 and is on a bus line, making it accessible to families.

•The site requires little prep work.

•The parcel is big enough to accommodate the facility.

In October, at Caruso's request, Blumenthal wrote to Genuario, asking that he review the conclusion by state public works officials that the proposed facility would not require an environmental impact statement. Blumenthal also wrote that it would be advisable to provide community forums and outreach before picking a site and starting a project, even if not legally required.

On Tuesday, Blumenthal said he would wait to take a position on the proposal.

"I have long favored the concept of a facility serving girls who need this assistance, but I will consult with local leaders, community representatives, citizens and other state officials before making a decision on this proposal," Blumenthal said in a written statement.

State Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein said the state needs a secure facility for girls, no matter where it is built. But this situation could have been avoided if DCF had a facility ready when Long Lane closed and other treatment alternatives, she said.

"The losers here are the girls," she said.

Milstein said that she is concerned about how families would get to Bridgeport, since it is not in a central part of the state, and said that DCF should have communicated better with the neighbors.

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-girls-detention-bridgeport-1.artdec30,0,5897383.story

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

December 15, 2009

Protest on 12-18 at AZ DOC by SWOP and others. Open Letter from the Sex Workers Outreach Project and allies to Charles L. Ryan, Director of the Arizona DOC

When: Friday December 18th, 2009 NOON

Where: AZ Department of Corrections
1601 West Jefferson St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007

Sex Workers and allies are coming together in front of the AZ Department of Corrections on December 18th, as part of International Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers, an annual event to call attention to violence committed against sex workers all over the globe. Marcia Powell was a prisoner of the State of Arizona who collapsed and died from heatstroke last May after being locked in an outdoor cage and ignored for four hours in 107 degree heat.

What: Protest Rally: Marcia Powell's death, AZ Department of Corrections.

You are invited to join us in Tucson, Arizona on December 17, 2009 (performance art/public installation and a candelight vigil) and in Phoenix, Arizona on December 18, 2009 (protest rally on the steps of the Arizona Department of Corrections).

Bring red umbrellas, to stand in solidarity! Signs are welcome.

Sex Worker Rights are Human Rights!

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

Open Letter from the Sex Workers Outreach Project and allies to Charles L. Ryan, Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections. Posted and delivered December 11, 2009.
­
December 17th is International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This event was created by Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP-USA), a national social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of sex workers, focusing on ending violence and stigma through education and advocacy.
In 2009, sex workers from around the globe met gruesome deaths and endured unspeakable violence. Some died at the hands of a solitary perpetrator; others were victims of serial “prostitute killers.” While some of these horrific stories received international media attention (Boston, Grand Rapids, Albuquerque, Tijuana, Hong Kong, Moscow, Great Britain, Cape Town, New Zealand), other cases received little more than a perfunctory investigation. Many cases remain unsolved, sometimes forever.

Today we are here for Marcia Powell, who was incarcerated for solicitation of oral sex and sentenced to over two years in prison - despite being found so mentally impaired at the time of sentencing that she had just been appointed a legal guardian. On May 19, 2009, after informing prison staff that she was suicidal, Marcia was placed in an uncovered outdoor cage at Arizona's Perryville prison for women, where she would presumably be "observed" until she was transferred to a more appropriate location. Reportedly, that's what they did with women who caused problems there: they put them in a cage and "waited them out". The same cages were used for "recreation" and as waiting rooms for those needing medical attention: the prisons filled up so cages were erected in the yards to add more space. Putting someone in there was routine; women were left in there all the time beyond policy, so no one thought much about Marcia complaining - except the other prisoners. Four hours later - after her pleas for water were ignored or mocked by guard after guard - she was found, collapsed, in 107-degree heat, and died on May 20th in the custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections.

Marcia was the victim of dual forms of injustice, as a sex worker and as a prisoner. Sex Workers Outreach Project and other organizations are fundamentally opposed to criminalization of sex work. The prohibition of this work results in selective prosecution that puts some of the most vulnerable in our society at the mercy of a system that robs them of their basic respect and dignity. For decades efforts to curb sex work have not only failed to reduce incidences of prostitution, but they have corrupted our justice system resulting in selective enforcement, racial profiling and inhumane treatment of those who don't have the financial resources to fight back. Violence against sex workers is epidemic and rarely taken seriously. The criminalization of prostitution legitimizes this abuse so that sex workers are the targets of violent crime with little recourse. Marcia was referred to - after her death - as a "biological serial killer" in an employee blog (The Lumley Vampire). That suggests that her degraded social status as a "criminalized" sex worker had a considerable effect on the way she was treated at the hands of ADC staff the day she was left to die. It also raises the question of her abuse being the result of bias against her for a disability she may have also had.

Women prisoners are also the victims of an unjust system, facing extreme medical neglect, sexual harassment and abuse. The women's prison population in the United States has grown 800% in the past three decades, twice the rate of the male prison population. 2/3 of women in prison were incarcerated for non-violent offenses. (Institute on Women and Criminal Justice). As the death of Marcia Powell in the care of the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) shows, prison sentences can include the most extreme form of neglect and abuse.

We are here for Marcia and other prisoners, and sex workers, as we call for respect for human rights. As a result of an internal investigation, 16 people were disciplined. An investigation is currently underway to determine whether or not criminal charges should be filed in her death.

"It's not enough to change a few people and policies. There is a culture embedded in the ADC that is pervasive throughout the prison system that reflects a disregard for the fundamental human rights of prisoners. There are exceptions to that, and the prisoners know who they are," says Peggy Plews of Arizona Prison Watch.

No critical analysis of the institutional culture that contributed to this abuse has been made public, but that analysis is essential to ending state violence.

In response to the death of Marcia Powell while in the custody of the Arizona Department of Corrections, we expect the following:

1. The Arizona Department of Corrections has an influential role in shaping policy. We ask that leadership be provided by the ADC in exploring models of restorative justice and addressing strategies such as criminal code and sentencing reform, early release programs for low-risk prisoners, community support through harm reduction, and re-entry programs to stop the revolving door syndrome that traps so many people.

2. An analysis of violence against sex workers (both inside and outside the Arizona prison system) should be conducted and a plan should be developed for reducing violence against sex workers in Arizona.

- An analysis of violence against sex workers (including male and transgendered workers) should include victimization while in state custody, police brutality, and domestic and occupational violence.

- Efforts to reform the prisons must go deeper than investigations into individual responsibility for Marcia's Powell's death. An analysis of how the culture of the correctional system employees/officers contributes to violence against prisoners is crucial.

3. A community-organized process for oversight in the prisons should be recognized which includes the voices of prisoners and their families.

4. Grievance policies should be reviewed and strengthened.

5. Cages should never be used to hold prisoners or to address overcrowding, which is the current practice. Overcrowding must be addressed through reducing incarceration and recidivism rates.

6. Allocate sufficient resources to address the special needs of prisoners with psychiatric and physical disabilities, including education about complications of medications.

7. May 20th should be observed each year in memory of Marcia Powell and other prisoners who died in state custody. On that day ADC should prepare a report addressed to prisoners, families and community-based oversight groups on human rights violations that have occurred over the past year and actions ADC has taken in response. The report should also include the Department's plan for the upcoming year to improve respect for human rights.

Sex workers around the United States are shocked to see this criminalization result in a death sentence for a prostitution crime. This is one of many cases in which we observe conditions that are abusive, degrading and dangerous ranging from rape and other violence, to extreme medical neglect. These conditions violate the human rights of all persons deprived of their liberty to be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) should be applied to all individuals.

In the wealthiest country in the world, where taxpayers spend billions on the prison system, it is horrific that this justice system has led to a death sentence for someone arrested for prostitution. It's been over 60 years since the UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has been adopted. The Arizona Department of Corrections has been woefully negligent, in following the human rights protocol, which Eleanor Roosevelt, along with so many others, have developed. In less than a decade we've almost doubled the amount spent on our prisons in Arizona, and the Arizona Department of Corrections fails even the most basic requirement, to keep prisoners safe.

We ask that the Arizona Department of Corrections look at the 30 articles in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and review the treatment of individuals in the prison system in the light of these principles. Every ADC employee/correctional officer should have training in human and prisoners' rights principles and practices. ADC should provide leadership that demonstrates a respect for human rights.

We look forward to the day when prisons are no longer used to address our most pressing social problems. As social justice activists we challenge the discrimination that leads to criminalization and incarcerations. We promote human rights for all, as well as specific law reform. Recently enacted by the Arizona legislature, felony charges should be rescinded for prostitutioni charges. Although the ADC does not have jurisdiction over many aspects of these injustices, ADC does have great deal of influence in many of these matters and ADC is also directly responsible for how prisoners are treated within this system. Sex Worker Outreach Project, in tandem with Arizona Prison Watch and Friends of Marcia Powell expects that the ADC establish real justice in the death of Marcia Powell.

Sincerely,

Tara Sawyer
Board Chair
Sex Workers Outreach Project

Peggy Plews
Arizona Prison Watch
Friends of Marcia Powell

Penelope Saunders
Best Practices Policy Project

Carol Leigh
BAYSWAN

Posted by lois at 12:46 PM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2009

MA: Woman serving shoplifting sentence dies at Framingham

Woman serving shoplifting sentence dies at Framingham prison
By Jonathan Saltzman
Globe Staff / December 5, 2009
The Boston Globe

A 38-year-old former Dedham woman serving a one-year prison sentence for shoplifting died Thursday at the minimum-security South Middlesex Correctional Center in Framingham, and authorities are investigating to determine the cause.

A roommate of Kelly A. Donovan told employees at the center at 3:43 a.m. that Donovan was having difficulty breathing, according to Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the prison system. Emergency medical personnel from the Framingham Fire Department responded within minutes, but Donovan was pronounced dead at 3:58 a.m.

There was no evidence of foul play, Wiffin said, and the death did not appear to be a suicide.

She said prison employees followed emergency response procedures, but Department of Correction officials are investigating and contacted state prosecutors, as they do with all unattended deaths of inmates. State Police investigators assigned to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. and the Framingham police are investigating, according to a spokeswoman for Leone.

Donovan’s aunt, Susanne Hogan of Westwood, said yesterday that the state medical examiner’s office performed an autopsy but had not determined a cause of death.

The office hoped the results of toxicology tests might prove helpful. Such tests can detect drugs, among other things.

“We really don’t know,’’ she said of the cause. “It’s a shock for our whole family.’’

Located near MCI-Framingham, which is the medium-security prison for women in Massachusetts, South Middlesex is a 200-bed, three-story facility that holds women who pose a minimum risk and are to be released soon.

Many of the women leave the center during the day to work at fast-food restaurants and return at night.

Hogan said her niece worked at a Burger King in Framingham.

Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, said that she visited the prison about a year ago and that visitors have great freedom to come and go and do not have to walk through metal detectors.

Donovan was sentenced to a year in prison last December after pleading guilty to charges of larceny and shoplifting, according to Wiffin.

She had been arrested six months earlier in the theft of four pairs of shorts from Filene’s Basement at South Shore Plaza in Braintree and several body sprays from a Victoria’s Secret store. She had been arrested on charges of shoplifting previously, according to records at Quincy District Court.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/12/05/woman_serving_shoplifting_sentence_dies_at_framingham_prison/

Posted by lois at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2009

Telemundo: Unbelievable Even for Arpaio: Woman Forced to Give Birth While Shackled

Video: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Forces Woman to Give Birth While Shackled
by Mariela Rosario | 11.18.2009
Telemundo
The news team for Telemundo 52 recently reported on Alma Minerva Chacon, a women who was terrorized by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Unfortunately, she is just the latest in a long line of Latinos who have suffered at the hands of the ruthless Sheriff whose personal goal is to rid Arizona of all "illegals" and just maybe, all Latinos. Arpaio has repeatedly stated that he is breaking no laws and just enforcing the constitution by arresting more than 600 Latinos a year. But the problem with his tactics is that less than half of those arrested are even in this country illegally.

The most recent atrocity committed by the self-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff" involves a woman who was detained while 9-months pregnant. Alma Minerva Chacon's case has been receiving media attention due to the brutality with which she was treated. The very same night of her arrest, Chacon went into labor and found herself afraid and alone, being rushed to a local hospital with her hands and legs chained in shackles.

Once she reached the hospital, nurses repeatedly begged the Sheriff's staff to allow them to unchain the mother, but they refused and Chacon was forced to give birth while still shackled to the bed. At one point, the nurse asked for them to release her so that she could be escorted to the bathroom for a urinalysis, but even that request was denied. But the worst came once Chacon gave birth to her baby girl.

Still chained to the bed, Arpaio's police staff refused to allow Chacon to hold her newborn baby and then warned her that if no one came to pick up the child within 72 hours, she would be turned over into state custody. Telemundo 52 sat down with Chacon and let her tell her side of the story. Check out the interview below and if you don't support Sheriff Arpaio's barbaric practices sign the petition at www.SheriffJoeMustGo.com:
http://www.latina.com/lifestyle/news-politics/video-sheriff-joe-arpaio-forces-woman-give-birth-while-shackled

Posted by lois at 03:51 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2009

VA: Charges by women prisoners focus on being denied access to religious services and segregated wing for women thought to be lesbians

Officials investigate complaints at women's prison
By DENA POTTER Associated Press Writer
November 24, 2009
TROY, Va. - Corrections officials are investigating whether inmates are being denied access to religious services at Virginia's largest women's prison, scrutiny partly prompted by earlier allegations that the lockup segregated masculine-looking lesbian prisoners.

State Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg, said he was told access to religious services had been curtailed in interviews with dozens of former volunteers at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women.

He asked the Department of Corrections to investigate in June after conducting those interviews and reading a story by The Associated Press about the practice of housing prisoners with masculine appearances in a separate wing.

Prisoner rights advocates, inmates and their families say they also have asked the department to investigate changes at the 1,200-inmate prison since Warden Barbara Wheeler took over in 2004 and brought in Major Michael Frame as head of security in 2008.

"Fluvanna was recognized certainly regionally if not nationally as being a role-model women's prison," Ruff said in an interview. "That does not appear to be the case at this time."

Department director Gene Johnson told Ruff in a July 8 letter he was sending investigators to the prison, but he had the impression things were running smoothly.

"I am taking this action not because I believe there has been any misconduct or malfeasance at the facility, indeed all reports I receive would indicate things are operating as they should," Johnson wrote.

Department spokesman Larry Traylor said the investigators' report isn't finished and may not be made public.

Wheeler declined interview requests, while Frame didn't return phone and e-mail messages.

Ruff was particularly concerned that inmates did not have the access to religious programs and services that they did under the previous administration, when he said about a third of the women attended services.

Inmates now must designate a religion and be approved and placed on a list to attend services. Only about 250 inmates are allowed to attend. Prison officials update the overall activity list, which includes those allowed to attend religious services, only once every three months.

Federal law allows prisons to limit religious freedoms only for compelling reasons, like safety, but requires that it be done in the least restrictive way. So requiring prisoners to designate a religion is OK, but requiring inmates to do so every three months or be denied access to religious services is excessive, said Helen Trainor, director of the Virginia Institutionalized Persons Project.

Gail Bradley, 53, who is serving time for theft and fraud, says the list to attend church has been full since she got to Fluvanna in December.

Several inmates said they have been turned away from religious services for punitive reasons, such as their hair being too long. If inmates go to segregation or are moved to another housing unit, they are removed from the list and denied services.

Lay chaplain visits and numerous self-help and other programs run through the chaplain's office were stopped. Ruff said some programs were suspended after administrators learned about his meeting with the volunteers.

Ruff also asked corrections officials to look into what inmates and some guards said was a practice of placing inmates with more masculine features in a separate cell block, referred to by inmates and guards as the "butch wing" or "locker room wing." The moves were intended to curb sexual activity and break up relationships, the prisoners and guards told the AP article for an published in June.

Wheeler has denied that prisoners were targeted because of their sexuality or appearance, and the practice apparently stopped this summer soon after the AP asked about it.

Among other changes made under Frame and Wheeler's watch, according to letters and interviews with more than 30 inmates, and interviews with advocates, former volunteers and a prison guard, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being fired:

_Inmates are placed on a waiting list to use the restroom at night, early morning or during long lockdowns because their cells do not have toilets. Many say the wait can be up to an hour or longer, and that if an inmate relieves herself in her cell she is sent to segregation.

_Inmates have two white cotton blankets for their beds and can only wash one every three months instead of once per week, as department policy outlines. In response to an inmate's August 2008 grievance obtained by the AP, Wheeler responded, "One clean blanket every 90 days is more than sufficient."

_Although department policy allows females' hair to touch their shoulders, Fluvanna bans hair past the top of the collar. Inmates say they have been turned away from meals, visits, church, educational classes and graduation ceremonies because their hair was not in compliance.

_Despite it being against department policy, inmates say officers regularly withhold food as punishment.

Marguerite Richardson, 54, is serving 57 years for a series of robberies. She has been at Fluvanna since it opened in 1998 and says the focus has changed from rehabilitating inmates to "this kind of blanket it's-going-to-be-rough-on-you thinking."

Frame came to Fluvanna after the prison's former head of security was fired and later convicted for having sex with inmates. Because of that, Ruff said it was no surprise Frame "came in with a heavy hand."

Alicia Yates Hill, 35, first came to Fluvanna in 1999 for writing bad checks. She said she knew she was in prison, but "I felt like a human being." She came back four years later for probation violation and said everything had changed.

"I know that I'm here for punishment and rehabilitation," she wrote. "However, does it have to be hell?"
http://www.wtkr.com/news/dp-va--womensprison-inv1124nov24,0,3711517.story

Posted by lois at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2009

DE: Wish list for more prison building incluing more cages for women

Correction Department alerts Delaware to crowding crisis
$6M capital request defers expansion
By JAMES MERRIWEATHER • The News Journal • November 20, 2009

DOVER -- Crowding at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution near New Castle, the state's only women's prison, could become a crisis even if there's a relatively small spike in crime, Corrections Commissioner Carl C. Danberg told state budget writers Thursday.

As of Thursday, the prisoner count was about 405, which, Danberg said, provides for a little wiggle room. But the count has gone as high as 411 in recent weeks, posing the possibility of farming out female inmates to other states.

"It is of particular concern," Danberg said, plunking down a proposed $6 million capital spending plan for fiscal 2011 that, in deference to the state's severe money crunch, included no funds for the expansion of the Baylor facility.

"It was designed for 200 and it always has more than 400," he said. "There's just nowhere to go if the population goes higher."

Overall, the Department of Correction was hosting 6,833 inmates as of Oct. 30, but Danberg noted that the figure was down considerably from a peak of 7,250 several years ago. The Oct. 30 figure is 1,514 over the prison system's design capacity and 176 over operating capacity, a number that reflects the department's reading of how many inmates it can handle safely.

The new money in Danberg's capital request would go for maintenance, restoration, minor capital improvements and equipment, but he included $3.5 million for expansion of Baylor as part of a wish list that totaled $22.4 million worth of construction projects. He said he pointed out the needs now because prison construction typically takes four years from design to completion.

"I know we can't get the funding," he said, "but I believe the state should know what the needs of the department are."

Those needs include $14.3 million for a central medical facility. In the meantime, space has been reconfigured at Young Correctional Institution in Wilmington and personnel have been relocated at Baylor to provide more room for medical services.

The Multi Security Building at Sussex Correctional Institution, which houses medical services, is being expanded. The prison also is the beneficiary of a new A-frame medical services building financed in large part by penalties assessed against Correctional Medical Services of St. Louis, the department's inmate health care provider, for nonperformance under a contract that expires June 30.

Other budget observations:

• As of Thursday, the department had 72 vacancies for correctional officers and, more critically, 34 openings for probation officers. The latter total represents 10 percent of authorized slots -- including those of four supervisors in Sussex County -- and could be problematic, Danberg said, in providing community services under the Markell administration's inmate re-entry program.

• "Howard Young is deteriorating." Work to restore outside masonry at the Wilmington facility -- "popped off" by water that seeps inside the concrete exterior -- is complete, and $4.6 million has been programmed for restoring interior walls damaged by the same problem. The Wilmington facility's kitchen also needs to be replaced at an estimated cost of $3.1 million.

• Some 110 single-inmate cells at Sussex' Multi Security Building should be shut down, an action that would save about $1 million a year. Danberg says that, as the building is now configured, it takes one officer to keep tabs on two inmates, and that the size of the building doesn't lend itself to double cells that would make it less labor-intensive."

• In keeping with dictates from Visalli's office, the department's operating budget would remain flat at $249.5 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091120/NEWS02/911200354

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

November 21, 2009

NC: Women Prisoners File Class Action Suit Against DOC for Extensive Sexual Violence

Prisoners allege sex abuse
NC News and Observor
Nov. 20, 2009
BY MANDY LOCKE - Staff Writer
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/201215.html
RALEIGH -- Four female inmates have filed a federal class-action lawsuit accusing North Carolina prison officials of subjecting female prisoners to extensive sexual violence and harassment amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.

The lawsuit claims that the women were raped, groped, threatened and sexually humiliated. The women, represented by N.C. Prisoner Legal Services, demand that state prison officials pay them for their distress and "end a pattern of sexual misconduct in all women's prisons operated by [the state Department of Correction]." The women, who agreed to be named in the lawsuit, are asking to speak on behalf of the state's roughly 2,900 female prisoners in their fight against officials.

The claim comes on the heels of at least seven separate sexual assaults on female inmates for which the state has offered payouts to avoid legal action. Those awards were also won at the behest of Prisoner Legal Services, a nonprofit group that addresses legal concerns of inmates.

The lawsuit targets top administrators at the state Department of Correction and seven former and current staff members accused of assaulting and harassing the prisoners or protecting employees who did.

Correction Department officials declined to comment Thursday, saying they had just received the suit and had not had time to review it.

State law forbids prison staff from engaging in sexual intercourse with inmates, regardless of consent. The four women suing say they were targeted against their will.

Sandra Etters said she was repeatedly handcuffed, then raped by a male guard who stalked her in the laundry facility during her overnight shift at Women's Prison while the correctional officer assigned to supervise her was sleeping.

Ronda Singletary said that a male correctional officer who is not fully named in the suit exposed himself to her in the canteen. When she reported the incident, other guards told her they would need to witness it and encouraged her to lure the officer into another interaction. They only intervened when the officer put his penis in her hand.

Deven Deal said that a male nurse, who is not fully named, pushed her into a janitor's closet, fondled her and ordered her to expose herself. While she was at Southern Correctional, another women's prison, Deal said she was forced to change clothes in front of another male employee.

Louretha King, a prisoner at Women's Prison, said that a female correctional officer verbally propositioned and stalked her. After she reported it to supervisors, King said the officer pointed a rifle at her.

Each of the women had exhausted the prisons' grievance procedure, which allows inmates to file complaints about treatment. In two of the instances, prison officials said the complaints couldn't be substantiated. In another, they said the matter was closed after an inmate declined to be transferred into segregated isolation at another prison for her safety. In one claim, they said the matter was closed when the targeted employee resigned.

Rape in prison became a national focus in 2003, when Congress passed a sweeping law that obligated prison officials to adopt policies that blocked sexual violence. Congress also required that independent consultants study the prevalence of sexual assaults in state and federal prisons.

A sample of randomly selected inmates showed that North Carolina prisons fared better than most states for occurrences of sexual assaults. Of the five prisons selected for review in North Carolina, none reported more than 4.7 percent of inmates saying they were victimized in nonconsensual acts.

None of the prisons selected for study in North Carolina, though, housed women. Experts say female inmates are far more susceptible to abuse than men.

James Aiken, a correctional expert on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, a board formed to enforce the federal law, said in an affidavit filed with the lawsuit that North Carolina prisons are failing women, indicated by their previous settlements with inmates who were sexually violated.

Aiken said the frequent payouts reveal a "defective correctional culture and indicate that staff are not performing the basic security delivery expected in an inmate population."

This and other news about women and mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Posted by lois at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2009

MT: "No One Should Go Through What I Went Through" ALCU suit on behalf of Bethany Cajune, 4 months pregnant when she was sentenced to jail for traffic violations

The following information and video is from Diana Kasdan, Staff Attorney, Reproductive Freedom Project
American Civil Liberties Union about information about a lawsuit the ACLU filed today on behalf of Bethany Cajúne, a young mother who was denied medically necessary treatment when she was about 4 months pregnant and sentenced to a local detention facility for traffic violations. In particular, this case challenges the jail's unconstitutional denial of her prescription medication to treat opioid dependency--which caused abrupt withdrawal, seriously jeopardizing Ms. Cajúne's health and putting her at risk of miscarriage.
(November 18, 2009)

"No One Should Go Through What I Went Through"

That’s what Bethany Cajúne told me the first time we spoke about her experience in Montana’s Lake County Detention Facility. “No one should go through what I went through.” We filed a case earlier today to make sure that Bethany’s desire to protect other women becomes a reality.

This past March, Bethany voluntarily reported to the detention facility to complete an outstanding short-term sentence for traffic violations. At that time, she was approximately four to five months pregnant, raising five small children, and attending GED classes four days a week. She was also about to successfully complete her first year in a medication-treatment program for a diagnosed addiction to opioid drugs. What Bethany didn’t know when she reported to the facility was that detention officials would withhold her medication, which was prescribed to suppress withdrawal symptoms and facilitate Bethany’s recovery, and was now critical for protecting the health of her pregnancy.

Despite several attempts by Bethany’s treating physician and drug treatment counselor to ensure that Bethany continue receiving her medication, facility officials, including its chief medical doctor, denied her this care. As a result, Bethany suffered complete and abrupt withdrawal, experienced constant vomiting, diarrhea, rapid weight loss, dehydration, and other withdrawal symptoms, all extremely dangerous during pregnancy. Despite repeated warnings of the serious risk abrupt withdrawal posed to Bethany’s health and pregnancy, including miscarriage, the facility continued to withhold her medication. Instead of receiving appropriate medical care, she was at various times confined in an unsanitary and windowless solitary confinement cell, told to “tough it out,” and shackled during an ultrasound examination. It took the intervention of a public defender to secure her release so that she could resume the treatment. In the end, Lake County knowingly put Bethany’s health and pregnancy at severe risk for nine days.

Luckily, Bethany’s story has a happy ending. After she resumed treatment, Bethany regained her health and gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She has also since completed her GED and is looking forward to the next chapter in her life. Part of moving on for Bethany is ensuring that no one else will go through what she went through.

Hear from Bethany & her experience and the case the ACLU filed today on her behalf by watching this video:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom/no-one-should-go-through-what-i-went-through

Posted by lois at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2009

Moms, children stay locked up together in Ohio. Ky. program allows women prisoners to see children monthly

Moms, children stay locked up together in Ohio
Ky. program allows inmates to see children monthly
By Sharon Coolidge and Eileen Kelley - November 13, 2009
Cincinnati Enquirer

MARYSVILLE, Ohio - The only thing missing from tiny Takeem Maffett's world are black and white prison stripes.

On the campus of the Ohio Reformatory for Women, convicts shuffle across from one spot to the next under watchful eyes.

Takeem's mother Takaya Patterson is exempt.

In contrast to the other buildings at the sprawling complex surrounded by razor wire and blinding lights, the nursery is colorful and dotted with Sesame Street characters.

Takeem's mother wears a prison jumpsuit. Takeem, with cherub cheeks and long slender fingers, sleeps in her arms as she rocks.

Just 2 months old, Takeem lives in prison.

Under an unusual program, the state of Ohio lets Patterson raise him behind prison walls.

Some experts say that approach is best for both mothers and their children because the women are less likely to commit crimes when they get out, and children get to be with their moms during critical periods of their development.

One critic calls the program a waste of taxpayer money and says prison should be a place for punishment, not somewhere to raise babies.

Either way, one thing is not in dispute: the number of women in prison has skyrocketed in the last three decades, and most female prisoners are single mothers.

In Ohio, being a prison mom is a full-time job for up to 18 months.

In Kentucky, infants can bond with their mothers, but for only a few hours at time.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the number of women behind bars has increased 843 percent in the last three decades, growing from 12,279 in 1977 to 115,779 last year.

In that same time, Ohio saw a 577 percent increase in female inmates, from 577 in 1977 to 3,905 last year; Kentucky experienced a whopping 1,573 percent increase from 139 in 1977 to 2,326 last year.

With so many more women landing behind bars, who is left to take care of the children?

In a 2004 survey, 84 percent of imprisoned parents said they left their child with the child's other parent. The rest went elsewhere - including 3 percent who went into foster care, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report, Parent in Prison and their Minor Children.

Ohio is one of nine states with prison nurseries.

Guidelines are stringent for Ohio's program. Since opening in 2001, 137 women have raised babies behind bars.

Still, the benefits are indisputable, said Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Bonding key issue

Establishing an early bond between the infant and mother is imperative to childhood development. And for the mothers, having that strong bond with their children tends to be the impetus to play it straight on the outside.

"It is well known that family support and family bonds are among the top factors that increase a returning citizen's chance of having a successful re-entry," Collins said.

Ohio set up a nursery in 2001. Indiana followed last year. Kentucky has a nursery, but children are not permitted to live with their mothers.

The Women's Prison Association, a New York-based agency that advocates for women with criminal records, recently studied babies behind bars and urged states to allow moms to serve sentences in the community or to start nurseries similar to Ohio's.

"I think people are realizing more and more women are going to prison and the reality is that women are mothers," said Chandra Villanueva, of the Institute on Women and Criminal Justice, part of the Women's Prison Association. "It makes sense to keep mothers and children together and give them the foundation to build a healthy relationship with their child."

Earlier this year, Villanueva released a report that found that women who participate in prison nursery programs are less likely to commit another crime, and their babies get to be with their mom during critical development months.
Birth of a child/program

The idea for an Ohio prison nursery was hatched in 2000 by two local women, former state Rep. Cheryl Winkler, R-Cincinnati, and convict Barbara Turner, a former nurse convicted of prescription drug offenses. Turner was pregnant when entering Marysville and successfully fought to have the baby's father present at her birth.

Turner wasn't allowed to keep her daughter with her.

Winkler proposed the nursery program, which was passed into law and officially got under way in 2001. Turner has since been released.

That program allows Takeem to live in prison.

Patterson, 29, is one of 11 women currently in the program.

A judge gave her a deal in 2003: Pay back the more than $5,000 she stole from her employer, Fifth Third Bank, and be monitored with five years probation.

In the end, Patterson didn't make good on the deal.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Ralph "Ted" Winkler, the son of one of the program's originators, sent Patterson to prison in April.

At the time, she was six months pregnant and a mother of a 3-year-old girl, Tiyann. While standing before the judge again, the reality stung.

"In that courtroom I was thinking about my daughter, my family," Patterson said.

Tiyann went to live with her grandmother.

Patterson went to a Franklin County prison because it was close to a Columbus hospital where she would give birth.

On June 25, with two guards at her side, Patterson was loaded into a van for the 10-minute ride to the hospital. Twelve hours later, she gave birth to 3-pound, 11-ounce Takeem. She left the hospital three days later. Takeem stayed another 11 days while he gained weight and then he joined his mother in prison.

"I wanted to be with him and bond with him, and I didn't want to put that stress on my mom," she said.
Life inside prison

Patterson and her son share a room with another convict and her son. Two beds and two cribs leave little space in the small room.

The Ohio program can handle up to 20 mothers. Of Ohio's 3,000 female prisoners, 69 were pregnant, officials said recently.

Some babies are destined for the nursery program. Others will be released before giving birth. The rest will have to surrender their child to care outside prison walls.

To qualify in Ohio, mothers have to be scheduled for release before their child turns 18 months old to be eligible for the program. Experts think that children that age will have no memory of where they spent their early life.

If there is such as being lucky behind bars, Patterson says she was because she met the criteria. "There are a lot of mothers here who don't get to be with their children," she said. "I want him with me, and I think he wants to be with me."

She vows she's going to make a fresh start when she's released in April.

Programs for convicts and their babies are relatively new, and little research about their effectiveness has been done, according to Villanueva of the Woman's Institute.

In her study, she found Ohio prison officials looked at the program at its five-year mark and found 118 mothers had participated, with just 3 percent of the women committing another crime within three years of being released. Of the general female prison population 30 percent commit another crime.

The Ohio nursery is run on grants and federal programs for the poor that these mothers would have received even if they weren't incarcerated. A $69,000 federal grant pays for most of the program, nearly half of which is paid to a visiting pediatrician.

Mothers also have the option of seeking child support from the child's father and the prison has a case manager to help with that paperwork.

As with all convicts who give birth behind bars, taxpayers pick up the hospital tab.

"The citizens of Ohio should not be paying for this (program)," said state Rep. Joe Uecker, R-Miami Township, a former law enforcement officer who worked at several area police departments. "With the economy the way it is - and even if it were good - these women made a mistake and they need to be held accountable."

Uecker said he researched the program earlier this year when looking at the prison budget and said he found nothing to prove it was best for the child. Foster care, he said, would be a better option than prison life for an infant.

"You first have to convince me it's best for the child and then convince me this is more than a burden borne on those of us who work for a living," Uecker said. "I would be hard pressed to vote for this if we were given an opportunity to."

Collins of the Ohio Department of Corrections said he's proud of the program and called it money well spent.

"These women will be coming back into the community," Collins said. "Is it better for them to have a program where they can learn how to be a good mother and care for their children, or have that child given up to foster care where maybe we're starting another cycle of people coming to prison 18 years down the road?

"These are programs that teach responsibility and hold people accountable and give them skills they don't have and hopefully makes then law-abiding citizens instead of tax burdens," he said.
Mothers for a day

At the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Woman, a line of women all dressed in drab khaki jumpsuits stop and stare as three infants are carted past.

A little girl with-doe shaped eyes and Minnie Mouse ears is really starting to resemble her prison mother, some comment. The children are ushered into the chapel where three inmate mothers sit anxiously on hard chairs waiting.

"No bottle today?" asked prisoner Erica Bowman, 23, as she unpacks a sack lunch that was brought in with her son Tayland by his caretaker Cheryl Dugan.

"No bottle," Dugan boasted of the soon to be 1-year-old's development.

"Wow, I am so proud of you," Bowman cooed to her son.

Dugan has cared for Tayland since he was 2 days old. She and Bowman met through Operation Open Arms just two weeks before Tayland was born.

The group, a licensed private child-placement service, operates on the principle that children shouldn't have to pay for their mothers' crimes. The program does not receive any state or federal money.

Of the roughly 650 woman doing time at the prison between 80 to 90 percent are mothers. About 100 babies are born each year to mothers at this prison. In August alone, there were close to 70 pregnant prisoners, officials said. The correctional center is Kentucky's prison that allows pregnant inmates, so it also houses pregnant woman who would otherwise be sent to jail, as jails don't usually have the staff to care for pregnancies.

The prison allows children ages 3 and under to visit with their mothers for two hours on bonding days, which can be several times a week. About a fifth of the prison moms have children in that age range, but only a handful see their children with regularity because of the time, money and the distances the children's caretakers have to drive to Shelby County to visit the moms.

"These children did not commit the crime," said Laura Carpenter, the executive director of Operation Open Arms, one of two private groups that cares for children of prisoners and brings the babies to see their mothers weekly.

Mothering is fairly foreign to Bowman. Nurturing and raising her children, she admitted, took a back seat to the frenetic lifestyle crack cocaine fueled when she was living on the outside.

Tayland is Bowman's fourth child. The third was born addicted to the drug and was taken away from her. Bowman also relinquished her parental rights to her two oldest children to family during her crack cocaine days.

Now, Bowman says she's done: Done having children; done with dope.

She said her bubbly son with a carpet of dark hair is her inspiration to get her life together so she can provide for her him on the outside.

As Bowman headed to a microwave to heat up her son's lunch, prison mom Shanise Washington, 30, worked on her daughter's hair: changing it from a single ponytail to two puffs of hair above her ears.

A judge allowed Washington, a repeat felon, to stay out of prison until after her daughter was born.

Washington left Ke'syna Burgess with her husband. After five months, he said it was too much. She never saw her child during those months, nor for a long time after.

Ke'syna was eventually handed over to Operation Open Arms, and over the past year Washington has been getting to know her daughter, who will be 3 this month.

Ke'syna is shy around her mother. The two played dolls in a small nursery as another pregnant prisoner filled out forms so that her soon-to-be born child will be placed with a volunteer caregiver through Operation Open Arms.

"(Washington) is going to do the right thing," said prison Chaplain Kenny Talbott.

Seeing Ke'syna with regularity keeps Washington motivated. "She inspires me," she said of her daughter.

Washington finished her GED and has been taking classes in carpentry. She's supposed to stay in prison for another 15 years, but Washington, like Bowman, thinks she'll be out sooner rather than later.

And should she get out?

"I am never going to wear khaki again," she said.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20091113/NEWS01/911150306/Babies+behind+bars

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

November 12, 2009

Sex Worker Outreach Project: December 17, 2009 in Tucson Honoring Marcia Powell, who died in a holding cage in 107 degree heat while serving 27 months for prostitution

A Message from the Sex Worker’s Outreach Project - Tucson www.swop-tucson.org
Please forward this message.
Please Join Us December 17, 2009 for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers Event in Tucson, Arizona!

November 11, 2009

Dear Friends & Supporters of Sex Worker’s Rights:

In 2009, sex workers from around the globe met gruesome deaths and endured unspeakable violence. Some died at the hands of a solitary perpetrator; others were victims of serialprostitute killers. While some of these horrific stories received international media attention ( Boston, Grand Rapids, Albuquerque, Tijuana , Hong Kong , Moscow , Great Britain ,Cape Town , New Zealand ), other cases received little more than a perfunctory investigation. Many cases remain unresolved, sometimes forever.

In fact, most violent crimes against sex workers remain unreported. Stigma and decriminalization facilitate this violence; when sex work is criminalized, prostitutes can't turn to the police for protection without risking prosecution themselves. Sex workers remain one of the largest marginalized populations in existence without the benefit of the basic civil rights that everyone else takes for granted.

Each year, December 17th marks the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Last year’s event in Washington, D.C. was a big success and this year, sex workers and their allies from across the U.S. will gather together in Tucson, Arizona to remember and honor sex workers who have been victimized by virtue of their chosen profession - including rape, assault and murder.

You are invited to join us on December 17, 2009 in Tucson, Arizona to honor the memories of the fallen. (A schedule of events is at the end of this letter). This year is especially poignant for us in Arizona because in May, 2009, Marcia Powell, an inmate at the Perryville women’s prison outside of Phoenix who was serving 27 months for prostitution, died when she was left outside in a holding cage in 107 degree heat without shade, food or water. Marcia Powell’s death is not only a travesty of justice and a failure of the prison system, but of the unjust laws which continue to oppress sex workers everywhere. We are outraged and saddened by both the loss of freedom and of lives, and we ask for your participation in putting an end to the violence.

Here’s How You Can Help

Please join us in honoring sex workers who have fallen victim to the travesties of violence and injustice. You can:

* Attend the IDEVASW event in Tucson, Arizona on December 17th; we have plenty of resources for free housing and transportation.
* If you can’t join us in Tucson, organize your own IDEVASW event in your hometown.
* If you’re a business who’d like to help the Tucson event by sponsorship, please contact info@swop-tucson.org. We need both money and volunteers.
* Circulate this letter to your own listservs and use social media to get the word out - blog about this, add this letter to your website, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc.
* Donate to the Sex Workers Outreach Project. Visit http://swop-usa.org to find out more.

If silence is the voice of complicity, then your presence in Arizona on December 17th would be a powerful message for justice to be heard across the world. Thank you.

In Solidarity,

Sex Workers Outreach Project - USA Sex Workers Outreach Project -Tucson
For more event information, please visit: http://swop-tucson.org

_________________________@@@_____________________
IDEVASW Event Schedule - Tucson, Arizona

Volunteers are still needed – please contact info@swop-tucson.org !
December 17, 2009

5:00 – 6:00 p.m. “No Human Involved” Event El Presidio Park, 160 West Alameda Street, Tucson, AZ. Performance art/art installation with the theme, “No Human Involved.” The central image will be a physical representation of the Perryville Prison which will honor Marcia Powell and sex workers everywhere who have been victims of violence; a performance piece/die-in and live music.

6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. “Remembrance Memorial” El Tiradito Shrine, 354 South Main Avenue, Tucson, AZ. Join us in remembering and honoring sex worker who have been victims of violence. Live music, performance poetry, ritual, candlelight vigil and refreshments. El Tiradito is a national historic shrine dedicated to the “castaway sinner” and holds a special place in the hearts of Tucson sex workers.
December 18, 2009

Political Rally at the downtown Phoenix offices of the Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections to protest current anti-prostitution laws and prison conditions. Did you know that in Arizona, a fourth conviction is a mandatory Class 5 felony with 180 days of prison for consensual sex between a client and a sex worker? Please visit http://swop-tucson.org for more details. Volunteers are needed to organize this day!

Posted by lois at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2009

Grants NM: Chamber of Commerce and Prison work to keep CCA prison for women open

Community works to keep women’s prison open
By Donald Jaramillo
Beacon publisher/managing editor
November 5, 2009

GRANTS - An emergency community relations meeting organized by the New Mexico Women's Correction Facility and supported by the Grants/Cibola County Chamber of Commerce in effort to keep the facility open was held on Nov. 5 at La Ventana Steak House. Area prisons and law enforcement agencies regularly meet monthly, however, because of the possible closure of the women's facility in Grants, this month's meeting was identified as an emergency meeting in effort to keep the women's correctional facility open.

New Mexico Secretary of Corrections Joe Williams recently announced that if Governor Bill Richardson approves and signs the proposed budget cuts, his department would be forced to close two prisons, one being the women's facility in Grants. The other prison is located in Roswell.

The facility employs approximately 150 people and its closure could make a substantial effect on the local economy. The facility currently houses 590 women and is managed by Corrections Corporation of America.

NMWCF Warden Assistant Lisa Riley said the meeting was to update the community on the possible closure and to organize efforts to fight back in order to keep the facility open. Contact numbers of area legislators were handed out at the meeting along with copies of a letter published in today's Beacon on page 4. A group is also being organized to visit the governor soon.

The budget cuts proposed were passed by the New Mexico State Legislature during the recent special session called by the governor.

For more information on the effort call the chamber at 287-4802 or the women's prison at 287-2941.
http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2009/11/05/news/doc4af367fc9522e854703147.txt

Posted by lois at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2009

KS: Closed Girls "Reformatory" Closes After 120 Years

Shuttered girls reformatory recalls horror, haven
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH (AP) 10-25-09

BELOIT, Kan. — Many were broken, many were saved here.

Beloit's name became synonymous with its girls' reformatory, one of the longest-operating in the country, which for more than a century mirrored the most enlightened reforms but also the cruelest horrors of such places. Now, at its closing, residents and staff members are wrestling with the contradictions.

Beloit was where "bad girls" were sent: That's what Diane Roles had heard as a child. A friend's sister had gone there.

Growing up in the 1960s, Roles endured a seriously dysfunctional family — a chronically violent father and a fearful mother. People didn't talk much about child abuse then, and young Diane's solution was to run away from home to escape beatings.

Once, she said, her father kicked her with his steel-toed boot, leaving her jaw swollen. Another time, her bruised legs prompted a girlfriend's mother and a neighbor to call her family. But nothing changed.

"I got to the place where I didn't even cry anymore," she said. "The more they hit me, the more I laughed."

Her older sister complained to their mother that she had been molested. Roles said her mother slapped the sister, saying, "What am I supposed to do?"

The offense that landed Roles in the juvenile court system was taking her brother's car for a joy ride. After fleeing a foster home, she was offered placement in a "trade school," and she grabbed it.

It wasn't until the frightened 13-year-old was riding across the wind-swept prairie of rural north-central Kansas that it dawned on her the school was Beloit. "I mean to tell you my heart dropped clear down to my toes," she said.

But looking back now, she sees it differently. "Going to Beloit was a safe haven for me," she said. "Basically, I was an abused kid. Back in them days they didn't do anything. They shook their heads."

There is no barbed wire — no fence at all — surrounding the complex of limestone and brick buildings that came to be known as Beloit Juvenile Correctional Facility. Across the street is the high school for the shrinking, agricultural town of 3,600. Its two-block long downtown, filled with charming century-old buildings, is less than a mile away.

The institution, right down to its rural setting, is typical of the ones that began opening in the middle part of the 19th century as rehabilitation-focused reformers sought to end the practice of housing juveniles alongside adults in deplorable conditions.

The Women's Christian Temperance Union, a suffragist group that had fought for prohibition, lobbied for the girls' facility in Kansas, soliciting donations of land and money and operating it for its first couple of years before the state took it over in 1890. As was common at the time, girls as young as 8 spent long days toiling in the gardens and caring for the animals that supplied their food. For a time, girls were even indentured to farm families.

But with the high-minded ideals of the reformers, there was a dark side as well, explained Ned Loughran, executive director of the Council for Juvenile Correctional Administrators, in Braintree, Mass.

"These kids were an eyesore for the upper classes of society," he said. "The solution wasn't to change the conditions they were growing up in, the poverty and lack of parental supervision. The view was to get them out of sight. Then people forgot they were there, and abuses crept into the system."

Abuses? Under some administrations, girls were punished with huge doses of vomit- and diarrhea-inducing castor oil,humiliated with forced hair clipping. In the darkest period, dozens underwent involuntary sterilizations.

"It totally infuriates me," said Katrina Pollet, pausing at a box of yellowed photos from years gone by as staff sorted and packed up late this summer. The last superintendent, she's passionate about helping the girls who've left Beloit for good.

"It's so important to me because I could have easily been here," said Pollet, who was herself once a pregnant 16-year-old high-school dropout.

As school records, some in musty leather-bound books, were sorted and stored, the mundane details they contain sketched life at Beloit and the shifting attitudes it reflected.

From the 1930s, a file for one girl described her as "incorrigible" and noted she "associated with Mexican men" and "became intoxicated at dances."

The offense for another young charge was listed as being "immoral (with father)." Later in the record, it shows the girl was taken for removal of venereal warts. It was common practice for much of the facility's history to lock up young abuse victims rather than their abusers.

Both girls spent about four years at Beloit.

All the records detail whether the girls had attended Sunday school. "Yes" is the answer for most.

When the reformatory was founded, girls "were really viewed in our society much more as property," said J. Russell Jennings, commissioner of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority. "And the expectation for behavior of girls and what occurred with them when they didn't meet those expectations really provided an open door for young girls to be institutionalized for non-crime events. Not even running away but just kind of being a pain in the neck."

The treatment they received varied, as it was not uncommon in the early days for entire staffs to change after elections. Some administrations taught the girls to play musical instruments and barred corporal punishment, while others relied on draconian forms of discipline.

The most infamous superintendent was Lula Coyner, whose cruelty caused the girls to march to the sheriff's office and demand an investigation.

In 1935 and 1936, Coyner undertook a campaign of forced sterilization after becoming enamored with an international movement known as eugenics, a philosophy also popular among the Nazis that sought to prevent those deemed mentally disabled or otherwise genetically inferior from having children.

During her tenure, 62 girls — almost half of her charges — were transported about 175 miles away to the Women's Prison Hospital in Lansing to have their fallopian tubes removed.

The reason: Coyner wrote in a 1936 report that girls who "asked to be sterilized" had "serious physical or family handicaps," such as venereal diseases, insanity, epilepsy and illegitimacy. She later defended her action, writing that it was "the finest service to society the Girls' Industrial School has ever contributed."

A torrent of negative news stories presented it differently, and Coyner's replacement, Blanche Peterson, told a reporter girls lived in terror of the operations, which were performed for "absurd" reasons.

Twenty-two recommended sterilizations, pending when Coyner left, were never carried out.

The harsh treatment had been swept away by the time Diane Roles arrived. Beloit became a training ground for workers from the Topeka-based Menninger Clinic, which became known internationally for humanizing treatment of the mentally ill.

The therapy provided a means for the girls to finally talk openly about the abuse many of them had experienced. There was usually at least one young murderess at Beloit, generally sent there for killing an abuser. But runaways like Roles were much more common.

Roles met often with staff to discuss her situation, but she was insistent on one point: "I didn't even want to discuss going home."

Others felt the same. One young woman who arrived a decade later said she and her sister had suffered incessant sexual abuse at home, but no one believed them.

"I wasn't a criminal," said the 50-year-old now living in Fayetteville, Ark., who asked to be identified by her maiden name, Kathy Mounce. "I wasn't really running to something. I was running from something."

She remembers Beloit as a safe place, where she could sleep at night without being bothered.

"I will always believe that because of Beloit and the staff, I am where I am today," said the mother of three who has been married 32 years, worked as a radiology clerk at a hospital and even counseled sexual abuse victims. "They saved the lives of unwanted children."

Roles recalls softball games with the staff and cooking meals with her housemates. The school had a cosmetology program, and Roles chose to receive training as a nurse's aide. Well-behaved girls even were permitted to have jobs in town.

Later, girls even briefly participated in mixers with boys from a Topeka facility, a practice that ended when one girl became pregnant.

The environment began to change because of a federal law passed in the mid-1970s that sought to end the incarceration of status offenders — those whose offenses wouldn't be a crime if committed by an adult. The practice wasn't fully eliminated in Kansas until 1983. Over the past decade, more low-level offenders were placed in less-expensive and, research suggests, more appropriate community-based programs.

The Beloit facility averaged just 21 girls in the just-ended 2009 fiscal year, down from 103 in 1999; because of the low numbers, the state was spending an average of $200,000 a year on each girl. In the midst of a deep recession that has caused massive budget cuts in Kansas, like most other places, the expenses for Beloit became just too high. After more than 120 years, it closed in August.

"We don't raise orphans and we don't raise wayward youth and incorrigible youth at state institutions anymore," said Jennings, the juvenile justice commissioner. "We reserve those institutions only for the most serious offenders to ensure public safety. It really reflects a system that is maturing and it's becoming more aligned with current research on how we can be most effective with adolescent behaviors."

Although the reasons for the closure were clear, residents and staff became misty-eyed when they talked about the decision to transfer Beloit's remaining occupants to unused space at a Topeka facility that previously housed just young male offenders.

Bobbie Stillman, who called Beloit home until the end, said the announcement that the facility was closing caused her to hyperventilate and sent her to her room, feeling "overwhelmed and let down."

Knowing the girls were worried, staff members gave Stillman and the others teddy bears before their move, and the girls cuddle the bears as they watch television and sleep.

Over the years, staff members had raised money to buy the girls Christmas presents. Some corresponded with their former charges, following them as they pursued careers in nursing, social work and criminal justice. Few became adult offenders.

Roles, who married, had three children and worked as a mental health aide, stayed in touch with one of her housemothers and with former superintendent Dennis Shumate.

"They were great role models," she said. "They were like family."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hL1qlJoErTqJ1xPxBE27MBjEzg -gD9BHK4R00

Posted by lois at 04:57 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2009

MA: Two suicides by women at Dartmouth House of Correction. One clings to life and the other dies.

Pair of suicide attempts raise questions about inmate care
By Jay Pateakos
Herald News Staff Reporter

Last update Oct 22, 2009 @ 11:50 PM
DARTMOUTH —

One Dartmouth House of Correction inmate was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m. Thursday and another clings to life after attempted suicides Tuesday morning. The deaths have some questioning the quality of mental health and medical care prisoners are receiving since a conversion to a new medical care company in July.

Candy-Lee Boisclair, 37, of Fall River, in prison since Oct. 18 for unarmed burglary, was found hanging in her cell by officers at approximately 11:30 a.m. Less than an hour later, Katrina Dumont, 21, of Swansea, and in prison since Oct. 5 for impersonating a police officer, was also found. Boisclair was pronounced dead Thursday at St. Luke’s Hospital and Dumont remains in critical condition.

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said Boisclair was put on an “eyeball” watch on Monday after officers were informed that she was in possession of a crack pipe and drugs hidden in a body cavity.

After giving up the pipe, Boisclair reported to doctors that she had just overdosed on Klonopins, but after meeting with a doctor, she was determined to not be under the influence of any drug. An hour later, she attempted to hang herself.

On Monday, Dumont scratched superficial wounds on her arms and was reported by correctional officers to the mental health unit of the prison. After a mental health review was held on Tuesday, Dumont was returned to the EA Unit, and like Boisclair an hour before her, hanged herself in her cell.

Hodgson said suicides in the jail are rare. He said in 12 years as sheriff he’s never seen two suicides come so close together.

“I’m sure it happens at other prisons, but it doesn’t happen here,” said Hodgson.

Hodgson said an internal investigation of the actions of his staff and medical personnel have showed that protocol was followed in the matters related to both inmates.

“Our medical unit has been accredited for the last 11 years, with the highest standards in the industry, and we felt they met the criteria for their evaluations and this was just something they just didn’t catch,” said Hodgson, of Dumont’s mental health review. “This is a very unusual situation and these are things that can happen.”

Correctional Psychiatric Services took over for longtime prison medical care company CMC after it was revealed that the Bristol County House of Correction owed the company $3.6 million.

The Pennsylvania-based CMC walked out on the prisons in mid-July. Hodgson said Correctional Psychiatric Services, which provides all the medical and mental health care to the prisoners, is doing a “great job” at keeping up with the medical care of the prisons.

The company’s contract is set to expire on Dec. 5.

Hodgson said a request for proposal has gone out for future medical services with the winning bidder, who will be announced in November, to take over Dec. 6.

While Hodgson defended his medical personnel, attorney James Pingeon, Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services Inc. director of litigation, painted a different picture of what he said is a rising concern of inadequacies in medical and mental care at the Dartmouth House of Correction.

“We have received several calls about the catastrophic, abysmal medical services going on at the jail, especially in mental health care,” said Pingeon. “We’ve been told that Boisclair had informed people that she intended to commit suicide hours before she died and that she was medically cleared and then went on to hang herself. The person doing the evaluation clearly failed, but it’s not surprising, because ever since they stopped paying their other medical company and went with a new one, we are hearing that they are not complying with standard medical practices.”

Pingeon said other complaints include that the mental health unit is backlogged and understaffed and that prisoners are not getting necessary medical treatment, something Hodgson vehemently denied.

“We have a strict grievance policy in the prison, and there has been no indications that there has been any complaints by inmates on their care,” said Hodgson. “There is no backlog or overstaffing in mental health. It is actually one of the most important parts of our operation, and nobody is more aware of that than we are.”

Pingeon, who said the state’s Correctional Legal Services Inc. has launched its own investigation into the matter, said he also has concerns with Hodgsons’s comments that an internal investigation into the two incidents has already been completed.

“There ought to be a serious investigation behind this, and whenever anyone tries to say that they have completed an investigation just a few hours after the incident occurred, I feel there’s a problem with that. It needs a more dedicated system,” said Pingeon. “The sheriff is saying his staff did what they were supposed to do, but you can’t know that that fast. He needs to be willing to step up and face the problems the jail has.”

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/local_news/x637610259/Pair-of-suicide-attempts-raise-questions-about-inmate-care?view=print

Posted by lois at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2009

AZ: Judge rules against Arpaio who demanded $300-$600 of prepayment for transportation for women seeking access to abortion care.

From the ACLU: "A victory for incarcerated women against Sheriff Joe Arpaio The judge ordered that it was unconstitutional for Maricopa Jail to require "prepayment" of transportation costs for those women seeking to access abortion care."

Judge: No prepayment for abortion transport
by Michael Kiefer - Oct. 21, 2009
The Arizona Republic

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled that the Sheriff's Office cannot force jail inmates to prepay the cost of being transported to a clinic to obtain an abortion.

Judge Robert Oberbillig said he felt "compelled" to add the ruling to an existing injunction against the Sheriff's Office forbidding it from demanding court orders before taking inmates to abortion clinics.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio appealed that 2005 injunction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.

Then his office told another inmate that she would have to pay $300 to $600 in advance to cover the office's cost of transport and security before being taken to the clinic. If she wanted a waiver for the fee, she could get a court order. The woman was able to obtain funds for the transport. Still, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which brought the initial suit, argued that the prepayment created another obstacle to a woman's right to obtain a timely abortion under the U.S. Constitution.

Deputy Chief Sheriff Jack MacIntyre told The Republic that the court should have waited for a new case with a plaintiff who still needed an abortion, "someone whose actual constitutional rights have been affected. This really is judicial activism taken a few steps too far," he said.

But ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri told the court, "That will effectively mean that some women will lose their constitutional right and be forced to carry a child to term."

Amiri told the court that the three women who have been plaintiffs over the history of the case had their abortions delayed seven weeks, four weeks and six weeks, respectively, which she claimed placed their health in danger and delayed their constitutional rights.

The ACLU did not dispute the sheriff's right to demand reimbursement for the transport costs.

But Daryl Manhart, an attorney for the Sheriff's Office, argued that extending credit in advance would be tantamount to giving away the money, as the inmates would likely not pay it back.

Oberbillig questioned Manhart rigorously over the hour-and-a-half long hearing, but ultimately ruled on the side of the side of the ACLU.

MacIntyre and Manhart both said that the Sheriff's Office would likely appeal the ruling.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/10/21/20091021acluabortion1021.html

Posted by lois at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2009

The California Fix: As 40% of money for rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep prisoners from returning

THE CALIFORNIA FIX
As rehab programs are cut, prisons do less to keep inmates from returning
By Michael Rothfeld
October 17, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento - Gina Tatum spends her days in a compound surrounded by electrified fence in the sun-baked heart of the Central Valley, hoping to change her life.

She will soon turn 50, and after two decades in and out of prison, she says she is tired of victimizing others, tired of stealing, tired of doing drugs.

"I can't afford any more years up here -- I've lost too many," said Tatum, who is serving a four-year stint for forgery at the Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla. "I'm trying to learn things to change my thinking, change everything about me, so I can go home. It's so easy to get caught up here and never leave. I don't want to die in prison."

But because of cuts in the state budget, Tatum and thousands of other inmates and parolees in California are about to lose access to many of the programs the prison system has offered to help them turn their lives around.

Officials plan to chop $250 million a year from rehabilitation services, more than 40% of what the state now devotes to them and a quarter of the $1 billion it is slicing from its prison system.

The cuts occur four years after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded lawmakers to change the name of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"We don't want to just put the name on it," he said in 2007, proposing to expand rehabilitation services for prisoners. "We have to heal them. We have to get them ready to go out so they can get a job, connect with society and never commit a crime again."

Federal pressure

The rehabilitation services are being slashed at the moment when they may be most needed: The state is under pressure from federal courts to reduce overcrowding driven by the high rate at which inmates return to prison after they are released.

Substance-abuse treatment, vocational training and educational programs, all scheduled to be cut back, were designed to give offenders skills to help them hold jobs and make other changes. They are taught to handle anger, build self-esteem and search for the roots of their decisions to commit crimes, the better to avoid repeating them.

At eight prisons, substance-abuse programs will close; scaled-down versions will remain at only 12 of the state's 33 lockups and one of its privately run prisons. Up to 900 instructors and staff, many of whom provide academic and vocational education, could be laid off. Arts programs will no longer be available.

State officials say they will attempt to use their reduced resources more efficiently, by cycling inmates through programs for shorter periods.

"We're very much targeting the resources on those who most need it," said Elizabeth Siggins, who is in charge of rehabilitation for the state prison system.

But advocates for rehabilitation and program providers contend that the cuts mean a return to an old way of thinking, in which prisons were intended to punish but not improve those society sends there. And they say the changes could have an effect on safety in California streets and within its prisons.

Kathy Jett, formerly Schwarzenegger's top aide for prisoner rehabilitation, said gangs may attempt to fill the void created by the absence of programs.

"I think you'll start to see a shift back to lots of violence," she said. "These are pretty draconian, pretty severe cuts. . . . The wardens really are not going to have many tools to manage those inmates."

The changes could also subvert the state's recent moves to lower incarceration costs and ease crowding.

The governor and state lawmakers last month agreed to reduce supervision of parolees so fewer would be returned to prison for failing drug tests and other low-level violations. At the same time, the state is eliminating 45% of the seats in its substance-abuse programs for parolees, which experts say increases the likelihood that they will commit new crimes and go back to prison anyway.

And the state may undermine another recently enacted measure that gives inmates more time off their sentences for participating in such programs: Prisoners cannot earn the credit without access to the programs.

At Valley State, two nonprofit groups hired by the state provide rehabilitation to 756 women four hours a day, five days a week. The state has canceled a contract with one of the groups, Phoenix House, as of this month and will end a contract with Walden House as early as December. After that, officials plan to award a new contract for only 175 women to receive services.

At Walden House's program one recent day, about 125 women arrived at a building that resembles a small civic center. They sat quietly for "accountability time," arms folded, feet tapping, while attendance was checked. When the session began, women stepped to the center to perform a previously assigned task intended to teach responsibility.

One read a poem. Another recounted the day's news from television reports. A third offered inspirational proverbs. The women sang a boisterous "Happy Birthday to you -- Woooo" for one inmate.

The goal, counselors said, is to get inmates, some of whom are required to attend against their will, to connect with others and learn trust. The program is for women who have used drugs or committed drug-related crimes, but the curriculum extends beyond controlling addiction to maintaining relationships, parenting and anger management.

'The tears start'

"We ask them, 'Why are you here? What has happened in your life that brought you to prison?' " said Charmaine Hoggatt, a program director for Walden House.

"We get them to try to be honest about some of the choices they made. That's when the tears start to come, the confusion starts to come, and the guilt and the shame."

Mary Rubio, in the 23rd year of a life term for a crime she would not discuss, completed the program in 2005 and is a paid mentor to others.

"This program saved my life," said Rubio, 54. In "the jungle" of the prison dorms and yards, she said, she never could have reflected on her life, on how self-destructive she had been. In prison, "it's, you know, eat or be eaten," Rubio said. "So when I came into this program, it gave me a safe place . . . to look at my behaviors and the reason for them."

Not all inmates engage. Informed about the cutbacks, some applauded, Hoggatt said. As several women sat talking about the coming changes, they said that though they had initially resisted participating in the program, encouragement from fellow inmates and counselors helped them believe that they could make the future better than the past.

Tatum, shedding tears and brushing back hair streaked with gray, called the program "one of the best things I've ever done in my life." It could also be her last chance to save herself, she said, because with two strikes on her record, even a fight after her release could land her back in prison for the rest of her life.

'Let us stay'

"I know you help some people even though they don't want to be helped," Tatum told Hoggatt. "Those of us who want to be here, let us stay."

Tatum won't be eligible, because the state plans to put inmates in that rehabilitation program for only the three months immediately before their release dates, rather than the current three-year maximum. She is not scheduled to get out until the end of 2011.

Siggins said the inmates chosen for such services will be those deemed to be most in need or at the highest risk to offend again.

Similarly, the state will give preference in education programs to those who can most benefit, Siggins said.

With fewer teachers, the most classroom time will go to prisoners with lower reading levels, while those at higher levels or who are preparing for graduate equivalency tests will have more individual "self-study."

But David Beck-Brown, an artist and former instructor who left his job at a San Diego prison earlier this year, said that with little to do, prisoners grow restless.

"We have to have programs," he said. "We have to treat inmates with dignity. All that is going under now."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-merehab17-2009oct17,0,3388203.story
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

Posted by lois at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2009

KS: Gov. moves for outside review of prison system following allegations of widespread illegal sex among staff and prisoners at the state's prison for women

Kan. gov. seeks outside review of state prisons
Eds: UPDATES with additional allegations about allegations; details about governor's request; governor's statement; quotes from governor's spokeswoman, corrections secretary, legislative leader.

By JOHN HANNA
10-14-09
Associated Press Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- Gov. Mark Parkinson moved Wednesday to have an outside review of Kansas' prison system following allegations of widespread illegal sex among staff and inmates at the state's prison for women.

Parkinson sent a letter to the deputy director of the National Institute of Corrections, asking for help in finding an independent management expert with a national reputation to conduct a review. The institute, in Washington, is an agency within the U.S. Justice Department.

The governor said he wants to examine the Kansas Department of Corrections' policies and staff training on sexual misconduct and supervision of inmates of one gender by staff of the opposite gender. Parkinson said he expects a review to be completed before Kansas legislators reconvene in January.

"No one in our corrections system -- whether it's an employee or inmate -- should ever be exploited or abused," Parkinson said in a statement. "We must ensure that the policies we have in place are working and that when people do not follow these policies, they are appropriately dealt with."

Earlier this month, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that inmates and staff at the Topeka Correctional Facility said as many as one-third of its 250 employees have been involved with an illegal black market that includes exchanging drugs for sex with female inmates. The prison has about 550 inmates.

The newspaper reported that its own investigation showed the prison had a workplace culture "that leaves the door open to misconduct," basing its conclusion on interviews and hundreds of pages of documents.

It focused on the case of a former vocational instructor at the prison who pleaded guilty last year to trafficking in contraband and having sex with a female inmate, which is illegal for a prison employee under Kansas law. He was sentenced to two years probation. The inmate became pregnant and had an abortion.

Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz has said only 2 percent of the department's 3,000 employees have engaged in such misconduct. But he welcomed Parkinson's move Wednesday.

"I think it's important at this point that there be an independent set of eyes that takes a look at the policies and procedures that we have in place and takes a look at our operations," Werholtz said in an interview.

Parkinson spokeswoman Beth Martino said the Democratic governor's desire for an outside review doesn't signal any loss of confidence in Werholtz. She said the two are working together to make sure the department's efforts to prevent misconduct are adequate.

House Speaker Mike O'Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, said an outside review is welcome but said it needs to examine the department's oversight of its staff, not just its policies and training.

"I can't imagine that there aren't policies that are in place, and it's just a matter of whether those policies are being enforced and followed," O'Neal said. "Certainly, the recent stories raise a lot of concerns in the public's eye about what's going on."

http://www.hdnews.net/apksstory/k1057-BC-KS-Kansas-PrisonSex-2ndLd-Writethru-10-14-0654

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

October 14, 2009

NY Times Editorial: One Protection for Women Prisoners In Labor. Now states and other courts must act.

NY Times Editorial: One Protection for Prisoners
Published: October 13, 2009

The practice of keeping female prisoners in shackles while they give birth is barbaric. But it remains legal in more than 40 states, and advocates of prisoners’ rights say it is all too common. A federal appeals court has now found that the shackling of an Arkansas inmate may have violated the Constitution — but the margin was uncomfortably close.

Shawanna Nelson, a nonviolent offender, was 29 years old and six months pregnant when she arrived in Arkansas’s McPherson Unit prison in 2003. When she went into labor, she was taken to a civilian hospital. Although there was no reason to consider her a flight risk, her legs were shackled to a wheelchair, and then, while she went through labor, to the sides of a hospital bed.

Ms. Nelson testified that the shackles prevented her from moving her legs, stretching or changing positions during the most painful part of her labor. She offered evidence that the shackling had caused a permanent hip injury, torn stomach muscles, an umbilical hernia that required an operation and extreme mental anguish.

In a suit against prison officials, Ms. Nelson charged that her Eighth Amendment right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment had been violated. She won an early ruling from the trial court, but a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit rejected her suit. Now the full appeals court has reversed that decision, ruling, with a 6-to-5 vote, that a jury could find that Ms. Nelson’s shackling was unconstitutional. The court relied in part on a 2002 Supreme Court holding that Alabama’s practice of tying prisoners to a hitching post violated the Eighth Amendment.

The ruling should help persuade other courts and state legislatures that the shackling of pregnant prisoners is unconstitutional. Several states have already made the practice illegal under certain circumstances — including New York, which did so this year.

Elizabeth Alexander, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s prison project, called the circuit court’s ruling “thrilling,” given how conservative the federal courts have been on prison issues. It is clearly an important victory. Sadly, it is also a sign of how low the bar has been set for the humane treatment of prisoners.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 14, 2009, on page A30 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/opinion/14wed3.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Posted by lois at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2009

Two former state employees accused of raping three women prisoners as they worked on OK governor's grounds

Prisoners Say They Were Raped on Job Detail

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 12, 2009
NY Times
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Prosecutors are investigating accusations that two former state employees at the Oklahoma governor’s mansion raped three female prison inmates assigned to work on the mansion’s grounds.

Neither man has been charged, but the Department of Central Services fired both of them on Sept. 29 for violating departmental policies after a three-month Department of Corrections investigation.

The accusations raise questions about security at the chief executive’s residence and about the oversight of a program meant in part to reward good behavior by allowing inmates to leave prison for the day and work off site.

Department of Corrections officials believe the state workers who supervised the inmates at the governor’s mansion committed sexual battery, forcible sodomy and rape against inmates from the Hillside Community Corrections Center, a department spokesman, Jerry Massie, said Monday. The department recently turned its findings over to the office of the Oklahoma County district attorney, David Prater.

Assistant District Attorney Scott Rowland said Monday that prosecutors met with Department of Corrections investigators for two hours Friday and that the investigation was continuing. Neither of the employees responded to phone messages seeking comment.

The inmates, two of whom have since been released from prison, say the assaults happened between March 2008 and January 2009. The Department of Corrections did not begin investigating until June 1, after one woman came forward after her release, Mr. Massie said.

The women said they were attacked in a storage building outside the security fence that surrounds the mansion’s 14-acre grounds, Mr. Massie said.

Janet Roloff, a lawyer for one of the women, said her client had endured a “violent, bloody rape” that left her with emotional and physical scars. It is illegal for a supervisor and an inmate to have sex, and Ms. Roloff scoffed at the notion that any sex between her client and the state workers was consensual.

“My client was dragged down, held down by one and raped by another,” she said. “That doesn’t sound very consensual, does it?”

Ms. Roloff said her client had been afraid to report the attack until after her release, for fear of retribution. She said the woman had come forward to try to persuade prison officials to stop sending female inmates to the governor’s mansion.

The Corrections Department is interviewing other women who took part in the program, Mr. Massie said. The program was suspended after the accusations surfaced but has since resumed.

The accusations came a month after three state troopers assigned to guard the mansion were disciplined for falsifying hours, saying they were working when they were not.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 13, 2009, on page A21 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/us/13okla.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Oklahoma&st=cse

Posted by lois at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

October 07, 2009

MA: State floats idea of another prison in Framingham

State floats idea of another prison in Framingham
By Dan McDonald/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Oct 07, 2009
FRAMINGHAM —

Already home to MCI-Framingham, the town might be host to another 500-bed prison facility.

The state has broached the idea, which appears to be in a very preliminary planning stage, selectmen Chairwoman Ginger Esty told her board last night .

There are many unknowns, the foremost being whether the proposal has any traction.

Selectmen, meeting in the Memorial Building's Ablondi Room last night, have many questions for which they do not have answers.

Would the facility be for men or women? What level of security would it have? Would it be an expansion of MCI-Framingham or a different entity altogether?

What kind of payment would the town get for hosting such a facility?

In fiscal 2009, the Department of Correction paid the town $75,437 for the presence of the tax-exempt MCI-Framingham, a medium-security prison on Loring Drive on the town's Southside.

That prison, like the whole system, is overburdened.

As of Aug. 17, MCI-Framingham, the DOC's only "committing institution for female offenders" had 597 inmates. It has a capacity for 452.

The state slashed $13 million from the DOC's budget within the last year.

The DOC is closing the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center on Nov. 6 because of budget cuts.

While the details remain murky, such a facility would present "significant unseen challenges" to the town in providing municipal services, said Town Manager Julian Suso last night.

Esty agreed, saying the town needs more information.

"It would have a lot of repercussions in our community," said Esty.

Suso, Esty, a representative of Framingham Police Department, and representatives of Framingham's State House delegation met with the state's Division of Capital Asset Management to talk about the idea recently.

State Rep. Pam Richardson, D-Framingham, alerted Esty. Richardson had heard about the idea from a sheriff, said Esty.

So far, state officials are reluctant to talk about the plan in detail, according to Suso and Esty.

Suso did suggest a "planning process is going to be unfolding."

In other business, fire officials told selectmen the probable cause of the Sept. 21 Conigliaro Industries fire was improperly disposed of smoking material, possibly a discarded cigarette.

The fire at 701 Waverley St. ripped through a pile of recyclables that was 250 feet long, according to fire officials.

The blaze shut down commuter and freight rail traffic for about 90 minutes, according to state officials. No one was injured. The fire cost Conigliaro about $250,000.

Framingham Fire Marshal Brian Mauro told selectmen arson was essentially ruled out because the fire smoldered from the bottom of the pile of refuse. If someone had lit the fire on purpose they would have lit the top of the pile and "we would have seen that," said Mauro.

Mauro said Conigliaro appeared to be in compliance with all of its permits and had no violations pertaining to the fire.

He said the business toughened smoking regulations on the site after the fire.

Selectmen also last night honored Police Officer John Moore and Police Detective Leonard Pini for their courage in dealing with a disgruntled shotgun-toting man on Coburn Street in September 2008.

Responding to a domestic assault call, police arrived at a 34 Coburn St. apartment on Sept. 24, 2008 and were greeted by a shotgun blast from Michael Boyd, then 24.

Moore returned fire, but missed. Pini fired and hit Boyd in the chest.

Both faced mortal danger and prevented others at the scene, including two children, from harm, according to proclamations read last night.
Dan McDonald can be reached at 508-626-4416 or at dmcdonal@cnc.com
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x458693970/State-floats-idea-of-another-prison-in-Framingham

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

October 06, 2009

Letter to the Editor (NY Times) on Abuse of Women Prisoners

Letter to the Editor: Abuse of Female Prisoners
Published: October 2, 2009
To the Editor:
Re “Prisoners’ Rights” (editorial, Sept. 24):

You are right to call for legislation amending the Prison Litigation Reform Act. We sued on behalf of female prisoners in the New York State prison system who reported that they had been sexually assaulted by staff members, and have been appalled to spend the last six years litigating whether these 17 women — each of whom bravely complained of her abuse to departmental officials — exhausted their administrative remedies sufficiently to satisfy the law.

As a result, New York State has been able to avoid addressing the prison system’s longstanding failure to protect female prisoners from sexual abuse, allowing more and more women to be victimized.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act was sold in Congress as a measure against frivolous litigation, but has served in reality to prevent the redress of the most serious violations of prisoners’ human rights. The time has come for reform, or better yet, repeal of the law.

Lisa Freeman
Dori Lewis
New York, Sept. 24, 2009

The writers are lawyers with the Prisoners’ Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society and lawyers for the plaintiffs in Amador v. Andrews.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/opinion/lweb02prisoner.html?_r=3&pagewanted=print_

Here is the editorial:
Editorial
Prisoners’ Rights

Published: September 23, 2009

In 1996, Congress passed a law that made it much harder for inmates to challenge abusive treatment. It has contributed significantly to the bad conditions — including the desperate overcrowding — that prevail today. The law must be fixed.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Times Topics: Prisons and Prisoners

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

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

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

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

The main reason to pass the new law, though, is human decency. The only way to ensure that inmates are not mistreated is to guarantee them a fair opportunity to bring their legitimate complaints to court.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/opinion/24thu4.html?scp=1&sq=prisoners%E2%80%99%20rights&st=cse

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

October 05, 2009

From National Advocates for Pregnant Women: Shackling Pregnant Prisoners in Labor Found to be Cruel by the Eighth Circuit

Dear Friends and Allies:

On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit (the federal level appellate court that reviews decisions from federal district courts in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, and Arkansas) issued the long-awaited decision in Nelson v. Norris. In this case, Shawanna Nelson argued that being forced to go through the final stages of labor with both legs shackled to her hospital bed was cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the 8th Amendment to the Constitution. She argued that she should be allowed to sue the director of the prison and the guard who repeatedly re-shackled her legs to the bed. Ms. Nelson, an African-American woman, was incarcerated for non-violent offenses of credit card fraud and "hot checks."

In this historic federal court decision, the Court held that the guard was not immune from (protected from) suit because it has been clearly established by the decisions of the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts that shackling pregnant women in labor violates that 8th Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Court suggested that the corrections officers should have known that the medical risks of shackling were "obvious" and that "the shackles interfered with Nelson's medical care, could be an obstacle in the event of a medical emergency, and caused unnecessary suffering at a time when Nelson would have likely been physically unable to flee because of the pain she was undergoing and the powerful contractions she was experiencing as her body worked to give birth."

Ms. Nelson originally filed this case in 2004. As the case progressed through the courts, she seemed to be losing. In 2008, three judges on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that she had no right to sue. Recognizing the harm this decision would do, her counsel reached out to national advocacy groups for help in an effort to petition the court for re-hearing. Even though NAPW does not specialize in prison issues, we are recognized for our commitment to pregnant women and our extraordinary ability to mobilize leading public health and advocacy groups. With allies at the Rebecca Project for Human Rights and the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), we were able to identify more than 35 organizations (see full list below) that wanted to be represented as amicus in this case. In a brief filed with the Kesten Law Firm in Arkansas, amici articulated both constitutional and international human rights arguments in support of the re-hearing and against the degrading and cruel practice of keeping pregnant women in labor in shackles. We did all this in less than a week.

This effort succeeded, garnering a decision by the court to re-hear the case en banc (with full court review). In any year, fewer than 100 cases in the entire federal system are granted rehearing with en banc review. This was a strong initial indication that our brief had made a difference. Not only that, but at oral argument one of the judges specifically referred to our brief, asking: "Based on the amicus submission filed in support of the petition for rehearing, wasn't Arkansas an outlier in the world's community in terms of treatment of pregnant prisoners?" Our answer is yes, and the Court of Appeals decision this Friday agreed.

That this decision is "historic," and that five of the eleven circuit court judges dissented, makes clear both how far we have come and how far we still have to go to ensure the civil and human rights of all pregnant women (the dissent in Friday's opinion saw no "clearly established" constitutional violations in shackling Ms. Nelson during labor.)

Congratulations to Ms. Nelson, her counsel, and all of the groups who sought reproductive justice and won in this case!

This victory makes clear that with persistence we can win.

Sincerely,
Lynn M. Paltrow
Executive Director
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org
info@adovacatesforpregnantwomen.org

Amici on behalf of Shawanna Nelson:
National Perinatal Association
American College of Nurse Midwives
American Medical Women's Association
Citizens for Midwifery
Birthnet Inc.
The Bronx Health Link Inc.
California National Organization for Women
Center for Reproductive Rights
Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers
The D.C. Prisoners' Project of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
Florida Institutional Legal Services Inc.
Justice Now
Law Students for Reproductive Justice
Legal Momentum
Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
Lutheran Services of Illinois Connections Program
Maternal and Child Health Access
The Ms. Foundation for Women
National Juvenile Justice Network
National Women's Health Network
National Women's Law Center
National Women's Prison Project
The New Mexico Women's Justice Project
The Northwest Women's Law Center
The National Organization for Women Foundation
Penal Reform International
Prison Legal News
Prisoners' Legal Services of New York
The Rebecca Project for Human Rights
SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective
Southwest Women's Law Center
Texas Jail Project
The Uptown People's Law Center
WORTH(Women on the Rise Telling Her Story)

Posted by lois at 06:40 PM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2009

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

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

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

September 26, 2009

Cuts Ravage California Domestic Abuse Program

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 23, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

Among the report's findings:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"This should not have happened," he said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Powell arrived at the Perryville prison in August 2008.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 12, 2009

Prison Comix by Jim Ridgeway

Prison Comix
September 5, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 11, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

She observed.

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

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

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

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

Ross, the inmate, dug for news.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But Ross appears to buck such a criteria.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

September 02, 2009

ColorLines Review: The Real Cost of Prisons Comix: Vivid comics show the impacts of mass incarceration on communities of color

Issue #52, Sept/Oct 2009
The Real Cost of Prisons Comix
By Jenna M. Lloyd
Vivid comics show the impacts of mass incarceration on communities of color.

September 2, 2009

Locking 2.3 million people behind bars is a vast social project. It takes work to hide the equivalent of a large US city in plain sight. The explanations served up on the nightly news and by tough-on-crime politicians graphically focus on violent crime, despite its decline. More prisons, they say, will create safe and drug free communities.

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix (PM Press), winner of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s PASS Award, asks whether the billions of dollars invested annually in mass incarceration delivers on these promises.

Hidden behind these fear-provoking images, the book documents the steep human costs exacted on individual health and freedom, family unity, and community well being. What else could be done with the social wealth and creativity now trapped into cycles of cage-building and neighborhood abandonment?

Through powerful graphics and a wealth of grim statistics The Real Cost of Prisons Comix depicts how the past 30 years of unprecedented prison growth have reshaped the landscape of our urban and rural communities. By showing the concrete work that goes into building and maintaining the prison-industrial complex—from the peddlers of fear to the parole officer—the book serves as a smart, accessible primer on the politics and economics driving prison expansion. Prisons are filled with people who have dreams, raise children, and belong to communities most will rejoin.

The RCPC shows visceral narratives of their lives and the collision of racism, poverty, sexism to trace the systematic ways in which mass incarceration builds on and exacerbates these powerful inequities. Most importantly, it suggests concrete alternatives that can help rebuild safe, healthy communities.

Shrinking the system becomes as important a harm reduction strategy as needle exchange and drug treatment.

Three accomplished comic artists collaborate with long time activists and draw on the work of dozens of researchers imprisoned people, and advocates, to examine one dimension of mass incarceration. Kevin Pyle’s "Prison Town: Paying the Price" shows how millions of dollars poured into moving people hours away from their homes fails to generate promised economic growth for struggling rural communities.

In "Prisoners and the War on Drugs," Sabrina Jones takes on racial disparities in drug laws and policing practices that result in African American and Latino people comprising 93% of those incarcerated in New York, and that lock up more drug users than dealers.

Susan Willmarth’s "Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and Their Children" examines how women are the fastest growing group of people being imprisoned. Most women are imprisoned for non-violent crimes, half of them drug offenses. But lifetime bans on welfare, public housing, and student loans for felony drug convictions only exacerbate already serious problems of poverty, racism, abuse, and drugs women face in their daily lives.

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix grew out of a popular education project Lois Ahrens began in 2000. Since the first printing in 2005, over 115,000 copies have been distributed free of charge, and project’s website receives over 30,000 page views each month. One of the great things about this book as an organizing tool is that it includes letters from readers of the comic books—imprisoned people, political organizers, policy makers, teachers, social service providers—which give us a sense of how resonant these comics have been, and all of the ways they have been put to work on the ground.


The economic depression and fiscal crises facing so many states make the alternatives to mass incarceration the book outlines all the more timely. But it’s also a time when the government is pouring even more money into locking up immigrants. Doing away with prisons isn’t just an issue of pure economics, but will also require confronting the racism, economic inequalities, and sexism that work to fuel the futureless future that they represent.

Larson, a man who is imprisoned in Sing Sing, reminds us: “Anyone planning a prison they’re not going to build for ten or fifteen years is planning for a child, planning prison for somebody who’s a child right now.” What dreams are never realized when billions go to jails and prisons instead of to rebuilding our decimated cities? The Real Cost of Prisons Comix gives us a solid place to begin building the healthy, safe, and free futures we want.

Jenna M. Loyd is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Place, Culture and Politics at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. She is also co-editing a collection, Beyond Walls and Cages, that analyzes the connections between US migration policy and mass incarceration, and activist efforts to the brutalities of both systems. She can be reached at jloyd@gc.cuny.edu.
http://colorlines.com/article.php?ID=598

Posted by lois at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

MA: Time to Pass a Law in MA Banning the Use of Shackles for Women in Labor, Delivery and Post-Partum

Published in the September 2, 2009 Daily Hampshire Gazette, Northampton, MA

To the editor:

Unlike New York ("6th State will curb shackling - N.Y. set to ban use on pregnant women"), Massachusetts has no law banning the shackling of women prisoners who are in labor.

A Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) policy allows the routine use of shackles on pregnant women although during the second and third trimester women prisoners are to be handcuffed only. According to DOC policy, full restraints are to be used when returning a woman to jail or prison after birth. Waist shackles cannot be used.

Despite the DOC directive, the experience of many women in Massachusetts is that they are shackled unless a medical practitioner attending the birth directly intervenes. Routinely, women are shackled to the bed by one foot within two hours after giving birth.

For this to begin to change (H.1490) "An Act Relative to Pregnant and Postpartum Inmates" introduced by Rep. Kay Khan needs to pass. Massachusetts would then have a law explicitly stating no shackling of women traveling to or from a hospital and no shackling during delivery. Attention can then be given to the woman and the newborn's health and the burden no longer fall on the doctor or nurse midwife, who now must convince a guard that a woman in labor poses no security or flight risk.

Lois Ahrens
Real Cost of Prisons Project
Northampton
http://www.gazettenet.com/2009/09/02/time-ban-shackles-pregnant-prisoners?CSAuthResp=%3Asession%3ACSUserId|CSGroupId%3Asuccess%3A3DzZJYI058Zt7AD7D49Jgg%3D%3D&CSUserId=8254&CSGroupId=5

Posted by lois at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)

August 29, 2009

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter now can be found on the Real Cost of Prisons website

As many of you know, the C.P.R. newsletter was published for 34 years. In June 2009, they mailed an announcement to their 9,100 subscribers ... almost all of whom are prisoners saying the could no longer afford to keep printing and sending the newsletter. The Real Cost of Prisons believes in the work of the C.P.R. To reach out to families, friends, allies of prisoners, we will post the C.P.R. Newsletters in PDF format beginning with July, 2009. Each month, we will post a new newsletter. The Newsletter is now 2 pages. We encourage you to download the newsletter and send it to prisoners so that they will continue to receive this important source of information and inspiration for organizing that the Newsletter provides.
http://www.realcostofprisons.org/coalition.html

Posted by lois at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2009

NY largely bans use of shackles during childbirth

NY largely bans use of shackles during childbirth
By CRISTIAN SALAZAR Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
Aug. 26, 2009
NEW YORK — Gov. David Paterson on Wednesday signed into law a bill that largely bans the use of restraints on inmates during childbirth, making New York the sixth state in the country to do so, a spokeswoman said.

Paterson signed the bill in spite of having reservations about language in it that allows a woman to be cuffed by one wrist while being taken from a prison to a hospital if she is considered to be a danger to herself, medical staff or correctional officers, spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein said.

At a rally in support of the bill last week, Paterson said he was concerned that a woman cuffed in an ambulance, for instance, could be in danger if there were an accident and she couldn't get out of the vehicle because of the restraint.

Shorenstein said Paterson would look to address those concerns through an amendment, if necessary.

Incarcerated women at state prisons and county jails around the country are routinely shackled during childbirth, often by correctional staff without medical training, according to civil rights organizations and prisoner advocates.

The practice has been condemned by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for unnecessarily risking women's health, and court challenges are pending in several states.

Correction departments and unions have argued that such broad-stroke policy that bans shackling could put medical staff and correctional officers at risk. They also point to the risk of escape posed by potentially dangerous inmates if they are left unshackled.

Similar state laws banning shackling exist in Texas, Illinois, California, Vermont and New Mexico, the American Civil Liberties Union says. Legislatures in Massachusetts and Tennessee are considering bans.

Advocates say the bans haven't led to any escape attempts.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6588662.html

Posted by lois at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2009

MA: MA: (8-17) Metro-West Article: Two More Women Prisoners Attempt Suicide at Framingham

Two more MCI-Framingham inmates attempt suicide
By Dan McDonald/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Aug 17, 2009
FRAMINGHAM —

Two more MCI-Framingham inmates tried to kill themselves this month, bringing the count for attempted suicides inside the Loring Drive prison to six for the year.

These episodes occur at a time when the state Department of Correction struggles with overcrowding and cutbacks in staff and services.

All told, 22 people have tried to kill themselves inside state prisons this year, according to an e-mail from Department of Correction spokeswoman Diane Wiffin.

Of the suicide attempts at Framingham, only one inmate died: Christina Morando, 22, of Swampscott, who was serving a two- to six-year term for accessory to robbery and armed assault with intent to rob or murder.

She hanged herself with a bedsheet on July 19. That same weekend, two other inmates, who were not identified, attempted suicide but lived.

Her death and the suicide attempts prompted a delegation of state lawmakers to visit the prison.

For Framingham, the first suicide attempt this year occurred less than two months before Morando's suicide, on May 30.

The suicide attempts this month occurred Aug. 1 and Aug. 12. Both were unsuccessful, according to the state.

The identities of those who attempted suicide were not revealed. The "primary method" for all of the suicide attempts was strangulation, according to the Department of Correction.

Morando's death marked the first suicide at the Southside prison since December 2006, and the third this year in the prison system.

In 2008, none of the suicide attempts in the Department of Correction were successful.

Within the last year, 84 clinical positions were cut across the state, as the department's budget was slashed by $13 million within the last year.

In Framingham, that meant two mental health positions were eliminated while 2.5 unfilled positions were also eliminated.

While the department's mental health services have been slashed, the demand for such services remains.

In July, state Rep. Kay Khan, D-Newton, estimated that 60 percent of MCI-Framingham's inmates had open mental health cases.

Compounding matters, the prison system is over its capacity.

MCI-Framingham had 597 inmates yesterday. It has a capacity for 452.

Such a statistic is not unusual. The state prison system as a whole was at 146 percent capacity earlier this summer.

The consequences of overcrowding are not lost on Susan Mortimer, a representative of the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition.

"I see worsening conditions," she said.

She said an environment of total control and punishment often exacerbates people's mental health problems. "You need a culture change, meaning a change in the way the people at the top treat the people inside," she said.

Earlier this decade, a string of suicides - at least 15 from 2005 to 2007 - prompted a public outcry and a state review into suicide prevention practices.

The resulting report, commonly called the Hayes Report, included 29 recommendations that dealt with staff training and housing, among other topics.

The Department of Correction has complied with every recommendation that it could. It is awaiting funding for three of the Hayes proposals, including provisions calling for safer cells designated for suicidal inmates, more of such cells and the creation of a transitional housing unit to help in the "step-down process" following an inmate's discharge from a mental health watch.

(Dan McDonald can be reached at 508-626-4416 or dmcdonal@cnc.com.)
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/homepage/x1413645333/Two-more-MCI-Framingham-inmates-attempt-suicide
(One question is: How many of the 597 women at Framingham are there because they cannot make bail---that is "pre-trial"-- which creates so-called "over-crowding"?)

Posted by lois at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

NY Times Editorial: "Protecting Mother and Child" and links to Rebecca Project Info on State by State Shackling Policies

Editorial NY Times
Protecting Mother and Child
Published: August 21, 2009

Obstetricians and other medical professionals have long called for an end to the barbaric and medically risky practice of shackling pregnant prisoners — by their legs, wrists and even around their abdomens — during labor. The Federal Bureau of Prisons ended routine shackling last year and limited the use of restraints to instances in which the women were at clear risk of harming themselves, their infants or others.

Five states and the New York City corrections system have adopted similar policies. Even so, a bill that would end shackling in New York’s state prisons and county jails that sailed through the Legislature seemed in danger of being vetoed because of strong opposition from corrections officials. Aides say that Gov. David Paterson has now decided to sign this important bill.

Critics argued that the legislation was unnecessary, because the state prison system had limited the use of shackling nearly a decade ago. But accounts by present and former inmates suggest that the guidelines have too often been ignored by the officers who transport women to and from the hospital.

The claim that women doubled over in pain and about to give birth pose a serious danger seems especially far-fetched. The Rebecca Project for Human Rights, the Washington-based group that is campaigning to end these policies nationally, says that states with anti-shackling laws report no documented cases of women in labor attempting escape or trying to hurt someone.

Governor Paterson’s staff has problems with a minor provision of the bill that deals with how pregnant women are transported to the hospital. But those issues can be addressed in regulations or in supplementary legislation. What’s important is that New York A version of this article appeared in print on August 22, 2009, on page A16 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/opinion/22sat4.html?ref=opinion

Rebecca Project Fact sheet, memo on state by state shackling procedures:
/www.rebeccaproject.org/images/stories/policypapers/state_shackling_policies_memo.pdf
http://www.rebeccaproject.org/images/stories/factsheets/ShacklingPregnantWomenInCustodyMemorandum.pdf
http://www.rebeccaproject.org/images/stories/factsheets/ACOG_Letter_Shackling.pdf
The BIG question is what the reality and how it plays out as opposed to official policy and does this apply to DOCs and jails or just DOCs?

Posted by lois at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2009

MI: 400 more women claim payouts fro $100 settlement for prison rapes and other assaults

400 more women claim payouts from $100 million in prison attacks
Aug. 20, 2009
By DAVID EGGERT
Detroit Free Press- Associated Press

Another 400 current or former female inmates filed claims for part of a $100 million settlement for those who were raped, groped and peeked at by male corrections staff.

All told, more than 900 women are seeking money from the state for alleged sexual misconduct that occurred inside prisons between March 1993 and July 2009.

The development was disclosed today as Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Timothy Connors gave final approval to the class-action settlement, despite complaints from some ex-inmates who won at trial and will get less under the settlement. Connors gave preliminary approval of the agreement July 15.

“I didn’t know about the settlement agreement until after it was accepted,” said Wendy Garagiola, 47, of Fowlerville, who said she was raped and sodomized by a guard at a Coldwater prison in the mid-1990s. “We’re being told to settle for half of what the jury awarded us. I don’t think it’s fair at all.”

Garagiola and at least two others out of 18 women who were awarded jury verdicts in 2008 came to the courthouse to raise concerns, but they could not speak to the judge because they missed an Aug. 14 deadline to file written objections.

They said the settlement was good for attorneys but not necessarily victims.

The deadline to file for a piece of the settlement was also Aug. 14.

One woman at the court, who did not want to be named due to the nature of what she said happened to her in prison, said she and 17 other women who put themselves through the “public humiliation” of trial should not have been included in negotiations affecting hundreds of other women.

But Deborah Labelle, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, called the settlement fair, explaining that the jury verdicts were never guaranteed because they were in the appeals system when settlement talks began.

“It’s a good thing to put hopefully this chapter behind,” she said of lawsuits that date as far back as 13 years ago. “A hundred million dollars recognizes the kind of human rights violations that went on by the state. We have equitable relief that will go toward preventing this ever happening again.”

Ten lawyers who worked on the case will get $28.7 million for more than 30,000 hours of work and future work administering the settlement, which will be paid between now and 2015. The remaining $71.3 million will be given to victims in three groups based on the severity and amount of abuse.

The 18 women who won verdicts at two trials will split $15.9 million — less than what they would have received under the verdicts. Including interest, the verdicts totaled more than $50 million, though it is unclear how much would have gone to attorneys.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers will decide who is eligible for the settlement and tell those who qualify their estimated payments. Letters must be mailed by Sept. 4.

Women who disagree with their damages have until Sept. 18 to appeal to a court-appointed claims master, Barbara Levine, executive director of the prisoner advocacy group Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending. Levine must issue a final decision on those appeals by Oct. 16. If a woman disagrees with Levine’s ruling, she can then appeal to the judge by Oct. 30.

Connors plans to wrap up the case by the end of the year.

He said former and current prisoners should appreciate the “remarkable” effort by their attorneys. He said the settlement is in everyone’s best interest, and he is glad juries “had a chance to speak out and give their view.”
http://www.freep.com/article/20090820/NEWS06/90820084/1318/400-more-women-claim-payouts-from--100-million-in-prison-attacks&template=fullarticle

Posted by lois at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)

August 20, 2009

Hawaii/KY: 128 women from Hawaii now at CCA- Otter Creek will return to HI after guards accused of sexually assaulting 23 women including seven from Hawaii

Female inmates to return to isles
By Kaylee Noborikawa
Aug 19, 2009

The majority of 128 female inmates from Hawaii housed at a private Kentucky correctional facility will return to the islands within a month, Public Safety Director Clayton Frank said yesterday.

Forty Hawaii inmates returned Monday from Otter Creek Correctional Facility, where guards were accused of sexually assaulting 23 women, including seven from Hawaii.

A task force visited Otter Creek on July 5 and found that a 2007 sexual assault case was substantiated, with the guard being terminated and convicted. One case was dismissed, two female inmates denied assault allegations, and three cases are being investigated by Kentucky police, Public Safety Deputy Director Tommy Johnson said.

The Senate Committee on Public Safety and Military Affairs, headed by Sen. Will Espero, interviewed Frank and Johnson at the state Capitol yesterday for an update on the allegations and the possibility of returning the women to Hawaii.

"The biggest concern we have is the cost," Frank said. The cost to house an inmate at Hawaii's Women's Community Correctional Center is $86 per day, or $3.6 million a year, compared with $58.46 a day in Kentucky.

With the transferred inmates, state prisons will be at 97 to 98 percent capacity, while 91 to 92 percent would be ideal, Frank said.

"If there are any more additional intakes ... we would have to be very careful that there is no federal intervention," said Frank, who added that there is enough staff at the women's facility and the federal detention center.

Overcrowding at Hawaii prisons led to federal oversight from 1985 to 1999.

Espero asked whether $500,000 appropriated by the Legislature for GPS electronic monitoring could be used to offset costs, but Frank said the allocated money was part of Gov. Linda Lingle's budget cut.

"I was afraid you'd say that. But that is a cost-saving measure that, in my opinion, has the potential to save the state millions of dollars over years, so, although I understand the governor's decision, I think it's the wrong one," Espero said.

Frank said many of the female inmates want to remain at Otter Creek because of its minimal security and programs. However, Mary Dias, an aunt of the sexually assaulted inmate, said inmates should not be placed in that kind of environment.

"Being raped is not part of their sentence. They're women with children who made bad choices," said Dias, who added that guards have retaliated against her niece for the report.

"Why is she still there if she was substantiated?" Dias said. "She should've been the first to come home."

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090819_Female_inmates_to_return_to_isles.html

Link to article about Otter Creek which appeared on 8-17-09:
http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2009/08/at_the_state_wo.html

Posted by lois at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

NY: Governor Paterson Promises Women Demonstrating in Front of His Office He Will Sign Anti-Shackling Bill

Governor to Save Jailed Mothers From Shackling During Labor
By Helena Zhu
Epoch Times Staff Aug 18, 2009

NEW YORK—Making a surprise appearance at a protest held outside his mansion, New York Governor David Paterson promised a group of activists on Monday that he would sign legislation banning the chaining of incarcerated women who are giving birth.

One of the legislation’s two sponsoring officials, Assemblyman Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn), started to push the bill in 2001 after reading a news article about a woman ready to give birth who had her legs shackled together. The key to open the cuffs was not found until minutes before birth, said Barbara Dominique, staff of the assemblyman.

“That’s such an unsafe condition to be in while you are giving birth. It’s horrible that New York, out of all of the states, [is allowing this to happen],” said Dominique.

Shackling imprisoned women during labor in hospitals has been going on ever since home birth was replaced by hospital birth in the 1900’s according to Serena Alfieri, associate director of policy of the Correctional Association of New York’s Women in Prison Project.

Up to now, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the American Correctional Association and four other states—California, Vermont, Illinois and New Mexico—have already adopted policies restricting the use of restraints on women giving birth.

The bill was passed in the New York State Assembly and State Senate in May, and now it is just waiting for the governor to sign.

The dozens of women at a rally outside of Governor Paterson’s office wore handcuffs to show the conditions jailed mothers-to-be go through. For some of them, it was a déjà vu of their own suffering.

Hazel Figueroa from Queens was jailed in Rikers Island for one year in 1998. At that time, she gave birth to her daughter.

“My experience is quite awful. Because living in jail and being pregnant is not … a nice experience,” she said.

She had to wait in the receiving room for hours before doctors arrived. While giving birth, she was chained.

“What woman is thinking to escape when she’s just in pain?”

State Senator Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn), another sponsor of this legislation, said that no woman—to her best knowledge—has tried to escape while giving birth in New York State.

Montgomery said that the passing of this legislation will eliminate the shackling of incarcerated women during labor altogether, bringing an end to this “tremendous risk.”

Another woman who went through such experience, Tina Reynolds, co-founder and executive director of Women on the Rise Telling Herstory (WORTH), was sentenced to 18 months in New York due to a drug crime 15 years ago.

While giving birth to her son in a hospital, she had one hand and one leg shackled to the stretcher although a female officer was present.

“I experienced the birth of my child. I just couldn’t believe the shackling was happening. And I was giving birth in front of a female officer who I didn’t know … I thought it was the worst, most oppressive, inhumane practice in the world,” said Reynolds.

After birth, the child accompanied her for nine months until she served her sentence. She had to breastfeed him while being chained as well. Before labor, she said that she was not informed what would happen to her baby after it was born.

Women like her could not complain, she said, since if they did, they would not be able to accompany their children in the nursery.

Her experience of giving birth during imprisonment was opposite of when she did it before jailing, which she described as “joyous” and “about the creation of life.”

Erica Knox from Brooklyn was also on Rikers Island, but in 1989. Unlike others, she was not shackled while giving birth, but immediately after. “They left me in a room alone. My water broke. I told them my water broke. They left me there for at least 30 minutes. I kept on telling them that the baby’s coming. So they put a sheet between my leg,” she said.

“As they were pushing me in, the baby was coming out right there. I was really going crazy. I was, I was scared, at first that I was by myself. I’ve never been by myself while having a baby.”

In the midst of recollecting the past, Governor Paterson showed up at the rally, bringing cheers to the crowd. He promised to sign the bill as soon as he receives the bill.

“What the bill is trying to stop was what we think is the inhumane treatment of people who are giving birth, even if they committed a crime, even if they are incarcerated. Because we also want to make sure of the safety of the child, who didn’t commit any crime,” he said.

His speech brought delights the all the advocates who have worked on this for a long time.

“Today is the day that all things change. And I’m just so happy,” said Reynolds.

Last Updated---Aug 19, 2009
photos at http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/21196/
This and other news about women organizing can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

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

August 17, 2009

KY: CCA Otter Creek Women's Prison Plagued by Allegations of Sexual Assaults by Guards--State Does Imposes No Fine and Extends Contract

At the state women's prison "starting pay there is $18.18 an hour for workers with no corrections experience, and $19.17 an hour for those with experience. Starting pay at Otter Creek is $8.25 an hour." 81% of co's are male.

Private prison plagued by problems, reports show
By Stephenie Steitzer • ssteitzer@courier-journal.com •
August 16, 2009
Louisville Courier Journal

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been plagued by allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers is chronically understaffed, leading to poor employee morale and security concerns, according to a state monitor's reports.

The monthly reports provide a glimpse into life inside the Otter Creek Correctional Center, where at least five workers have been charged with having sex with inmates in the past three years. Kentucky State Police are expected to present another case to a Floyd County grand jury this month.

“The facility continues to experience staff shortage(s), and (officers) have struggled,” state monitor Darrell Neace said in July's report. “Overtime is substantial for the facility and very difficult for staff.”

Despite the recurring problems outlined in the reports, the state has not imposed staffing-level sanctions as allowed under its contract with Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit, Nashville, Tenn.-based company.

The state can fine the company up to $5,000 a day for violating terms of the contract, which include maintaining certain staffing levels and filling vacant positions within 60 days.

In fact — despite the sexual assault investigation — the state has agreed to extend for 60 days its contract with CCA to house up to 476 inmates at the facility while it negotiates a new two-year agreement. Otter Creek housed 429 Kentucky inmates as of Friday.

In response to questions about staffing at the prison, state Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson noted that staff turnover is an issue at all prisons.

“Corrections is a difficult and stressful profession,” she said an e-mailed statement.

CCA spokesman Steve Owen said it takes recruiting and retaining staff very seriously and noted that turnover costs money. “Anyone who contends that the facility operates with vacancies by design (for cost savings or profit) does not understand sound business practice,” he said in an e-mail.

Reports cite staffing

It is unclear how many workers the prison is required to have. The state has been unable to produce a written staffing-level document, despite a request by The Courier-Journal under the state open records law.

However, in 11 of the last 19 monthly monitoring reports obtained by the newspaper, staffing has been cited as a problem. Of particular concern is the number of people trained to handle emergencies at the prison.

Neace, in a report dated July 8, cited a major concern about inadequate security staffing in June, adding, “OCCC is on 12-hour shifts and (workers) are struggling.”

He wrote that the facility was operating with 168 workers and had 28 vacancies at the end of the month. Five of those positions had been open for more than 60 days, which is a violation of the state's contract with CCA.

Many previous monthly reports do not specify how many positions were vacant, or for how long. Thus, it is impossible for the department to know how severe the staffing problem is at a given time and whether the company is in violation of the contract.

Many reports, however, include vague references to understaffing and low staff morale because of forced double shifts.

“They (officers) are exhausted, and several have expressed their concern to me,” former state monitor Deborah Patrick said in the August 2008 report.

Other prisons pay more

The reports reflect a pattern in which a flurry of hiring is typically followed several months later by a drop in staffing, indicating retention problems. Owen, the CCA spokesman, said many people hired in prisons soon realize it isn't the type of work they want to do.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said recently that her agency has begun sending inspectors to the prison without giving CCA advance notice and has sent two corrections experts there to help the state's on-site monitor.

The state's only other women's prison — the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County — — is nearly full most of the time.

“Our assessment is that it is more effective to rectify the situation there at Otter Creek than find alternative forms of incarceration for our inmate population housed there,” Lamb said.

She partly blamed problems with attracting and retaining staff on the fact that a federal prison employing roughly 400 people in nearby Inez pays more.

Starting pay there is $18.18 an hour for workers with no corrections experience, and $19.17 an hour for those with experience

Starting pay at Otter Creek is $8.25 an hour.

In addition, the state pays corrections workers at two nearby state-run prisons $2.97 more an hour than Otter Creek employees receive.

The state's contract with CCA for Otter Creek does not specify minimum pay, because, Thompson said, such internal business decisions could affect the company's competitiveness.

Owen said CCA raised starting pay at Otter Creek by 5 percent last year and “we will continue to monitor their situation as we do with all our other facilities.”

Kentucky pays CCA $53.77 a day to house each inmate, a total of more than $8million last year.

Most employees are male

Tommy Johnson, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, which contracts with Otter Creek to house 175 inmates from that state, said CCA might need to consider paying more to attract and retain workers at Otter Creek, particularly female officers.

He said a recent review found 81 percent of the workers were male, and 19 percent were female.

“The ratio really should be almost the opposite,” he said.

Johnson said his department has asked CCA to hire more women and consider making certain jobs at the prison female-only.

Owen said the company instituted a bonus referral and retention program in June in an effort to hire more female employees.

Neace also noted in his May report that the facility had only 24 staff members trained and certified to respond to incidents such as riots. The contract requires Otter Creek to have 30 workers with that training.

By June, Otter Creek was down to 22 so-called special responders, with no new applicants, according to that month's report. The facility also lacked proper special response equipment, it said. But by last month, Otter Creek had two more special responders than required, Neace said.

Owen said CCA has launched a companywide campaign to get workers at its prisons to undergo special response training.
(4 of 4)

Lamb said special response teams from the privately run Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville and state-run Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty could get to Otter Creek quickly if there was an emergency.
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“We do not believe this issue compromises the safety and security of the inmate population housed at Otter Creek,” Lamb said.

But both prisons are roughly two hours from Otter Creek.
Disturbances reported

Incident reports show corrections officers occasionally have to deal with disturbances at the women's facility, although no deaths or serious injuries have been reported as a result.

In 2006, six inmates surrounded a female corrections officer and refused to return to their dorm.

“These inmates were aggressive and made threatening remarks toward the officer,” the report said.

A special response team was dispatched to assist during that incident.

Also that year, special responders had to lock down the prison because inmates were planning to have a sit-down protest when it was time to clear the yard.

The treatment of inmates by corrections officers also has been an issue at the prison in recent months, according to the reports.

Neace said in his June report that “residents being placed in segregation which are not a threat to security, staff, visitors or themselves has been an issue that (the department) has been concerned with.”

He said proper documentation for segregation was missing and that the number of grievances filed by inmates was high, with up to 27 having been filed that month.

In his May report, Neace said inmates “continue to complain about staff cursing, threatening segregation.”

Lamb said “a change in the number of grievances and the inmate morale could be attributed to a change in administration.”

Thompson said in her statement that she couldn't comment on any leadership issues at Otter Creek until the sex abuse investigations are complete.

Warden Jeff Little referred questions to CCA. Owen said staff turnover at Otter Creek has decreased since Little took the helm in March 2008.

However, in 11 of the last 19 monthly monitoring reports obtained by the newspaper, staffing has been cited as a problem. Of particular concern is the number of people trained to handle emergencies at the prison.
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Neace, in a report dated July 8, cited a major concern about inadequate security staffing in June, adding, “OCCC is on 12-hour shifts and (workers) are struggling.”

He wrote that the facility was operating with 168 workers and had 28 vacancies at the end of the month. Five of those positions had been open for more than 60 days, which is a violation of the state's contract with CCA.

Many previous monthly reports do not specify how many positions were vacant, or for how long. Thus, it is impossible for the department to know how severe the staffing problem is at a given time and whether the company is in violation of the contract.

Many reports, however, include vague references to understaffing and low staff morale because of forced double shifts.

“They (officers) are exhausted, and several have expressed their concern to me,” former state monitor Deborah Patrick said in the August 2008 report.
Other prisons pay more

The reports reflect a pattern in which a flurry of hiring is typically followed several months later by a drop in staffing, indicating retention problems. Owen, the CCA spokesman, said many people hired in prisons soon realize it isn't the type of work they want to do.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said recently that her agency has begun sending inspectors to the prison without giving CCA advance notice and has sent two corrections experts there to help the state's on-site monitor.

The state's only other women's prison — the state-run Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women in Shelby County — — is nearly full most of the time.

“Our assessment is that it is more effective to rectify the situation there at Otter Creek than find alternative forms of incarceration for our inmate population housed there,” Lamb said.

She partly blamed problems with attracting and retaining staff on the fact that a federal prison employing roughly 400 people in nearby Inez pays more.
(3 of 4)

Starting pay there is $18.18 an hour for workers with no corrections experience, and $19.17 an hour for those with experience.
Advertisement

Starting pay at Otter Creek is $8.25 an hour.

In addition, the state pays corrections workers at two nearby state-run prisons $2.97 more an hour than Otter Creek employees receive.

The state's contract with CCA for Otter Creek does not specify minimum pay, because, Thompson said, such internal business decisions could affect the company's competitiveness.

Owen said CCA raised starting pay at Otter Creek by 5 percent last year and “we will continue to monitor their situation as we do with all our other facilities.”

Kentucky pays CCA $53.77 a day to house each inmate, a total of more than $8million last year.
Most employees are male

Tommy Johnson, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, which contracts with Otter Creek to house 175 inmates from that state, said CCA might need to consider paying more to attract and retain workers at Otter Creek, particularly female officers.

He said a recent review found 81 percent of the workers were male, and 19 percent were female.

“The ratio really should be almost the opposite,” he said.

Johnson said his department has asked CCA to hire more women and consider making certain jobs at the prison female-only.

Owen said the company instituted a bonus referral and retention program in June in an effort to hire more female employees.

Neace also noted in his May report that the facility had only 24 staff members trained and certified to respond to incidents such as riots. The contract requires Otter Creek to have 30 workers with that training.

By June, Otter Creek was down to 22 so-called special responders, with no new applicants, according to that month's report. The facility also lacked proper special response equipment, it said. But by last month, Otter Creek had two more special responders than required, Neace said.

Owen said CCA has launched a companywide campaign to get workers at its prisons to undergo special response training.
(4 of 4)

Lamb said special response teams from the privately run Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville and state-run Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty could get to Otter Creek quickly if there was an emergency.
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“We do not believe this issue compromises the safety and security of the inmate population housed at Otter Creek,” Lamb said.

But both prisons are roughly two hours from Otter Creek.
Disturbances reported

Incident reports show corrections officers occasionally have to deal with disturbances at the women's facility, although no deaths or serious injuries have been reported as a result.

In 2006, six inmates surrounded a female corrections officer and refused to return to their dorm.

“These inmates were aggressive and made threatening remarks toward the officer,” the report said.

A special response team was dispatched to assist during that incident.

Also that year, special responders had to lock down the prison because inmates were planning to have a sit-down protest when it was time to clear the yard.

The treatment of inmates by corrections officers also has been an issue at the prison in recent months, according to the reports.

Neace said in his June report that “residents being placed in segregation which are not a threat to security, staff, visitors or themselves has been an issue that (the department) has been concerned with.”

He said proper documentation for segregation was missing and that the number of grievances filed by inmates was high, with up to 27 having been filed that month.

In his May report, Neace said inmates “continue to complain about staff cursing, threatening segregation.”

Lamb said “a change in the number of grievances and the inmate morale could be attributed to a change in administration.”

Thompson said in her statement that she couldn't comment on any leadership issues at Otter Creek until the sex abuse investigations are complete.

Warden Jeff Little referred questions to CCA. Owen said staff turnover at Otter Creek has decreased since Little took the helm in March 2008.

Starting pay there is $18.18 an hour for workers with no corrections experience, and $19.17 an hour for those with experience.
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Starting pay at Otter Creek is $8.25 an hour.

In addition, the state pays corrections workers at two nearby state-run prisons $2.97 more an hour than Otter Creek employees receive.

The state's contract with CCA for Otter Creek does not specify minimum pay, because, Thompson said, such internal business decisions could affect the company's competitiveness.

Owen said CCA raised starting pay at Otter Creek by 5 percent last year and “we will continue to monitor their situation as we do with all our other facilities.”

Kentucky pays CCA $53.77 a day to house each inmate, a total of more than $8million last year.
Most employees are male

Tommy Johnson, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Public Safety, which contracts with Otter Creek to house 175 inmates from that state, said CCA might need to consider paying more to attract and retain workers at Otter Creek, particularly female officers.

He said a recent review found 81 percent of the workers were male, and 19 percent were female.

“The ratio really should be almost the opposite,” he said.

Johnson said his department has asked CCA to hire more women and consider making certain jobs at the prison female-only.

Owen said the company instituted a bonus referral and retention program in June in an effort to hire more female employees.

Neace also noted in his May report that the facility had only 24 staff members trained and certified to respond to incidents such as riots. The contract requires Otter Creek to have 30 workers with that training.

By June, Otter Creek was down to 22 so-called special responders, with no new applicants, according to that month's report. The facility also lacked proper special response equipment, it said. But by last month, Otter Creek had two more special responders than required, Neace said.

Owen said CCA has launched a companywide campaign to get workers.

Lamb said special response teams from the privately run Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville and state-run Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty could get to Otter Creek quickly if there was an emergency.
Advertisement

“We do not believe this issue compromises the safety and security of the inmate population housed at Otter Creek,” Lamb said.

But both prisons are roughly two hours from Otter Creek.
Disturbances reported

Incident reports show corrections officers occasionally have to deal with disturbances at the women's facility, although no deaths or serious injuries have been reported as a result.

In 2006, six inmates surrounded a female corrections officer and refused to return to their dorm.

“These inmates were aggressive and made threatening remarks toward the officer,” the report said.

A special response team was dispatched to assist during that incident.

Also that year, special responders had to lock down the prison because inmates were planning to have a sit-down protest when it was time to clear the yard.

The treatment of inmates by corrections officers also has been an issue at the prison in recent months, according to the reports.

Neace said in his June report that “residents being placed in segregation which are not a threat to security, staff, visitors or themselves has been an issue that (the department) has been concerned with.”

He said proper documentation for segregation was missing and that the number of grievances filed by inmates was high, with up to 27 having been filed that month.

In his May report, Neace said inmates “continue to complain about staff cursing, threatening segregation.”

Lamb said “a change in the number of grievances and the inmate morale could be attributed to a change in administration.”

Thompson said in her statement that she couldn't comment on any leadership issues at Otter Creek until the sex abuse investigations are complete.

Warden Jeff Little referred questions to CCA. Owen said staff turnover at Otter Creek has decreased since Little took the helm in March 2008.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090816/NEWS01/908160338/1008/NEWS01/Private+prison+plagued+by+problems++reports+show

Posted by lois at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

August 15, 2009

MA: 6 women at Framingham attempt suicide in 4 months. DOC blames cuts in budget.

Female inmate suicide bids top 6
By O’Ryan Johnson
Friday, August 14, 2009
Boston Herald

Two suicide attempts by female prisoners this month at MCI-Framingham brings the total to six attempts at the prison since May, one of which was successful.

Department of Correction officials said one woman tried to kill herself Wednesday, and another on Aug. 1. Both were unsuccessful. Correction officials said there were five attempted suicides: on May 30, July 18, July 19, and the two most recent.

The one successful suicide was July 19.

The apparent surge in suicide attempts comes as prison mental health services were rolled back under Gov. Deval Patrick’s $13 million in cuts from the DOC budget.
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1190935
-----------------
Clearly six women haven't attempted suicide at Framingham because of $13 million was cut from the entire half a billion DOC budget, a fraction of which went to "mental health programs at Framingham. ---Lois

Posted by lois at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)

July 28, 2009

MA: Lawmakers say it's unlikely mental health cuts a factor in prison suicide of one woman and the attempted suicide of two others

Lawmakers say it's unlikely mental health cuts a factor in prison suicide
By Michael Morton/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jul 28, 2009
FRAMINGHAM —

Area lawmakers who visited MCI-Framingham after an inmate's suicide said yesterday that mental health cuts did not appear to have played a role but that more prison programs are needed to develop useful skills and give hope.

"There is very little opportunity and very little for them to look forward to after get ting out of there," said state Rep. Carolyn Dykema.

Staff and administrators, she said, are doing the best they can with limited resources.

Dykema, D-Holliston, and other legislators commended staff who cut down and saved two other women who attempted to hang themselves on July 19. A third inmate, Christina Morando, 22, of Swampscott could not be revived.

"Clearly the corrections officers there are committed to their jobs and they really did an exceptional job responding to these emergencies," said state Rep. Pam Richardson, D-Framingham.

Following Morando's death, prison reform advocates said budget cuts had left the state's overcrowded prisons with too few mental health clinicians.

In Framingham, two mental health staff and two vacant spots were cut. That left 2 full-time psychiatrists, a part-time psychiatrist and roughly 30 mental health professionals for 593 inmates, at least 60 percent of whom have open mental health cases.

But the legislators said the cuts left core services intact and had not seemed to contribute to the suicide attempts of the three inmates, all of whom had open mental health cases but were deemed fit to live in the general population and not in a special unit.

"There hadn't been any indication from what they could tell that this was in process, so they were surprised," said Newton Rep. Kay Khan, a Democrat who said earlier that suicides sometimes happen despite quality prison care. "From what they told us, they seem to be providing quite a bit of service."

Khan, the head of the Task Force on Women in Prison for the Legislature's female caucus, had been scheduled to join Dykema, Richardson, Rep. Danielle Gregoire, D-Marlborough, and Ellen Story, D-Amherst, for a visit to MCI-Framingham the day after Morando's death.

While Khan agreed to postpone the trip, she invoked the group's legislative right to visit the prison the following Thursday, meeting with a top official from the Executive Office of Public Safety, the Department of Corrections head, the facility superintendent and prison health staff.

While the "more mental health professionals you have, the better," Khan said, the staff seemed to be keeping up with its caseload.

Khan acknowledged, however, that the closing of state hospitals for the mentally ill had led to incarcerations and called for programs to treat substance abuse and mental health problems in other settings, such as Framingham's jail diversion program.

Dykema and Richardson said MCI-Framingham also needs more programs to help inmates develop useful skills, preparing them to return to society and giving them hope for a better life. Like Khan, though, they also noted the state's strained finances.

"As with everything else these days, it boils down to resources," Dykema said.

While money is tight, the legislators commended prison officials for their interest in creating new programs.

After Morando's death, a Department of Correction spokeswoman said the agency had implemented most of the recommendations from a report following an earlier spate of suicides but still needed money to create safer cells for suicidal inmates and transitional spaces for those coming off mental health watches.

Khan said she and her fellow legislators plan to return to the prison this fall for a follow-up.

"We will certainly continue to keep on this," she said. "I think it's something that has to be watched carefully."
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1202627432/Lawmakers-say-its-unlikely-mental-health-cuts-a-factor-in-prison-suicide

Posted by lois at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2009

MA: 22 year old woman commits suicide in Framingham 2 others attempt suicide with her

MetroWest Daily News (MA)
July 21, 2009

Christina Morando, 22, was pronounced dead on July 19, 2009 at 11:32pm at Metrowest Hospital. She had been an inmate at MCI Framingham. Ms. Morando was found with a ligature around her neck in her cell at 10:41pm. An emergency medical response was initiated which resulted in her being transported to Metrowest Hospital in Framingham, where she was pronounced dead. Allegedly the incident resulted with one dead, one effectively brain dead, and one transferred to a mental health facility.

Emergency response procedures were complied with pursuant to department policy, but as in all cases like this, the incident is under investigation. The Middlesex County District Attorney’s office has been notified.

Ms. Morando was sentenced on January 7, 2009 with a sentence effective date of May 28, 2008 to two to six years for accessory before the fact, armed assault with intent to rob/murder. Her parole eligibility date was May 9, 2010.

There were two other suicide attempts this weekend at MCI Framingham,
which resulted in their hospitalizations. Due to medical
confidentiality, we cannot discuss their medical conditions. These
incidents are under investigation.

Posted by lois at 06:57 PM | Comments (0)

Book Review: Beyond Attica: The Untold Story of Women's Resistance Behind Bars

Beyond Attica: The Untold Story of Women's Resistance Behind Bars
By Hans Bennett, AlterNet. Posted July 21, 2009.

As the incarceration rate of U.S. women skyrockets, an important book shines new light on the struggles of women prisoners.

"When I was 15, my friends started going to jail," says Victoria Law, a native New Yorker. "Chinatown's gangs were recruiting in the high schools in Queens and, faced with the choice of stultifying days learning nothing in overcrowded classrooms or easy money, many of my friends had dropped out to join a gang."

"One by one," Law recalls, "they landed in Rikers Island, an entire island in New York City devoted to pretrial detainment for those who can not afford bail."

Law shares this and other recollections in her new book, Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women (PM Press). At 16, she herself decided to join a gang, but was arrested for the armed robbery that she committed for her initiation into the gang. "Because it was my first arrest -- and probably because 16-year-old Chinese girls who get straight As in school did not seem particularly menacing -- I was eventually let off with probation," she writes.

Before her release from jail, Law was held in the "Tombs" awaiting arraignment. While the adult women she met there had all been arrested for prostitution, she also met three teenagers arrested for unarmed assault. "Two of the girls were black lesbian lovers. In a scenario that would be repeated 13 years later in the case of the New Jersey Four, they had been out with friends when they encountered a cab driver who had tried to grab one of them. Her friends intervened, the cab driver called the police and the girls were arrested for assault." Law notes that "both of my cellmates were subsequently sent to Rikers Island."

These early experiences, coupled with her later discovery of radical politics, pushed Law "to think about who goes to prison and why." She got involved in several projects to support prisoners, which included helping to start Books Through Bars in New York City, sending free books to prisoners. In college, she "began researching current prisoner organizing and resistance," and upon discovering almost zero documentation of resistance from women prisoners, she began her own documentation and directly contacted women prisoners who were resisting. A college paper became a widely distributed pamphlet, and at the request of several women prisoners she'd corresponded with, Law helped to publish their writings in a zine called Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison. Law writes that the zine and pamphlet "heightened awareness not only about incarcerated women's issues, but also women's actions to challenge and change the injustices they faced on a daily basis."

"This book is the result of seven and a half years of reading, writing, listening, and supporting women in prison," Law says about Resistance Behind Bars, noting that each chapter in her book "focuses on an issue that women themselves have identified as important." The chapters include topics as diverse as health care, the relationship between mothers and daughters, sexual abuse, education, and resistance among women in immigration detention. Resistance Behind Bars paints a picture of women prisoners resisting a deeply flawed prison system, which Law hopes will help to empower both the women held in cages and those on the outside working to support them.

Who Goes To Prison?

Since 1970, the U.S. prison population has skyrocketed, from 300,000 to over 2.3 million. According to the U.S. Justice Department, this staggering increase has not resulted from a rise in crime. In fact, since 1993, the prison population has increased by over one million, but during this same period, both property offenses and serious violent crime have been steadily declining. The New York Times recently cited a 2008 report by the International Center for Prison Studies at King's College London documenting that the U.S. has more prisoners than any other country. Furthermore, with 751 out of 100,000 people, and one out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, the U.S. also has the highest incarceration rate in the world. With only five percent of the world's population, the U.S. has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

While women comprise only nine percent of the U.S. prison population, their numbers have been increasing at a faster rate than men. As Law documents, "between 1990 and 2000, the number of women in prison rose 108 percent, from 44,065 to 93,234. (The male prison population grew 77 percent during that same time period.) By the end of 2006, 112,498 women were behind bars."

Like with male incarceration rates, women behind bars are disproportionately low-income and people of color. Law writes that "only 40 percent of all incarcerated women had been employed full-time before incarceration. Of those, most had held low-paying jobs: a study of women under supervision (prison, jail, parole or probation) found that two-thirds had never held a job that paid more than $6.50 per hour. Approximately 37 percent earned less than $600 per month."

A 2007 Bureau of Justice study documented that 358 of every 100,000 Black women, 152 of every 100,000 Latinas, and 94 of every 100,000 white women are incarcerated. Explaining this racial discrepancy, Law argues that inner-city Black and Latino neighborhoods are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement. She cites a 2005 U.S. Department of Justice study which concluded that Blacks and Latinos are "three times as likely as whites to be searched, arrested, threatened or subdued with force when stopped by the police."

The so-called "War on Drugs" has played a key role in the growth of the U.S. prison population. Law writes about the impact of New York State's Rockefeller Drug Laws passed in 1973, "which required a sentence of 15 years to life for anyone convicted of selling two ounces or possessing four ounces of a narcotic, regardless of circumstances or prior history. That year, only 400 women were imprisoned in New York State. As of January 1, 2001, there were 3,133. Over 50 percent had been convicted of a drug offense and 20 percent were convicted solely of possession. Other states passed similar laws, causing the number of women imprisoned nationwide for drug offenses to rise 888 percent from 1986 to 1996."

Distinguishing women prisoners from their male counterparts, Law cites a Bureau of Justice study which "found that women were three times more likely than men to have been physically or sexually abused prior to incarceration."

Women Prisoners Don't Resist?

The central thesis of Resistance Behind Bars is truly profound. In clear, non-academic language, Law argues that recent scholarship documenting and radically criticizing the increased incarceration rates and mistreatment of women prisoners "largely ignores what the women themselves do to change or protest these circumstances, thus reinforcing the belief that incarcerated women do not organize." Alongside academia, Law also harshly criticizes radical prison activists, arguing that "just as the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s downplayed the role of women in favor of highlighting male spokesmen and leaders, the prisoners' rights movement has focused and continues to focus on men to speak for the masses."

Law gives honorable mention to two books that documented women's resistance at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York State: Juanita Diaz-Cotto's Gender, Ethnicity, and the State (1996) and the collectively written Breaking the Walls of Silence: AIDS and Women in a New York State Maximum Security Prison (1998). Since these two books "no other book-length work has focused on incarcerated women's activism and resistance," writes Law. As a result, Law argues that women prisoners "lack a commonly known history of resistance. While male prisoners can draw on the examples of George Jackson, the Attica uprising and other well-publicized cases of prisoner activism, incarcerated women remain unaware of precedents relevant to them."

Epitomizing the scholarship that Law criticizes, author Virginia High Brislin wrote that "women inmates themselves have called very little attention to their situations," and "are hardly ever involved in violent encounters with officials (i.e. riots), nor do they initiate litigation as often as do males in prison."

To challenge Brislin's assertion, Law gives numerous examples of women rioting and initiating litigation, including the "August Rebellion" in 1974 at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York State. On July 2, 1974, prisoner Carol Crooks won a lawsuit against prison authorities, with the court "issuing a preliminary injunction, prohibiting the prison from placing women in segregation without 24-hour notice and a hearing of these charges," writes Law. In response, "five male guards beat Crooks and placed her in segregation. Her fellow prisoners protested by holding seven staff members hostage for two and a half hours. However, 'the August Rebellion' is virtually unknown today despite that fact that male state troopers and (male) guards from men's prisons were called to suppress the uprising, resulting in 25 women being injured and 24 women being transferred to Matteawan Complex for the Criminally Insane without the required commitment hearings."

Law also criticizes author Karlene Faith, who acknowledges that women resist, but who wrote that in the 1970s, women prisoners "were not as politicized as the men [prisoners], and they did not engage in the kinds of protest actions that aroused media attention." To challenge Faith's argument, Law cites several rebellions that received significant media attention, including one that the New York Times wrote two stories about. As Law recounts, "in 1975, women at the North Carolina Correctional Center for Women held a sit-down demonstration to demand better medical care, improved counseling services, and the closing of the prison laundry. When prison guards attempted to end the protest by herding the women into the gymnasium and beating them, the women fought back, using volleyball net poles, chunks of concrete and hoe handles to drive the guards out of the prison. Over 100 guards from other prisons were summoned to quell the rebellion."

In light of the many such stories documented in Resistance Behind Bars, Law argues that "instead of claiming that women in prison did not engage in riots and protest actions that captured media attention, scholars and researchers should examine why these acts of organizing fail to attract the same critical and scholarly attention as that given to similar male actions."

Resisting With Media-Activism

In the chapter "Grievances, Lawsuits, and the Power of the Media," Law observes that "gaining media attention often gains quicker results than filing lawsuits." Among the many organizing victories that were significantly aided by media attention, in 1999, Nightline focused on conditions at California's Valley State Prison for Women. Law explains that "after prisoner after prisoner told Nightline anchor Ted Koppel about being given a pelvic exam as 'part of the treatment' for any ailment, including stomach problems or diabetes, Koppel asked the prison's chief medical officer Dr. Anthony DiDomenico, for an explanation."

DiDomenico was apparently so confident that he would not be held accountable for his misconduct, that he answered Koppel by saying "I've heard inmates tell me they would deliberately like to be examined. It's the only male contact they get." After this interview was aired, DiDomenico was reassigned to a desk job, and as of 2001 he had been criminally indicted, along with a second doctor.

Demonstrating the power of this media coverage, Law notes that the "prisoner advocacy organization Legal Services for Prisoners with Children had been reporting the prisoners' complaints about medical staff's sexual misconduct to the CDC for four years with no result."

Along with agitating for coverage in the mainstream media, women prisoners have also created their own media projects. The chapter titled "Breaking The Silence: Incarcerated Women's Media" documents many important projects. Law explains that these projects are necessary because women prisoners' "voices and stories still remain unheard by both mainstream and activist-oriented media. Articles about both prison conditions and prisoners often portray the male prisoner experience, ignoring the different issues facing women in prison." Therefore, "women's acts of writing -- and publishing -- often serve a dual purpose: they challenge existing stereotypes and distortions of prisoners and prison life, framing and correcting prevailing (mis) perceptions. They also boost women's sense of self-worth and agency in a system designed to not only isolate and alienate its prisoners but also erase all traces of individuality."

Some activist-oriented publications have been receptive and have published prisoners' writings. From 1999 until its final issue in 2002, the radical feminist magazine Sojourner: A Women's Forum featured a section on women prisoner issues which included writings from the prisoners themselves. Law writes that this section, entitled "Inside/Outside" covered many topics, including "working conditions in women's facilities, the dehumanizing treatment of children visiting their mothers, and prisoner suicides.

Law spotlights many different projects. From 2002 to 2006, Perceptions was a monthly newspaper published by and for the women at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey. Because of censorship from prison warden Charlotte Blackwell, Perceptions was forced to limit its criticism of the prison, but the women published what they could. For example, in one issue, women wrote about how they would run the prison differently if they were in charge. Law notes that "their fantasies revealed the absence of programming for older women and those in the maximum custody unit, emergency counseling and therapeutic interventions and opportunities for mother-child interactions. It also drew attention to the facility's overcrowding and increased potentials for violence and conflict among prisoners."

Tenacious, the zine published by Law, was initiated by women prisoners who sought the help of friends outside the prison to actually publish and distribute it. "Free from the need to seek administrative approval, incarcerated women wrote about the difficulties of parenting from prison, dangerously inadequate health care, sexual assault by prison staff and the scarcity of educational and vocational opportunities, especially in comparison to their male counterparts. Although circulation remained small, the women's stories provoked public response," writes Law.

"Prison officials do whatever they can to strip prisoners of their dignity and self-worth," stated Barrilee Bannister, one of the founders of Tenacious. "Writing is my way to escape the confines of prison and the debilitating ailments of prison life. It's me putting on boxing gloves and stepping into the rink of freedom of speech and opinion."

Arguing For Prison Abolition

When Victoria Law was first introduced to radical politics, shortly after her own stint behind bars, she "discovered groups and literature espousing prison abolition."

"These analyses -- coupled with what I had seen firsthand -- made sense, steering me to work towards the dismantling, rather than the reform, of the prison system." Law's subsequent research has only served to affirm her belief in the need for abolition. She states clearly that "this book should not be mistaken for a call for more humane or 'gender responsive' prisons."

Some readers may view Law's prison abolitionist politics as being abstract or overly theoretical. However, to support her abolitionist viewpoint, she makes the practical argument that prisons simply don't work to reduce crime or increase public safety. She writes that "incarceration has not decreased crime; instead, 'tough on crime' policies have led to the criminalization … of more activities, leading to higher rates of arrest, prosecution and incarceration while shifting money and resources away from other public entities, such as education, housing, health care, drug treatment, and other societal supports. The growing popularity of abolitionist thought can be seen in the expansion of organizations such as Critical Resistance, an organization fighting to end the need for a prison-industrial complex, and the formation of groups working to address issues of crime and victimization without relying on the police or prisons."

Towards the end of Resistance Behind Bars, Law quotes Angela Y. Davis, who is a leading activist intellectual of the prison abolitionist movement. In her recent book Are Prisons Obsolete?, Davis writes that "a major challenge of this movement is to do the work that will create more human, habitable environments for people in prison without bolstering the permanence of the prison system. How, then, do we accomplish this balancing act of passionately attending to the needs of prisoners -- calling for less violent conditions, an end to sexual assault, improved physical and mental health care, greater access to drug programs, better educational work opportunities, unionization of prison labor, more connections with families and communities, shorter or alternative sentencing -- and at the same time call for alternatives to sentencing altogether, no more prison construction, and abolitionist strategies that question the place of the prison in our future?"

As if answering Davis' question, Law concludes that while striving for prison abolition "we need to also reach in, make contact with those who have been isolated by prison walls and societal indifference and listen to those who are speaking out, like many of the women who have shared their stories within this book. Because abolishing prisons will not happen tomorrow, next week or even next year, we need to break through these barriers, communicate, work with and support women who are in resistance today."

http://www.alternet.org/rights/141474/beyond_attica:_the_untold_story_of_women%27s_resistance_behind_bars/?page=4

Posted by lois at 06:52 PM | Comments (0)

Editorial NY Times: Childbirth in Chains

If you haven't called Governor Paterson's office, please do. He still hasn't signed the Bill! You do not need to live in NY. The number is 518-474-8390. Please forward widely.

Editorial- New York Times
Childbirth in Chains
Published: July 20, 2009

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called several years ago for an end to the barbaric and medically hazardous practice of shackling female prisoners during labor. In addition to further frightening these vulnerable women, the practice of chaining their legs, wrists and even their abdomens makes treatment and delivery more difficult and places mother and child at greater risk of harm.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons must have had these facts in mind last fall when the bureau ended the routine use of restraints for women in labor and limited shackling to cases in which a woman presents a danger to herself, the baby or the staff. Five states have similar policies. New York would become the sixth — if Gov. David Paterson signs an antishackling bill that sailed through the Legislature this spring.

The bill has caused a debate about how many pregnant women are actually shackled in New York. But recent interviews of female inmates by the Correctional Association of New York, a nonprofit group that monitors prison conditions, suggests that the practice may be more common than corrections officials know. In any case, the bill would put an end to it, by establishing clear guidelines that carry the authority of law.

Modeled on federal prison policy and laws in other states, the New York bill would prohibit women from being shackled while being taken to the hospital for a delivery. A woman could be cuffed by one wrist in cases in which she presented a danger to herself, hospital staff or corrections workers. But it seems highly unlikely that a woman doubled over in labor pains would be able to attempt an escape or overcome corrections officers.

Governor Paterson, whose staff members have recently been quibbling with technicalities in the bill, should make it clear whether he thinks the measure needs minor changes or clarifications. Otherwise, he should sign the bill into law and bring New York into line with the federal government and the other states that have wisely acted to protect pregnant inmates and their children during labor.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 21, 2009, on page A20 of the New York edition.

Posted by lois at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2009

LA: Tallulah: closed male prison re-opens as women's prison run by parish sheriff

DOC moves 75 females to facility in Tallulah
By Matthew Hamilton • July 16, 2009

Tallulah's prison has a new name to go along with its new purpose.

Formerly known as the Steve Hoyle Rehabilitation Center, the prison is now called the Louisiana Transition Center for Women, according to Pam LaBorde, communications director for the Louisiana Department of Corrections.

Last month, DOC announced the facility will house the state's first re-entry program for female offenders.

The prison will offer General Educational Development degrees, skills training and job application resources for female prisoners within one year of their release.

For the next several weeks, LaBorde said the Transition Center itself will be transitioning.

She said all male prisoners have been transferred out, and female prisoners began moving in July 6.

LaBorde estimated the DOC has moved 75 female prisoners into the facility and will continue until the population reaches 550 females, 225 of whom will be involved with the re-entry program.

On July 26, the responsibility for running the prison will fall to the Madison Parish Sheriff's Office.

Previously, the facility housed youth offenders as the privately run Swanson Correctional Center for Youth-Madison Parish Unit. The state later took over the prison, renamed it Steve Hoyle and offered drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs.

In light of the state's budget constraints, DOC originally put the facility up for private bid twice, asking more than $21 million for the property before deciding to use the prison for the female re-entry program.

LaBorde said Steve Hoyle's drug rehabilitation program and many of its participants were transferred to Forcht-Wade Correctional Center in Keithville. To make room for the new prisoners, DOC moved Forcht-Wade's IMPACT program, a boot camp for prisoners, to the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel.

LaBorde said future personnel moves will be up to Madison Parish Sheriff Larry Cox. Cox was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20090716/NEWS01/907150352/-1/NEWSFRONT2/DOC-moves-75-females-to-facility--in-Tallulah

Posted by lois at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2009

NY Times: About New York: Giving Life, Wearing Shackles and Chains,SEEKING CHANGE A protest in Manhattan over shackling of women in labor.

Congratulations to Tina Reynolds and Stacey Thompson and all of the other women on their excellent organizing work.
Remember to call Gov. Paterson's office to say you want him to sign the bill!
Lois

About New York: Giving Life, Wearing Shackles and Chains
SEEKING CHANGE A protest in Manhattan over shackling of inmates in labor.
excellent picture at the URL at the bottom of this article.
By JIM DWYER-NY Times
Published: Sunday, July 10, 2009

One day last November, the first shudders of childbirth woke Venita Pinckney before dawn. She was well into her ninth month of pregnancy. She was also incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a state prison.

Before she left for the hospital, Ms. Pinckney said, a corrections officer wrapped a chain twice around her waist and handcuffed her to it. Then he covered the handcuffs with a locked black box to further limit her range of motion. Finally, her ankles were shackled.

“You can’t walk like a normal human being,” said Ms. Pinckney, 37. “When you’re pregnant, you have a hard time keeping your balance to begin with.”

At least once a week, somewhere in one of New York’s prisons or jails, a pregnant women goes into labor. Nearly all of them, including Ms. Pinckney, are behind bars for drug offenses. Even so, they are often as severely restrained in the final hours of pregnancy as the most nimble and dangerous of criminals. While their bodies heave toward childbirth, they become walking, clanking jail cells.

“I told the officer he’s not supposed to shackle me,” Ms. Pinckney said last week. “He said he was just following procedure.”

From just about every wing of state government, there is agreement that such restraints are needless and risky. The state department of corrections formally limited their use nine years ago.

Yet the practice has persisted, a triumph of prison procedure and custom over the safety, comfort and dignity of the pregnant woman and of the child who is about to be born. “You’ve just got to put your legs up to push,” said Erica Knox, 42, who was brought to Elmhurst Hospital Center from Rikers Island when she went into labor. Her legs were not restrained as she delivered her son.

“But right after I pushed him out, the guard shackled me to the bed rail,” Ms. Knox said. “I had to push the placenta out with the shackles on. That was the worst.”

On May 20, both houses of the Legislature — with broad support from Democrats and Republicans — passed a bill that would bar the shackling of women during labor. It would permit the use of handcuffs in “extraordinary circumstances” to protect the woman or others around her. The bill was sponsored in the Senate by Velmanette Montgomery and in the Assembly by N. Nick Perry, both Brooklyn Democrats. It is now being reviewed by the governor’s office, a spokesman for Gov. David A. Paterson said on Friday.

Last week, Ms. Pinckney and other former prisoners stood outside the governor’s office on Third Avenue in Manhattan, chanting for him to sign the bill.

The new legislation would cover not only state prisons, but jails that serve all 62 counties of New York. Those county jails are not subject to the state’s existing policy that discourages the use of shackles and waist chains on women in labor.

Melissa DeFort, 23, who was in Bedford Hills earlier this year for violating parole in a drug case, said it was absurd to think that heavily pregnant women, dressed in prison scrubs, would try to escape. “What am I going to do, open the door of the car and run out?” Ms. DeFort said. “You have on the greens and heavy boots.”

On one hospital visit, she said, she remained shackled in an examining room while a doctor and nurse pleaded with the guards to unlock her. “They were saying, she’s on the fifth floor of a hospital, she’s seven months pregnant, and you guys are standing out there with guns,” Ms. DeFort said. “Finally, the officers radioed Bedford and asked what they should do, and they were told to do what the doctors asked.”

In 2002, Jeanna M. Graves, early in a three-year term on a drug conviction and pregnant with twins while in Bedford Hills , needed an emergency Caesarean section. Ms. Graves said that in the hospital, she was cuffed to the gurney by the corrections officers. The doctors gave her an epidural anesthetic, which blocks sensation in the abdomen and around the pelvis.

“I was cuffed through the entire C-section,” Ms. Graves said.

Tina Reynolds, 50, gave birth 15 years ago while she was serving time at Bedford Hills, shackled, she said, at an arm and a leg. Now the director of Women on the Rise Telling Herstory, an organization of formerly incarcerated women, Ms. Reynolds helped organized the rally last week with the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York.

“All children want to find about the day they were born,” Ms. Reynolds said. “You want it to be an expression of love, not of prohibition and trauma and restraint. The child didn’t do anything.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/nyregion/12about.html?_r=1

Posted by lois at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2009

Once Again, Guilty of Having HIV

Once Again, Guilty of Having HIV
posted 2009-07-09
by Cynthia Fernandez
CHLP Intern

Last week, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported a case of a young woman arrested for prostitution in Knoxville, Tennessee, who faces a three-to-fifteen-year prison term for “aggravated prostitution” solely because she is HIV-positive. While individuals convicted of prostitution in Tennessee who do not have HIV face misdemeanor charges that usually amount to a fine and probation, those living with HIV face a felony charge and an additional three to fifteen years due to their health status. Because the woman is a repeat offender, she will also have to register as a sex offender and will face the same restrictions as child molesters and rapists.

State officials cite public health and safety as the rationale for the aggravated prostitution law, but their efforts are severely misguided. Not only is the law discriminatory, it also has shown no deterrent effect. The woman has been arrested at least eight times for prostitution, and this recent arrest was her third arrest for aggravated prostitution. Furthermore, the law further stigmatizes HIV infection and women who rely on consensual sex in exchange for money to make a living. A more effective way to treat this woman, who dropped out of high school in the ninth grade due to drug addiction and has been a sex worker since age 19, would be to offer her drug rehabilitation and access to medical care and educational services to at least increase the odds that she has alternatives to sex work in order to survive. Instead, in their infinite wisdom, Tennessee legislators and prosecutors, by making her a registered sex offender, have effectively ensured that she will not have access to many residential drug treatment programs available to other addicts because she will not be allowed to live anywhere that houses juveniles. She faces these severe restrictions even though she has no history of committing any kind of sexual assault. Incarcerating and then branding someone like this woman a sex offender will only serve to further marginalize her and prevent her from receiving the care she needs.

Adding insult to injury, Knoxville Police Department Sgt. Chris Baldwin defended the law in the article and expressed concern for the male customers’ “moral and physical well-being.” Why should society place more value on the well-being of the man who solicits sex for money than on the woman who provides it? Baldwin’s statements and selective concern show the ignorance, the sexist double standard, and the misguided policy choices that serve as rationales for criminalizing HIV status. He is quoted as saying, “when a customer is exposed, then everybody he comes into contact with are at risk as well.” Yes, HIV can be transmitted through condomless sex, but this would place at further risk only those who in turn have condomless sex with that person who has become infected. Casual transmission to household members is a scientific impossibility and it is dangerous, if depressingly predictable, that someone in a position of power could be so ill-informed about basic modes of HIV transmission.

The Knoxville News Sentinel article reporting on the case also uses incredibly derogatory language, referring to the woman as a “hooker” and discussing her “turning tricks” for a living. The article also published several mug shots of the woman; for effect, I suppose? Her eyes are glazed over in every shot and if anything, they elicit a feeling of deep sympathy, which I am assuming was not the effect the article’s author intended.

While this law is intended to prevent those with HIV from acting as sex workers, in reality it does nothing to remedy the public health problem. Its enforcement prevents those most in need from receiving services and only exacerbates their marginalization by incarcerating and then branding them sexual predators. The continued prosecution of consensual sex, particularly while looking the other way at the man soliciting the service, is hateful and wrongheaded, and the sensational reporting that accompanies the criminalization of HIV further fuels HIV-related stigma and contributes to the perception that society needs to be protected from those living with HIV.
http://hivlawandpolicy.org/posts/view/43
This and other outrageous but true news about women and mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Posted by lois at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)

Review of The Real Cost of Prisons Comix in Feminist Review

Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Real Cost of Prisons Comix
Edited by Lois Ahrens
PM Press

As activists know all too well, crafting a political message and effectively mobilizing an audience is an elusive task. In The Real Cost Of Prisons, Lois Ahrens and her contributors beautifully stage a difficult dialogue—about mass incarceration, mandatory sentencing, and the “war on drugs”—with comics. Comics are an accessible, popular form of education, and most importantly, addictive, and hence become a subversive way to raise awareness. The Real Cost of Prisons Project has distributed 115,000 comics to the incarcerated, affected families, and social justice organizations free of charge. Comics are just one part of the organization’s mission to end mass incarceration; since Lois Ahrens founded organization in 2000 a coalition of artists, activists, and researchers has produced and distributed educational materials about the costs—material and affective—of the prison industrial complex and it’s devastating impact on family preservation, women’s reproductive rights, rural economies, and much more.

“What does it cost to lock up 2.3 million people each day in the world’s biggest prison system?” ask Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Craig Gilmore in the introduction to The Real Cost Of Prisons. In addition to the staggering economic costs (the U.S. spends $60 billion per year on prisons) that could otherwise be directed at health care, public education, and other social services, the human costs are immeasurable. In the comic “Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and Their Children,” illustrated by Susan Willmarth, we learn about the cost of incarceration for women and their children:

*One out of every 109 women in American is incarcerated, on parole, or on probation.
*Half of all women in prison are incarcerated more than 100 miles from their families.
*Seven million children have a parent in prison, on probation, or on parole.
*Seventy-nine percent of all women in New York State’s prisons are Black or Hispanic.

The Real Cost Of Prisons documents the vital efforts of the movement to end mass incarceration, and is an exceptional resource for all activists seeking creative ways to build and sustain a political movement.

Review by Jeanne Vaccaro

Posted by lois at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2009

Giving Birth in Chains: The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery

Giving Birth in Chains: The Shackling of Incarcerated Women During Labor and Delivery
By Anna Clark
Created Jul 6 2009 - 7:00am

As birthing choices are increasingly prominent in the public conversation, pregnant women are more and more empowered to decide what sort of care is right for their bodies and their child.

Not so for pregnant women who are incarcerated. Not only are their decisions about care restricted, but many incarcerated pregnant women are physically restricted while giving birth: during labor and delivery, they are shackled.

Consider the case of Shawanna Nelson.

When Nelson was six months pregnant, she was incarcerated in Arkansas for passing bad checks. She went into labor during her short sentence. A correctional officer shackled her legs to opposite sides of the bed that transported her to a delivery room, removing them briefly during a nurse's examination. Nelson was re-shackled immediately after giving birth to her nine-pound son.

"She suffered both mental anguish and injury to her back, intense pain because she couldn't move or adjust her position through her birth process," said Dana Sussman, legal fellow at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Nelson later had surgery to treat symptoms resulting from the delivery of her son, according to The Arkansas Times. She sued the Arkansas Department of Correction, charging that her treatment violated the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

After winning her case at district court, Nelson's charges were dismissed on appeal by a judicial panel that said prison officials "couldn't have known the shackling was unconstitutional," said Sussman. Nelson was granted a rehearing before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. Her case was argued in September 2008. A decision is pending.

Perhaps most surprising about Nelson's case is that it's not uncommon. Last month, a former Washington inmate sued the state for shackling during her birthing process and high-risk pregnancy, treatment that included a leg iron and a metal chain across her stomach.
for more go to: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/07/06/giving-birth-chains-the-shackling-incarcerated-women-during-labor-and-delivery

Posted by lois at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2009

An invisible woman is laid to rest

An invisible woman is laid to rest
E.J. Montini
Arizona Republic

For most of her adult life, 48-year-old Marcia Powell was invisible. Then she died, and slowly came into view.

If you were required in school to read H.G. Wells' science fiction masterpiece "The Invisible Man" you'll recall that the troubled scientist called Griffin formulated a recipe for invisibility that, we learn tragically, wears off after death.

As it turns out, the same holds true in real life.

The diabolical concoction that lead to Marcia Powell's invisibility was a mixture of mental illness, drugs and ignorance. (Ours, not hers.)

Today, At Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix, Powell will be laid to rest. She was a troubled adopted girl when she first ran away from home in California.

She showed early signs of mental illness. But as a young adult with no family – or at least none that wanted any part of her – “treatment” took the form of self medication by way of everything from alcohol to methamphetamine. To pay for it, she became a prostitute.

Mental illness is not a crime. Most of those who suffer from the disease are able to keep it under control and function perfectly well with the help of doctors and prescription drugs.

Powell and many others are not as fortunate.Left on their own they spiral into homelessness, petty crime or worse. After offering oral sex to an undercover police officer in exchange for a few dollars Marcia Powell found herself in what has become one of Arizona's largest de facto mental health facilities – state prison.

It wasn't the first time she was behind bars. Or the second. Or the tenth. Powell had been in and out of jail for decades, all of which went unnoticed by you and me. She and those like her roam our streets, alleys, parking lots and city parks in plain view but unseen, shrouded by their delusions and our indifference.

All of which changed for Powell when she was placed in a cage-like outdoor enclosure at the prison in Perryville and left to cook for four hours. Invisible. Forgotten.

It was only after she fell into a coma and died that any of us learned she had been alive. Even now, as the Department of Corrections investigates what went wrong, it is the manner of her death that concerns us. Not her life.

Ken Heintzelman, pastor at Shadow Rock, told me, “It's unfortunate that it sometimes take a spiritual kick in the pants to make us stop and see what is going on. Maybe through Marcia we can address some of the systematic things that caused this to happen to her. It's more than simply about this one person. It's about what kind of society we want to be.”

The Maricopa County Public Fiduciary's office spent weeks trying to find relatives of Powell. The only family members they found were even less interested in her after death than they had been while she was alive.

So burying Powell fell to some good-hearted local people, including folks at Shadow Rock, at EncantoCommunityChurch, at Hansen's Mortuary and at the fiduciary's office. Most, like Donna Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform, only heard of Powell after she was gone. While helping to plan Powell's funeral Hamm told me, “We believe that Marcia deserves a little dignity, something she didn't get while alive.”

If all goes according to plan, Powell's cremated remains will be placed in a niche at Shadow Rock sometime around dusk on Sunday.

The church is located south of Thunderbird Road on Eighth Avenue. The desert landscape rises up like a wave behind the building, cresting at the edge of an unending sky. It's an open, airy place. No prison cells. No barbed wire. No cages.

(Column for June 28, 2009, Arizona Republic)
Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 11:16 PM
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/EJMontini/56354
This and other outrageous but true stories about women and mass incarceration can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/
Additional news stories about Marcia Powell's death can be found on the blog.

Posted by lois at 11:04 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2009

Bail granted for imprisoned HIV-positive pregnant woman in Maine

Bail granted for imprisoned HIV-positive pregnant woman in Maine

This morning, National Advocates for Pregnant Women and Center for HIV Law and Policy, and Elizabeth Frankel and Valerie Wright of the Maine law firm Verrill Dana, LLP, filed an emergency amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief on behalf of 28 public health experts, advocates, and organizations challenging the imprisonment of an HIV positive pregnant woman in order to protect her “innocent” “unborn child.”

Ms. Quinta Tuleh, a 28 year-old woman from Cameroon, was arrested in January 2009 for allegedly having false immigration documents. Shortly after her arrest, she learned she was both pregnant and HIV positive. On May 14, 2009, instead of sentencing her to “time served,” which was consistent with the federal sentencing guidelines and the recommendations of her attorney and the United States Attorney’s Office, United States District Court Judge John Woodcock extended Ms. T’s sentence to 238 days, making clear that the sentence was calculated specifically to ensure that she remained incarcerated for the duration of her pregnancy. See Judge Jails Pregnant Woman Until Baby is Born and Behind Bars for Being Pregnant and HIV-Positive.

Judge Woodcock stated: “My obligation is to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant, and that public, it seems to me at this point, should include the child she’s carrying…I don’t think the transfer of HIV to an unborn child is a crime technically under the law, but it is as direct and as likely as an ongoing assault.” Judge Woodcock reasoned that the Federal Sentencing Guideline permits enhanced sentencing for pregnant women and that extended imprisonment would protect her “unborn child. ”

As is often the situation in cases involving pregnant women, Courts feel pressed to make decisions without benefit of full briefing, input from experts or amicus participation. Indeed, uncertain of Ms. T’s due date and how long he would need to extend the sentence to ensure she was imprisoned through her due date, the Judge looked out over the courtroom and said “So maybe we ought to consult with the women here. Any sense of what a safe range would be?”

The Amicus brief filed this morning provided the Court with the expert information unavailable at the sentencing hearings. The brief outlines legal problems with depriving pregnant women of their liberty in order to advance alleged state interests in fetal health and the public health problems with assuming that jails and prisons provide superior or even adequate health care. As an expert declaration filed by Dr. Robert L. Cohen stated: “Based upon my thirty years of experience in the delivery, administration, research, evaluation, and monitoring of medical care in jails and prisons throughout the United States, it is my opinion that it is very often the case that the medical care available to prisoners falls well below that available to non-prisoners.”

Ms. T is being represented by Zachary L. Heiden of the Maine ACLU.

NAPW and Center for HIV Law and Policy are grateful to Laura McTighe, Director of Project UNSHACKLE, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), for her extraordinary help in this effort and the numerous public health experts, advocates, and organizations appearing as amici on this brief, including:

National Women’s Health Network, National Association of People with AIDS, Frannie Peabody Center, Mardge H. Cohen, M.D., Howard Minkoff, M.D., ACT UP Philadelphia, African Services Committee, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Alliance of AIDS Services – Carolina, American Medical Students Association, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Chicago Women’s AIDS Project, Circle of Care, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, HIV Law Project, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Liberty Research Group, National AIDS Fund, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Rebecca Project for Human Rights, Twin States Network, Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Disease (WORLD), Women Rising Project, Women Together for Change Project, Jeff Berry, Wendy Chavkin, M.D., MPH, Leslie Gise, M.D., and Sean Strub.

We are pleased to report that the Court granted bail this morning, allowing Ms. T’s release pending appeal in the case.
Posted by Wyndi on June 15, 2009 01:54 PM

and

Dear Friends and Allies:

NAPW is pleased to announce that yesterday morning a federal District Court judge, responding to a motion for bail and our emergency amicus brief, released Quinta Tuleh, a 28 year-old pregnant woman, from federal custody.

Ms. Tuleh, a woman from Cameroon, had already served 114 days in jail for allegedly having false immigration documents. Shortly after her arrest, she learned she was both pregnant and HIV positive. On May 14, 2009, instead of releasing her, a US District Court Judge extended Ms. Tuleh's sentence to ensure that she remain incarcerated for the duration of her pregnancy. (Judge Jails Pregnant Woman Until Baby is Born and Behind Bars for Being Pregnant and HIV-Positive.)

At the sentencing hearing, Judge Woodcock stated: "My obligation is to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant, and that public, it seems to me at this point, should include the child she's carrying...I don't think the transfer of HIV to an unborn child is a crime technically under the law, but it is as direct and as likely as an ongoing assault."

As is often the situation in cases involving pregnant women, Courts make decisions without the benefit of full briefing or input from experts. Indeed, uncertain of Ms. Tuleh's due date and how long he would need to extend the sentence to ensure she was imprisoned through her due date, the Judge looked out over the courtroom and said "So maybe we ought to consult with the women here. Any sense of what a safe range would be?"

Yesterday morning, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, the Center for HIV Law and Policy and attorneys Elizabeth Frankel and Valerie Wright of the Maine firm Verrill Dana, LLP filed an emergency amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief on behalf of 28 public health experts, advocates, and organizations, as well as a declaration from prison health expert Dr. Robert L. Cohen. The brief and expert testimony provided legal and public health information challenging the incarceration of a pregnant woman in order to protect an "innocent" "unborn child."

The judge called the brief "articulate and helpful" during yesterday's hearing where he released Ms. Tuleh on bail pending an appeal of her sentence to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Tuleh will now be receiving medical, housing, and other support coordinated by the Frannie Peabody Center, a Portland, Maine community-based HIV resource center. Ms. Tuleh has expressed that she is deeply touched by all of the support she has received. The picture of her yesterday, smiling from ear to ear speaks volumes.

Ms. Tuleh is being represented on her appeal by Zachary L. Heiden of the Maine ACLU.

NAPW and Center for HIV Law and Policy are grateful to Laura McTighe, Director of Project UNSHACKLE, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP), for her extraordinary help in this effort.

Your continued support of NAPW makes this kind of effective, cross issue collaboration possible. Please contribute what you can to NAPW so that we can continue our collaborative and successful advocacy on behalf of all pregnant women.
Yours Truly,
Lynn M. Paltrow
Executive Director
National Advocates for Pregnant Women
www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org

Posted by lois at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2009

CO: CO: Woman Prisoner Awarded $1.35 Million After Repeated Sexual Assaults by Guard

National Briefing | Rockies
Colorado: Inmate Awarded $1.35. Million

By DAN FROSCH
Published: June 11, 2009
NY Times

A female inmate who was raped by a sergeant at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility was awarded more than $1.35 million by a federal judge on Wednesday in a civil lawsuit she had brought. The judge, David M. Ebel of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, wrote that he set the damages high to try to discourage other guards from sexually assaulting inmates in Colorado prisons. The inmate in the case said she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by the corrections sergeant, LeShawn Terrell, beginning in 2006, but had been too terrified to report the assaults. The ruling was sharply critical of the Denver District Attorney’s Office for allowing Mr. Terrell to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful sexual contact, for which he received a 60-day jail sentence and five years’ probation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/us/12brfs-INMATEAWARDE_BRF.html?scp=2&sq=Colorado&st=cse

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

June 09, 2009

AZ: Imgine the fury if Marcia Powell had died in Arpaio's jail

Imagine fury if inmate had died while on Arpaio's watch

by E. J. Montini - Jun. 9, 2009
The Arizona Republic

The gruesome passing of inmate Marcia Powell a few weeks back has proved that in Arizona it doesn't matter how a convict dies, only where.

Powell would have been national and international news if she had died in one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's much discussed jails.

But she didn't. She was in a state prison.

If the chain-link fence enclosure into which Powell was placed and left in the hot sun for four hours had been in Tent City instead of the Perryville prison complex, Amnesty International would have contacted the U.S. State Department about the worse-than-Guantanamo conditions. But there was no great protest.

If a mentally ill person like Powell had been subjected to the same treatment in Arpaio's jail as she had been in prison, I have no doubt that the American Civil Liberties Union, and who knows what other human-rights organizations, would have been up in arms, raising a stink among politicians on every level.

But Powell died in a state prison, and there was no political uproar.

Imagine the amount of media attention Powell's death would have received if the decision to unplug her from life support had been made by Sheriff Arpaio rather than by Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan.

Imagine the level of indignation that would have arisen if it was learned later that Arpaio had decided to pull the plug without notifying Powell's legal guardian at the Maricopa County Public Fiduciary's Office.

Instead, it was Ryan who said that his department had exhausted all the leads that it had concerning Powell's next of kin.

However, the fiduciary has been Powell's guardian since 2008. Not only that, but last week the fiduciary's attorney reported in court that several of Powell's estranged relatives had been located and others might yet be found.

Imagine if it had been Arpaio who had cut off life support on such an inmate only to discover that there might be family connections out there.

But it was not Arpaio who did these things. It was the DOC, and so news coverage has been limited mostly to a few articles and online reports in The Arizona Republic and the weekly Phoenix New Times.

Imagine, finally, the level of public outrage that would have been raised if Powell had died in one of Arpaio's jails and Arpaio announced that his department, rather than an outside agency, would conduct the criminal investigation into what happened.

I doubt that there would be enough paper available to print the onslaught of angry letters or enough computer space to contain the barrage of missives over the Internet.

But in this case it was the DOC announcing that it would investigate itself (with a recent promise to allow the Department of Public Safety to look over its findings) and there was no reaction.

Instead, from the moment Powell's death became public I've received comments from readers who say they aren't sympathetic to her plight because she made poor choices in life.

Yet here we are, choosing to make less of Powell's death, not just because of who she was but because of where she died.

More than anything, Powell's death demonstrates that celebrity trumps circumstance. Without a name like Arpaio's to serve as a lightning rod there is no public interest in her case.

Marcia Powell was 48 years old. Her mental disorders stretch back for decades. She was a prostitute and drug addict who wound up behind bars because prison has become the place we lock up some of the mentally ill.

That's her excuse. What's ours?
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/06/08/20090608Montini0609.html
More articles about Marcia Powell's death can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/

Posted by lois at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2009

AZ: Acting Director of AZ DOC attends Marcia Powell's Memorial Service---organizing continues

Charles Ryan Attends Marcia Powell's Memorial Service, Says He Didn't Know Powell Had Guardian
By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard
Saturday, May. 30 2009 @ 3:05PM

About 200 people packed the pews at Encanto Community Church today at noon for a memorial service for Marcia Powell, the 48-year-old inmate at Goodyear's Perryville Prison who died early the morning of May 20. This was following her confinement the day before in an outdoor cage where she endured temperatures of more than 107 degrees for at least four hours before collapsing.

The service was presided over by Rev. Liana Rowe, and featured prayers, hymns, and speakers such as criminal defense advocate Jameson Johnson and Middle Ground Prison Reform's Donna Hamm. Powell's body is still being held by the Medical Examiner pending an investigation into next of kin by Powell's court-appointed guardian, the Maricopa County Public Fiduciary. Instead of a casket, there were two photos of Powell on the dais next to a tall lit candle.

The most notable attendee was Arizona Department of Corrections' Interim Director Charles Ryan, whom I questioned outside the church following the service. It's Ryan who made the decision to discontinue Powell's life support after she had been transported to West Valley Hospital.

Friday, the ADC announced that the use of outside enclosures like the one Powell was caged in would be suspended until they were retrofitted with shade and a water supply. Ryan went even further today when asked about the possibility of doing away with the cages altogether.

"After conferring [yesterday] with the Governor's office and the Governor," said Ryan. "We have decided we are going to discontinue using the holding enclosures, in spite of consideration for retrofitting with shade or water. We will no longer use them."

Ryan said Powell was being transferred to an observation cell when she was left in the outside cage. In the future, Ryan said such transfers will be taken to a holding area inside a building that's climate controlled, so that the weather is no longer an issue.

Regarding Ryan's decision to pull the plug on Powell while she was at West Valley Hospital on life support, Ryan said he did so on the advice of Powell's doctors, who told him it would be inhumane to do otherwise. He also indicated that at the time he made the decision, he was unaware that Powell had a guardian.

"The search of the records at the department, at the institution file, and the electronic record did not reveal any guardians," claimed Ryan. "There was no legal guardian known to the department at the time the decision was made.

"The only person who was listed was a friend, and the attempt to find the friend led to a disconnected telephone number and to an address that was not occupied."

But why pull the plug on Powell just hours after she had been admitted, when another day or so and a little more digging might have revealed the fiduciary's guardianship?

"The attending physician in the emergency room," explained Ryan, "in consultation with the department's doctors, clearly indicated that there was no possibility that life could be sustained, that she was terminal. And the doctor reiterated several times it was inhumane to continue to sustain her life on life support."

During the services for Powell, Donna Hamm restated her call for an independent investigation into Powell's death, and said she was calling on the U.S. Justice Department to look into it. However, Ryan said he retained confidence in ADC's criminal investigations unit to look into the matter, though that unit ultimately reports to him.

"There has been an autopsy completed," said Ryan. "The results of the toxicology report will not be known, I think, for about six weeks...The investigation itself...will be completed before then. It is my intention once that...portion of the investigation is completed, I intend to have it reviewed for completeness and objectivity by another agency, and very likely that would be or start with the Department of Public Safety."

I also asked Ryan why the department switched out photos of Powell on its Web site, to leave a more flattering image of Powell online. He said the reason was to show "another picture of her" while she was incarcerated. That's a no-brainer of course. Why the department felt the need to show another photo of Powell is a question Ryan successfully tiptoed around.

In addition, Ryan conceded that he was the "Interim Director" of ADC, not its confirmed "Director," as he's mentioned as being on the ADC Web site. He ascribed the mislabeling to an "oversight."

I have to give Ryan points for attending the service to begin with and for allowing me to interview him. However, I still find troubling his statement that there was no record of Powell's guardianship in the ADC's files. I was able to obtain a record of Powell's guardianship simply by consulting the clerk of superior court's records.

Also, I think that if Powell had been kept alive a little longer, it would not have taken much digging to find paperwork related to the guardian's appointment. Indeed, at one point in the court record, the court is officially advised by Powell's guardian that she has a new address; i.e., Perryville Prison. Isn't the ADC supposed to have access to all such court records related to an inmate?

Presumably, it is the guardian that had the legal authority to pull Powell's plug (assuming next of kin could not be located), not Ryan. And Ryan's department should have known there was a guardian. How ADC didn't know, when a review of the clerk of court's records reveals the existence of a guardianship for Powell, requires some explanation.

More on the service itself in next week's Bird column. I will say this, as sad as Powell's death was, I find it heartening that many in Phoenix do care about the demise of this woman, one of society's forgotten. And if that concern persists, perhaps a repeat of this incident will be less likely in the future.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/05/charles_ryan_attends_marcia_po.php.

From an anonymous blog post...
AddThis
Inmate killed in punishment cage in 103-107 F No Shade
Perryville Womens Unit; Goodyear, AZ
This inmate Marcia Powell ADC # 109416 who was a having problems with her paranoid schizophrenia on May 19, 2009 was being punished by the Deputy Warden; for not going to work. Was put in a cage with a cement slab, no shade; in 103-107 Degree heat. This prison has had many problems with women dying. They have had media out there and has told the media they do not use the cage that has been seen. But, the local media does not report their news correctly in Phoenix, AZ. And they apparently did not know about the 2nd CAGE. It is out of public view. The families of these women in this prison will not speak out. They are afraid for their family memebers in there. And if they speak out then they are stop for 90 days. And if they appeal the decision then they are punished for another 90 days. And if you keep trying then you can be stopped altogeather. Now our Government and President are hollering about GITMO PRISONERS being treated bad. Would they allow the GITMO PRISONERS to be treated like that. Sitting in the sun for 4 hours to end up DEAD. Because, that is what happened to this woman. And she was a mother of 2 children. But, you don't hear about this in the NATIONAL NEWS OR IN CONGRESS. And the former Governor of Arizona Janet Polatano; she knew how the inmates get treated in Arizona. She did not want to do anything to hurt her politico career. Ms. Polatano is only looking out for herself and her politico ambissions.
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=13409481&content_dir=ua_congressorg

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

May 21, 2009

AZ: Women serving a 27 month sentence for prostitution dies in holding cell after four hours in 103 degree heat.

Tragic cage death ends woeful life
May. 24, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Marcia J. Powell, a mentally ill prostitute and drug addict, died like a dog last week, roasting in a cage in the fearsome sun at the state prison at Perryville.

She was 48 years old.

Her final tortured hours in an outdoor enclosure last Tuesday mimicked those of a five-year-old law-enforcement canine named Rik that died at Perryville in 2007 after having been left by handlers in an exercise run for three hours. Temperatures that day reached 105.

The temperature in Powell's cage last week exceeded 107. She was locked up for an hour longer than the dog before she collapsed.

There are many questions to be answered by the Department of Corrections about Powell's final hours. But her death is only the gruesome exclamation point on a long list of institutional failures that got her there.

DOC officials say that Powell had a rap sheet going back decades and included at least 10 sex and six drug convictions. She'd been in and out of Arizona prisons since 1994.

Records indicate that she left home in California at 15 with a ninth-grade education, no marketable skills and a serious mental illness. A presentencing report describes her as bipolar.

Last summer, she was sent to prison for more than two years on a prostitution charge.

"It's awful the way this woman died," said Donna Leone Hamm, executive director of Middle Ground Prison Reform Inc., which for years has advocated for Arizona inmates and their families. "No one cared much about her when she lived. I hope at least that we care about the way she died."

DOC is investigating the incident. Several employees already are on administrative leave.

After Powell collapsed, she was taken to the hospital and placed on life support. A DOC spokesman told me that the department was unable to locate any family members.

So when the time came to decide whether to pull the plug on the machines keeping her alive, it fell to prisons Director Charles Ryan. Powell was taken off life support at 11:15 p.m. Tuesday; she died at 12:42 a.m. Wednesday.

"The death of Marcia Powell is a tragedy and a failure," Ryan said later. "The investigation will determine whether there was negligence and tell us how to remedy our failures."

I'm not so sure.

For one thing, DOC should not be conducting the investigation. It should fall to an outside agency. The governor should demand it.

According to Hamm, she contacted then-prisons Director Dora Schriro in late 2007 about the practice of placing prisoners in outdoor cages.

"Because no one had died or had been permanently injured, I couldn't get anyone - including the press - interested," Hamm said.

Questions like that are only a beginning.

Powell's horrific death and her woeful life should finally get us to ask why Arizona's failed mental-health system transforms county jails and prisons into mental-health institutions.

It should get us to ask why we criminalize people like this but don't adequately treat them, since it's clear that taxpayers end up footing the bill for their care one way or another.

Powell told state officials that she had two children who were given up to foster care, but DOC says the state has no record of that. Police also checked the address of a name she'd listed as a friend on prison records but found no one living in the abandoned house.

In spite of spending years in the system, Powell's life remains a mystery. Her death is a tragedy, although perhaps not on the level of Rik the law-enforcement dog.

There was a public outpouring for him.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/05/23/20090523Montini0524.html

Ariz. inmate dies after hours in outdoor cell
By JONATHAN J. COOPER-5-22-09

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona inmate who died after spending nearly four hours in the desert heat was left in an outdoor holding cell for twice as long as she should have been, the state prisons director said Wednesday.

Three corrections officers have been put on paid leave while the state investigates Wednesday's heat-related death of Marcia Powell, who was left in her unshaded cell in 103-degree heat at a prison in Goodyear.

"The death of Marcia Powell is a tragedy and a failure," prisons director Charles Ryan said. "The investigation will determine whether there was negligence and will tell us how to remedy our failures."

Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, was placed alone in the cell while being moved to an onsite detention unit. Ryan said officers placed Powell in the cell after a disturbance at the detention unit, but he would not elaborate on the nature of the disturbance.

Officers gave Powell, 48, bottled water, as required under prison policy, Ryan said. Corrections officers were 20 yards away in a control room while she was in the cell. Investigators will try to determine how much water she was given and whether she drank it.

Officers did not remove her after two hours as they should have done under department policy, Ryan said at a news conference.

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

The criminal probe, conducted by the Corrections Department's investigations unit, will seek to determine whether officials were negligent in their treatment of Powell, who collapsed at 2:40 p.m. Tuesday and died later at a hospital.

Ryan said he hopes to release a report into Powell's death by late next week. The Maricopa County Attorney's office will then decide whether to charge the corrections officers involved.

Ryan would not release the names or disciplinary records of the deputy warden, captain and lieutenant placed on paid leave.

He said he told all state prison wardens to monitor the temperatures at outdoor holding cells while they are housing inmates.

Powell is the 79th person to die in state prisons since July 2008, according to Ryan. He said most of the deaths were from natural causes, but there were three suicides and one murder.

Corrections officials were unable to locate family members for Powell.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Posted by lois at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2009

UK: Our prisons are failing women Using punitive male models of imprisonment for vulnerable women results in tragedy – and does nothing to tackle crime

Our prisons are failing women
Using punitive male models of imprisonment for vulnerable women results in tragedy – and does nothing to tackle crime
o Frances Crook
o guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 May 2009

In pay, pensions, politics and promotion, the gender gap is a disgrace. But in justice, women face a national scandal. A report published today by the Fawcett Society reveals a justice system that is "institutionally sexist". This is of no surprise to organisations such as the Howard League, which have long campaigned against the hopeless situation of women rotting in our prisons.

Today, as we sit outraged in our armchairs, 4,274 women and girls languish in our jails. These are not the dangerous criminals one might imagine, but often sad victims of circumstance and violence – often at the hands of men. More than half have been victims of domestic violence, a third have experienced sexual abuse, and 25% have been in care as children. Two-thirds of women in prison have dependent children under 18; of these, just one in 20 remain in their own home once their mother has been sentenced.

A sharp increase in the severity of sentencing has seen this number soar by 60% in a decade. Two-thirds of women are in for less than six months: these are damaged people in jail for petty offences. Women and children with mental health problems and addictions are then warehoused temporarily in our flooded and failing jails. Rotting in the security-driven prisons, which follow the rules designed for high security men's prisons, simply serves to exacerbate problems and will most likely lead to more serious and frequent reoffending on release. The idea that public protection is served by this vicious circle is not one many victims of crime would recognise.

The appalling consequences are all too stark. Forty-three women have taken their own lives in prisons in the last five years, with two more added to the toll so far in 2009. Already this year we have seen the tragic suicide of Alison Colk, a young woman who had just entered Styal prison on a petty 28-day sentence for theft. She was found suspended from a ligature on her first night in the prison, which is notorious for violence and self-injury. More than half of the thousands of acts of self-injury which take place every year in our jails are committed by women and girls. This is despite the fact that they comprise just 5% of the prison population.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has succeeded in forcing the government to hold a public inquiry into the treatment of "Susan", who was jailed after an extraordinarily traumatic and abusive childhood. Repeatedly abandoned by a mother who tried to kill her, she was transferred to an adult prison on her 17th birthday. In prison she spent several months in solitary confinement, eating meals on her own and taking her only exercise in a metal cage. Susan made repeated attempts on her own life and was hospitalised with deep lacerations to her wrists and arms, on one occasion losing six pints of blood.

This is the first time a public inquiry concerning the principle of the "right to life" will hear from the person at the heart of the proceedings, as previous inquiries have concerned deaths (Stephen Lawrence and Victoria Climbié, for example). The inquiry will expose the fact that prisons are a totally inadequate response to women and girls who offend, particularly those who have mental health problems and who injure themselves because of their misery and distress. We hope it will lead to significant changes. When the gender equality duty came into force, it was hoped that systems, structures and organisations would adjust practice and tailor it to the specific needs of women. Nowhere is the failure to do so more apparent than in the area of the penal system. Instead, their treatment at the hands of criminal justice agencies is increasingly punitive, following male models of imprisonment as punishment, regardless of the offence, background, vulnerability or family circumstances of the woman involved.

These vulnerable women, damaged at the hands of men through violence, sexual abuse, neglect, or trafficking, are victims themselves. The revolving door at the prison gates is an appalling and hopeless cycle – and the taxpayer funds each pointless prison place to the tune of over £40,000 a year for each female we incarcerate. Tragically, the dire consequences leave blood on the male-dominated government's hands.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/13/prisons-women-human-rights

Posted by lois at 10:51 PM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2009

Radio interview with Tina Reynolds of WORTH and Chandra Villanueva of Women's Prison Assoc. on WPA report on prison nusuries

Chandra Villanueva, the author of the Women’s Prison Association (WPA) talks about a new report on prison nursery programs and Tina Reynolds, founder of Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), who spoke about her thoughts on the report and her personal experience with having a child while incarcerated. A link to the Report: "Mothers, Infants and Imprisonment" is below.
http://livesinfocus.org/prison/2009/05/13/listen-live-prison-nursery-report/

Link to the paper:
http://www.wpaonline.org/pdf/Mothers%20Infants%20and%20Imprisonment%202009.pdf

Posted by lois at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2009

MI: Robert Scott Women's Prison to Close

Women's prison to close Sunday to save state money

BY CECIL ANGEL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • May 10, 2009

The Robert Scott Correctional Facility, a women's prison in Northville Township, is to close May 17 as part of the state's cost-savings measures, meaning dozens of jobs will leave the township.

But the closure also could mean a boost in property taxes for the township after the land is sold and owned privately.

Township officials say they would like to be included in meetings about the future of the prison, which will be turned over to the real estate division of the state Office of Management and Budget.

For now, the township collects only $10,000 annually from the state in lieu of taxes to provide fire protection for the prison and the 1-square-mile Maybury Park, the other state-owned property in the township, Northville Township Manager Chip Snider said.

The 35-acre prison property is well-placed near freeways. The township's appraiser said that if the area was zoned commercial, real estate could go for about $150,000 an acre, and if it is zoned residential, it would be priced at $50,000 an acre.

By the end of the month, the facility will be mothballed and the last of the staff reassigned to other prisons, said Russ Marlan, spokesman for the Department of Corrections. The 880 inmates are being moved to the former Huron Valley Complex-Men in Ypsilanti, and will be out of the facility by May 17.

"It's on schedule," Marlan said.

Snider said he expects calls from people interested in buying the property, which is in the Beck Road and 5 Mile area.

The former 414-acre Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital closed in July 2003 and was sold for $31.5 million to Real Estate Interests Group Inc. Northville in 2005. The township is in talks to buy 332 acres.

Township officials have no specific zoning plans for the prison site but Snider says it's likely that it will be zoned commercial.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090510/NEWS02/905100536/1004/NEWS02/Women+s+prison+to+close+Sunday+to+save+state+money+

Posted by lois at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2009

Mothers in Crisis Turn to Temporary ‘Parents’

Mothers in Crisis Turn to Temporary ‘Parents’

By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: May 6, 2009- NY Times

INDIANAPOLIS — After resolving to leave her longtime but violent partner in March, Janai Parahams, 25 and jobless, wanted to make a fresh start. But she felt trapped: she was tending four small children with no family support or child care. She could scarcely leave her house, let alone find a job and a new place to live.

Safe Families, a nonprofit group, allowed Janai Parahams to leave a violent domestic situation without having to worry about what would happen to her children.

“I needed stability so I wouldn’t go back into an abusive relationship,” she said of those first days of confusion and fear.

A social worker told Ms. Parahams about a nonprofit group, Safe Families for Children, that places the children of parents in crisis with volunteer families, on a temporary basis — from a day to a year or more. Ms. Parahams could approve the caretakers, see her children whenever she wanted and get them back with no courts involved.

This unusual offer of extended respite to overwhelmed parents is part of a broader national trend in child welfare to keep many cases out of the courts and foster care systems. State agencies traditionally had a stark choice between breaking up families in turmoil or leaving children in potentially risky homes. Now many are doing more preventive work to forestall abuse and neglect.

Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio are among the states redesigning official programs to identify families at risk and offer counseling or parenting classes. Other states are making intensive efforts to help families in more serious trouble stay together, placing a social worker in the home for weeks at a time to assess and advise parents, refer them to needed therapies and secure help with day care, housing and even emergency cash.

The group that Ms. Parahams turned to, Safe Families for Children, takes a different approach, finding mentoring families to take children temporarily, without the formalities and potential legal battles of foster care.

“It’s consistent with the whole movement in child-welfare agencies to find a broader range of responses for families in need,” said Mark Courtney, a family expert at the University of Washington.

Safe Families, which was founded in Chicago about five years ago, says that requests for help have accelerated this year along with the rise in unemployment and foreclosures.

Not all child welfare experts agree that removing children, even temporarily, is a good idea if there is no imminent risk.

Started by David Anderson, a child psychologist who heads a Christian service agency, Safe Families draws mainly on churches to find families who will take in children, with no compensation or expectation of adoption.

The approach has recently spread to Atlanta; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Davenport, Iowa; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; and Rockford, Ill.; with the blessing of state welfare officials.

“Where parents recognize issues they need to address and ask for support before abuse or neglect takes place, it’s a great thing,” said Erwin McEwen, Illinois director of child and family services.

In the Chicago area, Safe Families has placed more than 1,200 children, helping out single mothers who are suddenly homeless, fleeing domestic violence or, in one case, seeking a home for a baby born in prison while the mother served out her term.

Richard Wexler, director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, criticized the removal of children from homes with no evidence of abuse. “Volunteers could bring the respite to the mom’s home by baby-sitting or mentoring there, instead of taking the children away,” he said.

Mr. Anderson said some Safe Families programs were planning to experiment with in-home mentoring, but stressed that all the parents involved had decided themselves that they needed a break from child-rearing to get back on their feet.

Removing children from parents should be avoided when possible, experts in child welfare agree. Placing them with relatives is next best, but when there are no acceptable alternatives, encouraging contact between parent and child during the separation, and friendship between the two families, can minimize the trauma, said Peter J. Pecora, director of research with Casey Family Programs, a nonprofit group in Seattle that develops child welfare programs.

Safe Families must deal with many of the safety and legal concerns of foster care. It makes background checks of potential hosts, visits homes to make sure things are going well and carries insurance in case of accidents. Mr. McEwen said he had not heard of any safety problems or other complaints in Illinois.

Legal arrangements vary: in Illinois, parents must sign over formal guardianship, while Indiana requires only a temporary placement agreement, with power of attorney granted for emergency medical decisions.

In Chicago, Safe Families expects to place 1,000 children this year, for average stays of 45 days. Administrative costs total $350,000 a year, with $100,000 coming from the state and the rest from churches and foundations. If those children ended up in foster care instead, Mr. Anderson noted, the cost to the public would be millions.

In Indianapolis, where several dozen children have been placed in the last year, and elsewhere, the group screens the children and does not take those with major behavioral problems, who need trained therapists.

Ideally, and as often happens, Mr. Anderson said, the hosts “become like extended family,” helping mothers and staying in touch with the children.

Such ties appear likely in the case of Brenda Bailey, 51, of Indianapolis, who has lung disease and lost her lease in October. She moved into a women’s shelter but could not provide for her sons, then ages 10, 16 and 17.

“I decided the kids would be better off without me,” she said, recalling the night she took handfuls of Valium. But when she woke up the next morning, she said, she swore she would reunite the family.

Her middle son moved in with an older half-sister, while the oldest and youngest sons were taken in by Safe Families. Then Ms. Bailey’s lung collapsed, requiring months of recovery. Her youngest son, Elijah, now 11, stayed with one family for four months, and in February moved into the suburban home of his gym teacher, J. T. Crook, and his wife, Samantha. Ms. Bailey, largely recovered and planning to rent an apartment, has become friends with the Crooks, and agreed that Elijah would stay with them until school ends, then spend weekends with them in the summer.

Ms. Parahams, the woman seeking a fresh start, used her month away from her four children to finish a job-preparation course. On April 20, she started work with the Census Bureau, and three days later, her children moved into her new home.

The families that looked after her children, she said, “helped me at a time of great need.”

“They showed real love, which is all you need,” Ms. Parahams said.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 7, 2009, on page A20 of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/us/07safe.html?ref=us

Posted by lois at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

Girls on Our Streets

Op-Ed Columnist
Girls on Our Streets
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: May 6, 2009- NY Times

Jasmine Caldwell was 14 and selling sex on the streets when an opportunity arose to escape her pimp: an undercover policeman picked her up.

The cop could have rescued her from the pimp, who ran a string of 13 girls and took every cent they earned. If the cop had taken Jasmine to a shelter, she could have resumed her education and tried to put her life back in order.

Instead, the policeman showed her his handcuffs and threatened to send her to prison. Terrified, she cried and pleaded not to be jailed. Then, she said, he offered to release her in exchange for sex.

Afterward, the policeman returned her to the street. Then her pimp beat her up for failing to collect any money.

“That happens a lot,” said Jasmine, who is now 21. “The cops sometimes just want to blackmail you into having sex.”

I’ve often reported on sex trafficking in other countries, and that has made me curious about the situation here in the United States. Prostitution in America isn’t as brutal as it is in, say, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Cambodia and Malaysia (where young girls are routinely kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by brothel owners, occasionally even killed). But the scene on American streets is still appalling — and it continues largely because neither the authorities nor society as a whole show much interest in 14-year-old girls pimped on the streets.

Americans tend to think of forced prostitution as the plight of Mexican or Asian women trafficked into the United States and locked up in brothels. Such trafficking is indeed a problem, but the far greater scandal and the worst violence involves American teenage girls.

If a middle-class white girl goes missing, radio stations broadcast amber alerts, and cable TV fills the air with “missing beauty” updates. But 13-year-old black or Latina girls from poor neighborhoods vanish all the time, and the pimps are among the few people who show any interest.

These domestic girls are often runaways or those called “throwaways” by social workers: teenagers who fight with their parents and are then kicked out of the home. These girls tend to be much younger than the women trafficked from abroad and, as best I can tell, are more likely to be controlled by force.

Pimps are not the business partners they purport to be. They typically take every penny the girls earn. They work the girls seven nights a week. They sometimes tattoo their girls the way ranchers brand their cattle, and they back up their business model with fists and threats.

“If you don’t earn enough money, you get beat,” said Jasmine, an African-American who has turned her life around with the help of Covenant House, an organization that works with children on the street. “If you say something you’re not supposed to, you get beat. If you stay too long with a customer, you get beat. And if you try to leave the pimp, you get beat.”

The business model of pimping is remarkably similar whether in Atlanta or Calcutta: take vulnerable, disposable girls whom nobody cares about, use a mix of “friendship,” humiliation, beatings, narcotics and threats to break the girls and induce 100 percent compliance, and then rent out their body parts.

It’s not solely violence that keeps the girls working for their pimps. Jasmine fled an abusive home at age 13, and she said she — like most girls — stayed with the pimp mostly because of his emotional manipulation. “I thought he loved me, so I wanted to be around him,” she said.

That’s common. Girls who are starved of self-esteem finally meet a man who showers them with gifts, drugs and dollops of affection. That, and a lack of alternatives, keeps them working for him — and if that isn’t enough, he shoves a gun in the girl’s mouth and threatens to kill her.

Solutions are complicated and involve broader efforts to overcome urban poverty, including improving schools and attempting to shore up the family structure. But a first step is to stop treating these teenagers as criminals and focusing instead on arresting the pimps and the customers — and the corrupt cops.

“The problem isn’t the girls in the streets; it’s the men in the pews,” notes Stephanie Davis, who has worked with Mayor Shirley Franklin to help coordinate a campaign to get teenage prostitutes off the streets.

Two amiable teenage prostitutes, working without a pimp for the “fast money,” told me that there will always be women and girls selling sex voluntarily. They’re probably right. But we can significantly reduce the number of 14-year-old girls who are terrorized by pimps and raped by many men seven nights a week. That’s doable, if it’s a national priority, if we’re willing to create the equivalent of a nationwide amber alert.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/opinion/07kristof.html?ref=opinion

Posted by lois at 02:58 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2009

Judge orders changes in medication distribution at women's prison

Judge orders changes in medication distribution at women's prison
By John Diedrich of the Journal Sentinel
Apr. 24, 2009

A federal judge ruled Friday that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections must make changes to its inmate prescription system at Taycheedah Correctional Institution and hire licensed practical nurses to hand out drugs there, all within two months.

Chief U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa's order came in response to an American Civil Liberties Union motion for an injunction forcing the state to make changes.

The action is part of a federal class-action lawsuit the ACLU filed in 2006 on behalf of inmates at the state's largest women's prison.

The ACLU contends the state is violating the rights of Taycheedah prisoners by having guards without medical training dispense drugs to inmates, routinely resulting in the wrong medications or wrong dosages being given to inmates.

The state admits there are problems but says it is working to fix them. It argued that it has a plan to hire nursing assistants to hand out drugs and that the ACLU's timetable was unreasonable.

Randa disagreed, writing that "matters of administrative convenience must ultimately give way when constitutional rights are in jeopardy."

Randa ordered the state to draw up a plan to hire licensed practical nurses for Taycheedah within a week and have them in place in 60 days.

On the issue of computerizing the prescription system, Randa gave the state two months to take "interim steps" to improve drug distribution accuracy.

It's unclear what the financial effect of the changes will be or whether they could ultimately be applied at all Wisconsin prisons.

Department of Corrections spokesman John Dipko said he did not know how many nurses would be hired or how much it would cost. In 2006, the department estimated it would cost $5.2 million a year to have 102 nurses dispense medication at all state prisons. Randa's order pertains to only Taycheedah, but Dipko said the agency is "always looking at making improvements" to all institutions.

Dipko said agency officials had not determined whether they will appeal the order, but even if they do, they will comply with the order in the meantime.

Larry Dupuis, legal director for the ACLU of Wisconsin, said, "Judge Randa has taken a huge step toward alleviating the needless pain and suffering caused by Taycheedah's failed medication system."

The ACLU's lawsuit, which addresses medical, mental health and dental care at the prison, is separate from an agreement reached between the state and U.S. Department of Justice last year over mental health care at Taycheedah.

The state promised to make wide-ranging mental health improvements at the prison. The agreement was struck under the threat of a lawsuit by the federal government against the state, which according to a federal complaint, has shown "deliberate indifference" to the mental health needs of Taycheedah inmates. A lawsuit is still possible if the state doesn't live up to the agreement.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/43627792.html

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

April 20, 2009

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)

April 12, 2009

National support sought for Sign-on to support NY's Anti-Shackling Bill

Sign-on to support NY's Anti-Shackling Bill
Letter of Support for A.3373-A
National support is sought for this Bill. You can sign-on individually or as an organization by contacting Tina Reynolds. Contact info at the bottom of this email.

National support is being sought to sign-on please contact Tina Reynolds

Please join the Correctional Association of New York, the New York Civil Liberties Union, Legal Aid Society's Prisoners' Rights Project and Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH) in calling on New York State lawmakers to end to the degrading, unnecessary and dangerous practice of shackling incarcerated pregnant women.

http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5765/images/Shackling_Bill_A3373A.pdf (copy of the bill)
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5765/images/Shackling_Bill_FINAL.pdf (sign on letter)

Here is an Anti-Shackling Bill sign-on letter in support of A.3373-A, which forbids the use of restraints on incarcerated women during labor and post-delivery recovery, and restricts the use of restraints during transport to and from the hospital before and after child birth.

Sponsored by Assemblymember N. Nick Perry, Assembly Majority Whip, A.3373-A has been voted out of all necessary Committees and is likely to come to the Assembly floor for a full vote very soon. Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Chair of the Social Services, Children and Families Committee, plans to introduce the same bill in the Senate during this legislative session.

If you would like to add your name or your organization's name, please email Tina Reynolds, Executive Director of WORTH and Co-Chair of the Coalition's Incarcerated Mothers Committee, by FRIDAY, MAY 1: treynolds@womenontherise-worth.org.

Thank you,

Tamar Kraft-Stolar
Women in Prison Project Director
Correctional Association of New York
2090 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, Ste 200
New York, NY 10027
www.correctionalassociation.org

Posted by lois at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2009

AL: First Federal Prison for Women Touted as Boost for Economy

Groundbreaking set for Alabama's first federal women's prison
Posted by Tom Gordon --
Birmingham News April 06, 2009

Groundbreaking is scheduled Wednesday at the west Alabama site of what will be the state's first all-female federal prison.
The facility will be on 120 acres of a 650-acre site in southwest Pickens County, about 2.5 miles north of Aliceville on Alabama 14.

State Rep. Alan Harper, Aliceville's director of economic development, said the new prison will be part of the Federal Correctional Complex Aliceville. It will house 1,300 medium-security inmates, have 350 employees, and should open in 2011.

Harper said construction should cost about $185 million and should involve 500 to 600 workers on site. The project will be a joint venture between two construction companies: Caddell of Montgomery and W.G. Yates & Sons of Philadelphia, Ms. Local officials are hoping other prisons will added on the property over the next 10 years.

"A complex consists of usually three or more facilities," Harper said. "We expect that hopefully over the next 10-year period, we will see two more correctional facilities built on the site."

Harper said the project should be an economic boost for Pickens County, bringing in new residents and spurring the building of homes, hotels, restaurants and service stations. After the prison is completed, Aliceville plans to annex the site, he added.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/04/groundbreaking_set_for_alabama.html

Posted by lois at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2009

"How PersonhoodUSA Will Hurt All Pregnant Women" and Do People Who Support "Traditional Values" Value Pregnant Women? by Lynn Paltrow of Nationa Advocates for Pregnant Women

Please read Lynn's articles on Personhood and watch Dr. Deborah Frank debunk the mythology of "crack babies"

"How PersonhoodUSA Will Hurt All Pregnant Women"
by Lynn Paltrow
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynn-m-paltrow/how-personhoodusa-and-the_b_176530.html
March 24, 2009

PersonhoodUSA apparently sees itself as the new, hipper, more effective incarnation of the anti-abortion movement. PersonhoodUSA hopes that by establishing the "pre-born, as legal persons with protection under the law" it will end the "injustice of abortion." Its attempt to do this last November through a "personhood" ballot measure in Colorado's failed miserably. Nevertheless, PersonhoodUSA, is committed to "working tirelessly to establish personhood in every State."

What supporters of this approach don't mention is that if the unborn have legal personhood rights, pregnant women won't. There is really no way around this. As National Advocates for Pregnant Women's video demonstrates, if successful, this strategy will mean that upon become pregnant, women will lose their civil and human rights.

As Angela Carder learned it is not just life vs. choice - but life vs. life. Angela Carder, 25 weeks pregnant, was critically ill. More than anything, she wanted to live. A court, however, ordered cesarean surgery based on claims of fetal rights. The surgery was performed over her objections as well as those of her physicians and family. Angela Carder died two days later - the cesarean surgery listed as a contributing factor. The fetus was born alive but died within two hours.

PersonhoodUSA doesn't address how personhood laws will affect women like Ms. Carder and others who have no intention of ending a pregnancy. Perhaps this is why legislators in at least five states have introduced bills that carry their message and several more are working on ballot measures like the one in Colorado.

In fact, North Dakota's house recently passed a personhood bill that would require the state to interpret all of the state's laws to apply to "any organism with the genome of homo sapiens" including a fertilized egg. In addition to inviting such facetious Onion-like headlines as "North Dakota House Passes 'Homo' Rights Law, this bill creates the basis for policing all pregnant women.

Upon becoming pregnant, women would lose their right to medical privacy, since under North Dakota law doctors are required to report to child welfare authorities whenever they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child (an organism) is abused or neglected. Accordingly, if this bill passes, pregnant women in North Dakota who are obese, have diabetes, or smoke should probably report directly to child welfare authorities - or perhaps some new agency, such as the Department of Organism Protection.

Indeed, a recent horrifying incident in California could become commonplace in North Dakota. A pregnant woman in California experienced a miscarriage at one-month gestation. Her doctor advised her to preserve the embryonic tissue in the freezer until she and her husband decided whether to request genetic testing or to take the remains to a mortuary. When they decided against testing, they called a mortuary. They were asked for a death certificate and were directed to the County Coroner to obtain one. The Coroner instructed them to call the police. When they complied, the police heard the words "human remains" and responded by descending on their home, entering without a warrant, and searching for what they assumed was the evidence of a crime against a person.

While the California case reflects miscommunication, families that experience miscarriages would have to expect such intrusions in states that pass personhood laws. Similarly pregnant women who miss prenatal care appointments, don't take prenatal vitamins, or drink any amount of alcohol could be deemed abusive under criminal child [organism] abuse and endangerment laws. Personhood laws would also provide the basis for prosecuting women for murder, manslaughter, or negligent homicide if they suffered miscarriages or stillbirths.

In fact states with these laws would look a lot like South Carolina, the only state that has, by judicial fiat, effectively adopted a personhood law. More than 90 pregnant women and new mothers have been arrested there based on fetal personhood claims. Recently, a pregnant woman in South Carolina fell from a 5th floor window. The press reported this incident as a suicide attempt. She survived but suffered a stillbirth as a result of the fall. Last month she was arrested on charges of homicide by child abuse and is still being held without bail.

PersonhoodUSA asserts that "each and every human being must be respected and protected from fertilization until natural death." Their legislation, however, would have the effect of excluding pregnant women from this protection. People committed to a true culture of life need to oppose their legislative proposals, supporting instead ones that include the interests of the women who give that life.

Lynn M. Paltrow
March 30, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lynn-m-paltrow/do-people-who-support-tra_b_180946.html
Do People Who Support "Traditional Values" Value Pregnant Women?

I have to thank Andrea Lafferty, of the Traditional Values Coalition for her response to a piece I wrote opposing Personhood USA's efforts to give full constitutional rights to the unborn from the moment of fertilization. In her commentary she hopes to discredit my organization, National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) by exposing our commitment to all pregnant women, including those who love their children but are unable to overcome a drug problem in the short term of pregnancy.

Ms. Lafferty argues that NAPW has an "extremist agenda." Specifically she highlights the fact that NAPW "defends drug-addicted women from prosecutions for endangering their unborn babies." Indeed we do, and at least for one reason we would have thought Ms. Lafferty and her Coalition, would approve of: because threatening pregnant women with prosecution creates an incentive for them to have abortions.

Given how hard it is for most people to overcome an addiction problem quickly (just ask Rush Limbaugh) as well as the difficulty of obtaining appropriate treatment (especially for pregnant and parenting women), laws that threaten to punish women who carry their pregnancies to term in spite of a drug problem place substantial pressure on them to get unwanted abortions.

In fact, this kind of prosecution in North Dakota (one of the states where a personhood bill has been introduced) compelled a pregnant woman to have an abortion. In 1992 Martina Greywind, who was approximately twelve weeks pregnant, was arrested. She was charged with reckless endangerment based on the claim that by inhaling paint fumes, she was creating a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death to a "person" -- her "unborn child." After her arrest, a lawyer for the anti-abortion group Lambs of Christ filed a petition seeking to have the woman's brother, Ken Greywind, appointed her legal guardian. Mr. Greywind explained in court papers "I believe she is contemplating an abortion in order to have the charge of reckless endangerment dismissed."

Ms. Greywind did obtain an abortion. And indeed, the prosecutor dropped the charges citing the fact that she had "terminated her pregnancy."

We admit it. NAPW opposes laws that create an incentive for women to terminate otherwise wanted pregnancies. We would hope that such opposition would provide common ground for NAPW, Ms. Lafferty and her organization.

We would also hope that we could work together to spread the good news about these mothers and their children. Ms. Lafferty says in her comments about NAPW that we defend mothers who "are addicting their unborn babies and subjecting them to extreme risks of mental retardation or death." Ms. Lafferty, like many people, believes that a pregnant woman who uses any amount of an illegal drug - and crack cocaine in particular -- will inevitably harm her "unborn child."

For nearly two decades, the popular press was filled with inaccurate information about the effects of in utero cocaine exposure. Media hype, however, is not the same as scientific evidence. In 2004 leading researchers in the field of prenatal exposure to drugs signed an open letter explaining that these women are not "addicting" their "unborn babies." "Addiction" they wrote "is a technical term that refers to compulsive behavior that continues in spite of adverse consequences. By definition, babies cannot be 'addicted' to crack or anything else."

Moreover, these experts as well as federal courts and leading federal government agencies now confirm that "the phenomena of "'crack babies' . . . is essentially a myth." As the National Institute for Drug Abuse has reported, "Many recall that 'crack babies,' or babies born to mothers who used crack cocaine while pregnant, were at one time written off by many as a lost generation... It was later found that this was a gross exaggeration." And, as the U.S. Sentencing Commission has concluded, "[t]he negative effects of prenatal cocaine exposure are significantly less severe than previously believed" and those negative effects "do not differ from the effects of prenatal exposure to other drugs, both legal and illegal." Most recently the New York Times, relying on actual experts, including the pediatrician featured in this NAPW video, set the record straight with a story entitled "The Epidemic That Wasn't".

So instead of assuming the worst, we could join forces and together oppose punitive approaches that are known to encourage some women to have abortions, and to discourage many more from seeking prenatal care.

NAPW knows that there are not two kinds of women -- those who have abortions and those who have babies. Sixty-one percent of women who have abortions are already mothers, and another 24 percent will go on to become mothers. Over the course of their lives, 85 percent of all women bring life into this world. NAPW advocates for all of them. We don't expect Ms. Lafferty to join us in our work to ensure that women have access to safe legal abortion services, but we do hope she will support our efforts to ensure that women who do want to go to term aren't punished for doing so.

And watch the video.....If you have never had the opportunity to hear Dr. Deborah Frank speak this is it....

This video is based on a lecture that Dr. Deborah A. Frank, Pediatrician gave on February 11th 2009 at a continuing education program entitled Drugs, Pregnancy and Parenting: What the Experts in Medicine, Social Work and Law Have to Say.

Deborah Frank, M.D. is a Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine, where she has taught since 1981. She is also the Founder and Director of the Grow Clinic at Boston Medical Center, and Principal Investigator of the Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program ("C-SNAP"). C-SNAP's goal is to monitor the impact of policy changes on nutrition, growth and development of low-income children, ages 0-3 years. She also conducts research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and has given testimony to the United States and Massachusetts House and Senate.

Dr. Frank has written numerous peer-reviewed and published scientific articles and papers including, Deborah A. Frank et al., Maternal Cocaine Use: Impact on Child Health and Development, 40 Advances in Pediatrics 65 (1993). She is also the author of the seminal meta analysis published by The Journal of the American Medical Association (“JAMA”), one of the most distinguished peer-reviewed medical journals in the United States. This comprehensive, systematic, and authoritative analysis of the medical research assessing the relationship between maternal cocaine use during pregnancy and adverse developmental consequences for the fetus and child concluded that:

"[T]here is no convincing evidence that prenatal cocaine exposure is associated with any developmental toxicity difference in severity, scope, or kind from the sequelae of many other risk factors. Many findings once thought to be specific findings of in utero cocaine exposure can be explained in whole or in part by other factors, including prenatal exposure to tobacco, marijuana, or alcohol and the quality of the child’s environment."

Here is the URL for the video http://www.vimeo.com/3916613

Posted by lois at 10:11 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 28, 2009

SF: EVENT TO SHED LIGHT ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS IN CALIFORNIA'S PRISONS

SF: EVENT TO SHED LIGHT ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS IN CALIFORNIA'S PRISONS
March 27, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

A group of formerly incarcerated battered women will gather Saturday in San Francisco to call for more survivors of domestic violence to be freed from California's prisons.

Organizers hope to shed light on some cases where women were convicted of killing their abusers and served decades in prison before being paroled, or are still incarcerated.

"First, our communities failed to protect them and their children from their abusers' violence, and then failed to consider how the abuse they experienced related to the crime," said Emily Harris of the advocacy group Free Battered Women.

"They're not a threat to society, and they're one of many populations the governor could be looking at as a way of alleviating prison overcrowding," said Harris.

She also argued the move would save the state much-needed money.

Recent laws in California have allowed women incarcerated for killing their abusers to challenge their sentences, using evidence about the effects of domestic abuse.

According to Harris, of the approximately 11,000 women in prison in California, 80 percent have said they've experienced some kind of abuse either as children or adults, and 60 percent have reported physical abuse as adults, primarily from their spouses or domestic partners.

Of that 60 percent, hundreds are in prison for killing their spouses or domestic partners, as an act of defense either of themselves or their children, Harris maintained.

Saturday's event will feature 15 women who will speak about their experiences, read poetry, and discuss pending cases. It begins at 4 p.m. at the Women's Building at 3543 18th St.
http://cbs5.com/localwire/22.0.html?type=bcn&item=SF-BATTERED-WOMEN-bagm-#

Posted by lois at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

March 27, 2009

FL:Woman joins sex-offender group living under Julia Tuttle Causeway

Mar. 23, 2009
Woman joins sex-offender group living under Julia Tuttle Causeway
By FRED GRIMM. Miami Herald
It's as if Voncel Johnson has been thrust into a bizarre social experiment.

Forcing so many men to live like post-apocalyptic trolls beneath a bridge in the middle of Biscayne Bay wasn't quite mad enough. Now they've added a woman.

For two years, a colony of convicted sex offenders under the Julia Tuttle Causeway has lived in a public health travesty, without water or toilets or electrical service. They sleep in tents, shacks, the back seats of cars in the last realistic address in metropolitan Miami unaffected by city and county sex-offender residency laws.

The numbers have been growing steadily as more convicted sex offenders emerge from prison and are consigned to finish out their wretched lives under a bridge.

The population was up to 52 men Monday. And Voncel Johnson.

GENDER EQUITY

In a peculiar nod to gender equity, the Florida Department of Corrections informed her last week that she too had only one residency option in Miami-Dade County -- the Tuttle. ''They just give me a blanket and a pillow and sent me . . . here?'' she asked, talking over the incessant thump-thump-thump of the freeway traffic overhead. ``I just broke down.''

A community backward enough to create a subterranean de-facto prison camp of male sex offenders thrusts a single woman into the mix -- just to see what happens.

It's an ironic setting for Voncel Johnson. The 43-year-old woman, who grew up in poverty and neglect in the Brownsville section of Miami, told me she was sexually molested at age 6 and gang-raped at 16. ''I have a hard time trusting men,'' she said.

In 2004, Johnson pleaded guilty to a charge of lewd and lascivious exhibition (without physical contact) with a minor. She claimed Monday the charge was unfounded but at the time a plea offer with one year probation and no prison time seemed prudent. Except she twice failed to meet sex-offender registration requirements. Her probation was revoked. She did 10 months at Broward Correctional Institute.

COMMON REFRAIN

She repeated a common refrain -- sometimes delusional -- among the bridge outcasts. ``I never would have done that plea deal if I'd known they'd send me here. I could've fought those charges.''

But offender laws leave the state Department of Corrections no options for a sex offender. Voncel Johnson's parole officer did find her a motel room for three days last week. And she was offered a slot in a residential offender program in another county. But Johnson refused to leave Miami. ``All my family lives here. I've never been any place but Miami.''

It was probably a foolish decision, but Johnson harbors some vague notion about gutting it out beneath the Tuttle until her parole ends May 5. ''Then I can find some place to live.'' She seems unable to grasp that residency restrictions are forever.

Meanwhile, the men beneath the Tuttle gave her a battered old camper trailer. ''We watch out for her,'' insisted Juan Carlos Martin, who has been under the bridge so long that the address on his driver's license reads ''Julia Tuttle Causeway Bridge.'' He said it was as if city, county and state officials purposely cram more and more men into an unliveable, hopeless, crowded space, knowing that eventually something awful might happen. And now they add a woman.

Martin said, ``They need to get her out of here.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/fred-grimm/story/964528.html

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

March 26, 2009

OT: Legislative Bureau Audit Finds Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners Inadequate for Women Especially

Audit finds problems with mentally ill inmates
By SCOTT BAUER | Associated Press Writer
March 25, 2009
Chicago Tribune
MADISON, Wis. - At a time when Wisconsin is taking steps to avoid a federal lawsuit over its handling of mentally ill inmates, an audit released Wednesday identified even more improvements needed in the prison system.

The Legislative Audit Bureau's recommendations include better screening of incoming inmates, enhanced training for corrections officers who deal with mentally ill inmates and improved planning for when they are released.

Department of Corrections spokesman John Dipko said the department would implement all of the audit's recommendations.

Corrections Secretary Rick Raemisch said in a letter to auditors that his department faces significant challenges. Providing effective treatment in prison required prioritizing needs, using resources wisely, and emphasizing rehabilitation and treatment, he said.

Legislative Audit Committee Co-Chair Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, called the report disturbing.

"Mental illness can be managed," she said. "But the audit provides evidence this is not happening to the extent it should."

Wisconsin's mentally ill inmate population has been booming. While the total inmate population increased 3.9 percent between 2006 and 2008, the percentage of mentally ill inmates went up 14.3 percent. Last June, nearly 31 percent of the state's 22,451 inmates were identified as mentally ill.

The state's care of mentally ill female inmates has been a problem for years.

In 2006, the U.S. Justice Department declared the lack of mental health care at Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac, the state's largest women's prison, violated inmates' constitutional rights. The state agreed in September to make improvements to avoid a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit.

Federal investigators who toured Taycheedah in 2005 found mentally ill inmates locked in isolation cells and given psychotropic drugs without a doctor's supervision.

Under the agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, state corrections officials have up to four years to make improvements or face a lawsuit.

The state committed to building an $11 million, 45-bed addition for mentally ill women at the Wisconsin Resource Center in Winnebago. It is scheduled to be done in 2011.

The Department of Corrections has requested $7.6 million to build more treatment space at Taycheedah. Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed budget requests 149 more positions and $6.6 million to operate the addition at the Wisconsin Resource Center and to provide more services at Taycheedah.

The audit showed that the state spent nearly $60 million on mentally ill inmates in the 2007 fiscal year.

Among the report's findings:

-- The prisons don't have enough psychiatrists or psychologists to meet national standards.

-- Group and individual therapy is limited, although psychologists do monitor mentally ill inmates on a regular basis.

-- Correctional officers deliver most medications. In neighboring states, medical staff deliver most drugs.

-- Clearer policies, more centralized decision-making, and more detailed record-keeping could ensure the Wisconsin Resource Center runs more efficiently.

-- Mentally ill inmates accounted for more than 90 percent of special placements due to self-harm between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2008. Those placements require prison workers to check on inmates every 15 minutes.

-- Mentally ill inmates accounted for nearly 80 percent of assaults on staff in the past three years. Those assaults resulted in $874,200 in worker's compensation awards to staff in that time.

-- The Department of Corrections could strengthen its policies to ensure inmates receive disability and medical benefits in a timely way after leaving prison.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-inmatementalhealt,0,1483471.story

Posted by lois at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2009

"Resistance Behind Bars- The Struggles of Incercerated Women" by Vikki Law

I just finished reading "Resistance Behind Bars" written by Vikki Law. In case you don't know about it or haven't had the chance to I recommend you buy a copy and read it.
I will quote a little from the introduction in which Vikki writes about her response to the comment: "Women (in prison) don't organize."
"I began to search for stories---and women--who would disprove this assertion. I found mentions of lawsuits, and using various state department of corrections' websites looked up their address addresses and wrote them letters asking if they would share their experiences with me." And "To ensure that I was representing their struggles accurately and to give them the opportunity to add, update or delete any of the tales they do not want to share with the public, I sent each woman draft after draft of the chapters her voice and experience(s) appeared in. "
The voices of women form form the majority of the book which took 8 years to complete. The chapters reflect the concerns of the women with whom Vikki corresponded and include Barriers to Basic Care, Mothers and Children, Sexual Abuse,Education, Women's Work, Grievances, lawsuits and the Power of the Media. Other chapters focus on Breaking the Silence, Resistance Among Women in Immigrant Detention and an Historical Background.
The book is written in plain English. It frames resistance by women very differently than the kinds of resistance by men prisoners which has come to define "resistance."
The book is published by PM Press and you can order a copy on-line (https://secure.pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=91) or I am sure your local bookstore can order it for you.

Posted by lois at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2009

Washington Governor Proposes Early Release Of Some Women Prisoners

Washington Governor Proposes Early Release Of Some Inmates
BY AUSTIN JENKINS
Olympia, WA March 23, 2009 3:28 p.m.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire is proposing the early release of some inmates to help balance the state budget. Specifically, the Governor floated the idea today [Monday] of releasing lower-risk female inmates whose children are in foster care.

Chris Gregoire: “Where we’re spending multiple dollars to care for the children and care for the individual when if the person was out we could get that type of typically alcohol and drug treatment in the community and have the family reunited and have very little risk in terms of public safety to the community.”

Gregoire offered few details on the number of women who might be eligible for early release – or how much it might save the state.

Women make up about 8 percent of the prison population. Most are non-violent and an estimated three-quarters of them have children.

Lawmakers are currently crafting a new two-year budget that aims to close a $9 billion shortfall.
http://news.opb.org/article/4580-washington-governor-proposes-early-release-some-inmates/

Posted by lois at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

March 17, 2009

OR: State may need to use jail to imprison women as a result of Measure 57

State wants to send female inmates to Wapato jail
by Edward Walsh, The Oregonian
Sunday March 15, 2009, 9:03 PM

The long-shuttered Wapato jail may finally open to house female prison inmates, whose numbers are expected to surge in the coming years, under a proposal being discussed between the state Department of Corrections and Multnomah County.

Corrections Department Director Max Williams made the proposal at a recent meeting with County Commission Chairman Ted Wheeler.

Under the plan, the state would pay the county about $4 million during the next two years to take over responsibility for up to 200 female inmates from the Portland area who are within a year of being released.

A promise to open Wapato was a key part of Wheeler's successful 2006 election campaign. Peter Ozanne, the county's deputy chief operating officer for public safety, said county officials are "very interested" in Williams' proposal.

The use of part of the 525-bed Wapato jail would provide a short-term solution to a looming problem for the state prison system. The only women's prison in Oregon is Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville.

Coffee Creek has 1,240 beds and housed 1,096 female inmates as of last week, according to the state. The DOC forecasts that 345 female inmates will enter the prison system during the 2009-11 budget cycle, 281 of them sentenced under the terms of Measure 57.

Measure 57, which Oregon voters passed in November, lengthened sentences for repeat drug and property crimes and required drug and alcohol treatment for offenders.

Crimes covered by Measure 57 include dealing methamphetamine, heroin or cocaine, aggravated theft from the elderly, property crimes such as burglary and auto theft, and identify theft. Almost half of those convicted of ID theft are women.

The use of Wapato jail to house state female inmates would relieve a nagging, five-year headache for Multnomah County. The empty jail in th