Cutting $$ Out of California’s Prisons – The Real Numbers

July 31st, 2009 by Celeste Fremon

There was much quarreling in the past two weeks about the proposed $1.2 billion dollars that is slated to come out of California’s corrections budget. The implication has been that the proposed cuts would drastically impair public safety, triggering a virtual crime wave.

The fighting has amped up considerably in the wake of the murder of Lily Burk.

First of all, what many people may not realize is that, at this point, the argument is no longer about if that $1.2 billion will be cut. That number is part of the budget that the governor signed yesterday.

The question at hand is what will be cut from where-–all of which will not be decided until the legislature returns in mid-to-late August.

Earlier in the week, I spent an hour on the phone with the California legislative analyst’s office talking about the latest corrections cuts proposal—and what it means.

(A copy of the broad strokes of the suggested cuts may be found after the jump).

It was an instructive conversation. For one thing, analyst Paul Golaszewski told me that while there is some talk of early release for certain inmates under certain prescribed circumstances, no one is talking about releasing 27,000 prisoners. “We never saw a proposal like that,” he said. “Nothing even close.”

In other words, there will be no inmate dump, okay? So let us stop talking in those terms, shall we?

(I noted that Ron Kaye was still marching out the 27,000 figure as recently as yesterday. He did it, as many have done this week, in reference to the alleged murderer of Lily Burk, Charlie Samuel:

“Well, there are going to be 27,000 just like him!” announced Kaye. “[Samuel] is someone who shot, kidnapped and…” And Kaye’s fact-free recitation went on from there.

Instead, why don’t we look at what is actually is on the table.

PART I – REDUCING THE ADP

One of the lynch pins of the governor’s proposed CDCR budget cuts, has to do with reducing by 19,000 inmates what is called the ADP—or average daily population. This will supposedly produced a savings of $400,000—or around $21,000 per person per year.

(Whether that savings is close to accurate is something that has been convincingly questioned by my former prison warden friend, David Winett. But we’ll yank apart the numbers on another day.)

Again—and I want to make sure this is clear—that does NOT mean that 19,000 people will be slated for early release.

Instead, the governor hopes to make that population reduction in the following ways:

1. ADP reduction strategy #1: changing certain property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors.

These felony-to-misdemeanor reductions would include things like writing bad checks, and receiving stolen goods. The point is, as misdemeanors they would be punished by jail time and/or probation instead of swelling the prison population. (You can see the entire list below.)

This part of the strategy doesn’t mean letting people out. It means not putting them in prison in the first place—yet still demanding that they be sanctioned for their actions.

2. ADP reduction strategy #2 – Using “alternative custody options” for lower-risk offenders.

Okay, here’s where the early release piece of the puzzle kicks in.

The governor would like to make certain inmates eligible to serve the last 12 months of their sentence under house arrest with GPS monitoring. The prisoners who might qualify are those low-level offenders with 12 months or less left on their sentence, elderly inmates, and very, very sick inmates.

However the proposal stipulates that the inmates would be chosen only with input from law enforcement, victims groups and other concerned citizens.

Yes, this means that certain people would get months, or even a year, shaved off of their sentences. But, instead of being warehoused in an overcrowded, violent facility that offers little opportunity to better oneself and every possibility of becoming further criminalized, with GPS monitoring and many of these inmates would be eligible to receive drug treatment and other services or training programs, that might better help them to succeed on the outside and not return to prison. Remember, all these people—every single one— will be getting out in 12 months or less anyway. Would you rather they were released from supervision in slightly better shape than when they went in? Or only further damaged—and then dumped in the community with zero preparation or transitional supervision? Just a question.

FYI: had the alleged killer of Lily Burk been released early from prison under such a program (Which he wasn’t. He served 80 percent of his sentence for petty burglary as is required for second time offenders) that means he would have had on a GPS ankle bracelet so that when he AWOLed from his “escort” last Friday, the guy who was to be with him during his afternoon away from the half way house where he was assigned by the court, the cops could have been immediately alerted and could have picked picked him up right away.

3. ADP reduction strategy # 3 – Commutation of the sentences of “Select Deportable Criminal Aliens”

At his discretion, the governor can commute the sentences of undocumented prisoners who are going to be deported the minute they leave lock up anyway. That way they can be transferred forthwith to the Feds who will deport them to their country of origin and we can stop paying the tens of thousands of dollars to act as their hoteliers. (The Lege Analyst told me that it costs either $49,000 or $23,000 a year to house one of our prisoners—depending upon what expenses you count when you do the math. Don’t ask. It’s way too confusing.)

Again, the only people eligible for this commutation thing will be low level, nonviolent offenders. The petty drug dealer/user guys and the like. Anybody who has committed a serious crime will stay put.

PART 2: THE REST….

There are a number of other parts to the plan.

1. One of them is reducing the number of people on parole by focusing on higher risk people, and increasing those parolee’s supervision by lessening caseloads for parole officers. This is basically a good idea that those who have studied California parole structure have long recommended. Instituting it now will cut the budget and also mean closer supervision for the high risk people who need it most.

2. The worst of new cuts is the proposal to snip out nearly all non-court-ordered rehabilitative programs from the prisons—such as substance abuse counseling, vocational training, and educational programs—for a savings of $175 million.

While there are some vague notes about replacing these programs with “distance learning” and “inmate tutors.” this part of the budget cutting would seem to be penny wise and pound foolish in the extreme. With a 67 percent recidivism rate in the state, yanking the only programs that give people a shot at being better prepared to succeed in the non prison wold would seem….not smart. Better to cut anything else, and beef those up so that the people whom you parole every day, week month, year, are at least slightly less likely to return. If we want to cut the prison population, instituting proven methods to slow down the revolving door would seem like the best, the safest and most cost effective way to do so.

So take a look. This is only the beginning of the discussion. We will surely not agree about everything.

But as those who knew her continue to cope with the heartbreak of Lily Burk’s murder—-and the rest of use read of the other horror of the week: the beating death of six-year old Dae’von Bailey, allegedly by his step-father—it would be a good thing if the pain of both those tragedies served to push us beyond our entrenched positions and knee-jerk political biases in order to engage in a reasoned discussion for the good of our troubled state.

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HERE’S THE OFFICIAL PROPOSAL

Prison Population and Budget Reduction Package

July 2009

The Administration has proposed the following budget reduction package in response to the state’s fiscal crisis. It is estimated to save up to $1.2 billion if adopted by the Legislature in time to be fully implemented in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

New Population and Budget Reduction Proposals – The following proposals provide an outline for a new administrative and legislative budget package designed to reduce population and associated costs depending on the details and timing of implementation. Through these proposals, the Administration aims to reduce Average Daily Population (ADP) by 19,000, and costs by an estimated $400 million:

• Adjusting Property Crime Thresholds and/or Changing Crimes to Misdemeanors: The Administration proposes to change four misdemeanor/felonies, or “wobblers,” punishable by either imprisonment in state prison or in county jail, to straight misdemeanors. These crimes include two types of petty theft, receiving stolen property and writing bad checks. In addition, the Administration proposes updating the monetary threshold that determines whether the crime is a misdemeanor or felony from $400 to $2,500. For vehicle theft where there is no monetary threshold specified a $2,500 threshold would be added. A summary of changes:

o Writing Bad Checks.

o Petty theft crimes (currently punishable as a felony if the person has a prior petty theft conviction; proposal would make all petty thefts punishable as misdemeanors).

o Receiving stolen property crimes.

o Grand theft crimes raised to $2,500. Vehicle theft crimes establish $2,500 threshold.

• Alternative Custody Options for Lower-Risk Offenders*: The Administration proposes alternative custody options for lower-risk offenders to reduce costs and strain on the state prison system. Certain offenders would be eligible to serve the last 12 months of their sentence under house arrest with GPS monitoring. House arrest may include placement in a residence, local program, hospital or treatment center. Detailed criteria will be established through the regulatory process, thereby taking full advantage of input by law enforcement, victims groups and other concerned citizens. Statutorily eligible inmates include:

o Inmates with 12 months or less remaining to serve
o Elderly inmates
o Medically infirm inmates

• Commutation of Select Deportable Criminal Aliens: The California Constitution provides the Governor the authority to commute prison sentences. For inmates who have been convicted of two or more felonies, the Governor’s commutation must be supported by the California Supreme Court. This plan involves those inmates who are currently serving prison sentences but who have been identified by federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials for deportation from the United States upon their release from state prison. If their sentences were commuted, these inmates would be taken into federal custody to be deported to their country of origin. The Governor and Secretary would review these on a case-by-case basis starting with lowest level offenders. The first group to be considered will by those inmates who have never committed a violent or sex offense and who have only felony in their entire adult criminal history.

Program Funding Reduction – The Administration is proposing to eliminate funding for some inmate and parole programs that are not court-ordered. These proposals are estimated to reduce costs by over $175 million. Impacted programs include a range of rehabilitative services, such as substance abuse counseling, vocational training, and educational programs. However, the Department is taking several innovative approaches to mitigate the reduction in funding. For example, CDCR will utilize a validated risk/needs assessment tool to focus resources on the inmates with the greatest risk to recidivate. This tool will also allow CDCR to place the right inmate in the needed program for only the prescribed period of time. In addition, CDCR will utilize distance learning, inmate tutors and fully-licensed inmate substance abuse counselors to greatly reduce the cost of providing education and substance abuse counseling.

Previous Budget Reduction Proposals – In April CDCR developed legislative proposals to address an unallocated cut to the agency budget ordered in the 2009-10 Budget Act. They could reduce CDCR’s Average Daily Population by 8,000 inmates through a shift of funds from parole supervision of low level offenders to those who are serious and violent, and other cost savings. The combination of the following general components are estimated to result in $410 million in savings in 2009-10.

• Risk-Based Parole Supervision and Lower Agent Caseloads*: Active parole supervision would be targeted to offenders with a serious or violent commitment history, sex offenders, and those assessed as high risk. The remaining offenders, largely low and moderate risk, nonviolent felons, would be placed on administrative or “banked” parole, but would continue to be subject to warrantless search and seizure by local police . CDCR will reduce parole caseload ratios from 70-1 to 45-1. This will improve supervision and services for those with the highest risk of reoffending. There will also be additional parole resources directed toward Fugitive Apprehension Teams and gang suppression units, and an increase of GPS units on high risk parolees in order to increase supervision.

• Staff Efficiencies through Elimination of Positions at DJJ and Headquarters: The Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) will streamline and eliminate positions in 2009-10, with a comprehensive staffing analysis expected to allow for the elimination of more positions in coming budget years. Positions will also be reduced at CDCR headquarters in Sacramento through increasing efficiencies.

• Positive Behavior and Rehabilitation Program Credit Enhancements*: Inmates who participate in and complete rehabilitation programs such as GED, college degrees, and vocational training, will be allowed to earn additional sentence credits. Credits will also be increased for discipline-free time served in county jail, during parole violations, or while waiting for programs to become available.

• Using GPS as Alternative Sanction: Parolees who commit certain parole violations will be eligible for placement on GPS supervision as an alternative to returning them to prison.

Additional Operational Savings – In addition to the new and previous budget and population reduction plans, the Administration will ask CDCR to come up with $100 million in unspecified operational savings, along with $48 million in savings by eliminating the Special Repairs Budget, $20 million by shifting AB 900 funds to existing capital outlays and $50 million in reductions to the contract medical budget.

Source: WitnessLA.com

What We’re Left With

The Impact of California Budget Crisis on State Prisons

New America Media, Commentary, Michael Cabral, Posted: Jul 31, 2009

Editor’s note: Well-known at The Beat, a publication of writing and art from inside juvenile hall, for his penetrating insight, Michael Cabral, 22, responded to a request to write about the impact California’s budget crisis is having on its prisons. Cabral is serving time at the Salinas Valley State Prison.

Most prisoners are perpetually miserable. We’ve generally lived lives void of self-respect, first from the destructive forces of poverty, and now in the near-hopelessness of incarceration. I believe it’s what keeps us coming back to prison. Until recently, though, there had been at least a glimmer of hope for some inmates, and thus for the communities they inhabit (prison itself), as well as those they will eventually return to.

With rare insight and even rarer compassion, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) provided a small, but significant assortment of self-help programs, including: “Alternatives to Violence Project,” “Breaking Barriers,” “Epictetus Study Group,” “Alcoholics Anonymous” and “Narcotics Anonymous.” On the surface, each of these programs deals with a different specific issue, but at their core lies a common goal: to promote self-betterment, and through self-betterment, better communities, a better future. And — to the amazement of cynical disbelievers, including me, initially — they work.

It would take volumes to explain the profound effect such programs have already had on the entire lives of many inmates, not to mention the general morale of the wider prison population, program participants or not. I can, however, offer my own personal experience — a common one — as an example.

Earlier this year, I attended an “Alternatives to Violence Project” (AVP) program, a two-day, 20-hour workshop dedicated to community building that develops creative, non-violent alternatives to confrontation and other stressful situations, beginning with self-exploration, identifying internal indicators of what does and does not make one happy. There were about 20 other prisoners participating, one of whom (I’ll call him Joe) I had already had a confrontation with in the yard, where we had a heated exchange of words that was only broken up by mutual acquaintances. (After that, it was only by chance that we never came to blows.)

Fortunately, motivated by a genuine desire to rise above the prison madness, we were able to set aside our differences for the length of the workshop.

It wasn’t long into the course before Joe and I came face-to-face with some big issues relevant to the tension between us. In that first session, we dealt with such issues as racism (Joe is Black, I’m Mexican-American), prejudice (he’s a know-it-all, forty-year-old Muslim; I’m a cocky, 22-year-old who doesn’t believe in religion), pride (neither of us was willing to let the other “win”). We learned how counter-productive they all are.

Then, in a community-building exercise, Joe and I were paired up and given five minutes to tell each other things we enjoyed doing. In that time, we were only able to list three or four pastimes, because everything we listed progressed to a conversation about that which we had in common. We ended that first night with a laugh and a hug, and began the next morning the same way. Every time we see each other now, we hug, calling each other “my A.V.P. Brother.”

Now, six months later, the political solution to California’s budget crisis has eliminated all self-help programs behind the walls. First-time inmates are popping up regularly, impressionable youngsters with a year or so to serve. Without the support of any rehabilitative programs, prison for them will be less “Correction and Rehabilitation” and more “Corruption and Retaliation.”

Of course, a few of the “good guys” will try to lift their spirits, but an overwhelming number will be surrounded by company-seeking misery.

They’ll hear all about the system being out to get them, how their lives are ruined forever, how it would be pointless to parole and look for a decent job (or any job). Then, they’ll hear countless theories and strategies on how to become better, smarter criminals. Their environment will gradually break them down, and mold them into mindless — if not heartless — products of “the way life is” according to convict lore. Finally, they’ll rejoin society, never wanting to return to prison again, but knowing only how to do just that.

I saw Joe the other day. There was a fight in the dining hall. When the commotion settled, Joe and I made eye contact across the room. We smiled, glad that we weren’t involved. Then Joe frowned mournfully, nodded toward where the fight occurred, communicating this sad truth to me: “This is what we’re left with.”

But the sadder truth is that this is what our communities are left with.

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Source: New American Media

Arkansas prisons plan biometric checkpoints for guards

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Fingerprint scanners now keeping track of visitors to Arkansas state prisons will soon monitor the guards as well. The biometric devices, already installed at nine prisons across the state, are part of a renewed security push after two convicted murderers wearing guard uniforms walked out the front gate of one facility.

The agency also may install radio tags in identification badges, but officials acknowledge that securing the state’s 20 prisons remains the ultimate responsibility of the guards manning them.

“There’s always a human element,” prison spokeswoman Dina Tyler said.

Guard performance remains in question after a string of high-profile problems in the prison system.

State lawmakers have called for a subpoena-powered investigation into the prison system, though Gov. Mike Beebe has publicly backed its longtime director.

Benny Magness, chairman of the state Board of Correction, is scheduled to speak before a legislative panel today about the recent problems.

The fingerprint scanners will first be used on guards at the state’s Cummins Unit — where convicted murderers Calvin Adams and Jeffrey Grinder escaped in June. Video shows the men put on the uniforms in the prison library after a 6 p.m. head count and walked out of the prison unchallenged during a shift change. Police caught the two in New York four days later.

Tyler said officials plan to capture guards’ fingerprints for the Cummins scanners as soon as next week. She said officials plan to install similar scanners at the state’s Tucker Unit and its maximum-security portion in September.

The agency likely will need $500,000 to remodel existing prison entrances to accommodate the machines, Tyler said.

The state also hopes to receive another half-million dollar grant from the federal government to install a radio tag system at Cummins as well, Tyler said. A tag on an ID badge would activate when passing through a security checkpoint, allowing guards to see who should be holding the badge.

A computer screen would display “who it’s supposed to be and their picture,” Tyler said. “That would require the people who are monitoring to ensure that’s the right person, but that would be … a reinforcement. “

Such radio tags already are used in prisons across the country, Tyler said. However, she didn’t know of a prison using the tags to monitor their own staff.

Magness will appear today before a legislative panel that questioned prison Director Larry Norris in June. Rep. Steve Harrelson, the majority leader for the state House, said Wednesday that he was impressed with prison officials trying to implement the fingerprint scanning.

“Probably one of the toughest jobs that you can have is being the director of a state prison,” said Harrelson, D-Texarkana. “One of the things I’ve been impressed with is while we have several incidents that have been troubling, it’s probably about in line with what other states surrounding us have experienced. “

Harrelson, who supported lawmakers taking a closer look at the state prisons, said he didn’t know whether an outside investigation was warranted. However, Harrelson already had staffers put together a spreadsheet of prison problems and deaths reported in newspapers over the last six years. There were 94 total entries, ranging from suicides, beatings, deaths and escapes.

Source: AP

Number of Life Terms Hits Record

10% of US prisoners serving life-NY Times

Number of Life Terms Hits Record

Solomon Moore
The New York Times: July 22, 2009

Mary Thompson, an inmate at the California Institution for Women here, was convicted of two felonies for a robbery spree in which she threatened victims with a knife. Her third felony under California’s three-strikes law was the theft of three tracksuits to pay for her crack cocaine habit in 1982.

Like one out of five prisoners in California, and nearly 10 percent of all prisoners nationally in 2008, Ms. Thompson is serving a life sentence. She will be eligible for parole by 2020.

More prisoners today are serving life terms than ever before — 140,610 out of 2.3 million inmates being held in jails and prisons across the country — under tough mandatory minimum-sentencing laws and the declining use of parole for eligible convicts, according to a report released Wednesday by the Sentencing Project, a group that calls for the elimination of life sentences without parole. The report tracks the increase in life sentences from 1984, when the number of inmates serving life terms was 34,000.

Two-thirds of prisoners serving life sentences are Latino or black, the report found. In New York State, for example, 16.3 percent of prisoners serving life terms are white.

Although most people serving life terms were convicted of violent crimes, sentencing experts say there are many exceptions, like Norman Williams, 46, who served 13 years of a life sentence for stealing a floor jack out of a tow truck, a crime that was his third strike. He was released from Folsom State Prison in California in April after appealing his conviction on the grounds of insufficient counsel.

The rising number of inmates serving life terms is straining corrections budgets at a time when financially strapped states are struggling to cut costs. California’s prison system, the nation’s largest, with 170,000 inmates, also had the highest number of prisoners with life sentences, 34,164, or triple the number in 1992, the report found.

In four other states — Alabama, Massachusetts, Nevada and New York — at least one in six prisoners is serving a life term, according to the report.

The California prison system is in federal receivership for overcrowding and failing to provide adequate medical care to prisoners, many of whom are elderly and serving life terms.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week repeated his proposal to reduce the inmate population through a combination of early releases for nonviolent offenders, home monitoring for some parole violators and more lenient sentencing for some felonies. But there are no credible plans to increase the rate at which prisoners serving life sentences are granted parole.

“When California courts sentence somebody to life with parole, it turns out that’s not possible after all,” said Joan Petersilia, a Stanford law professor and an expert on parole policy. “Board of parole hearings almost never grant releases, and that’s the reason that California’s lifer population has grown out of proportion to other states.”

Margo Johnson, 48, also an inmate at the women’s prison here, has served 24 years of a life sentence for a 1984 murder. She has been recommended for release four times by the state parole board, but she said that Mr. Schwarzenegger had rejected the board’s recommendation each time.

“Sometimes I wonder, is it just a game they’re playing with me?” Ms. Johnson said.

Seven prison systems — Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and the federal penitentiary system — do not offer the possibility of parole to prisoners serving life terms.

That policy also extends to juveniles in Illinois, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. A total of 6,807 juveniles were serving life terms in 2008, 1,755 without the possibility of parole. California again led the nation in the number of juveniles serving life terms, with 2,623.

“The expansion of life sentences suggests that we’re rapidly losing faith in the rehabilitation model,” said Ashley Nellis, the report’s main author.

De Angelo McVay, 42, is serving a life term with no possibility of parole at the maximum security state prison in Lancaster, Calif., for his role in the kidnapping and torture of a man.

He said in an interview Wednesday that he had used his 10 years in prison to reform himself, taking ministry classes, participating in the prison chapel program, becoming vice chairman of his prison yard and avoiding behavioral demerits.

“I’m remorseful for what I did,” he said. “But I got no chance at parole, and I know guys who have committed killings and they have parole.”

Supporters of longer sentences for criminals, including victims rights organizations, prosecutors and police associations, often cite public safety, the deterrent effect of punishment and the need to remove criminals from society.

But the number of aging inmates serving life sentences has risen sharply as the sluggish economy has shrunk state budgets. By 2004, the number of inmates over 50 had nearly doubled from a decade earlier, to more than 20 percent, according to the report. Older inmates cost more because they have more health needs. California, for example, spends $98,000 to $138,000 a year on each prisoner over 50, compared with the national average of about $35,000 a year.

But Professor Petersilia said she was skeptical that economic arguments alone would persuade voters to treat inmates serving life terms — most of whom have committed violent felonies like murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery — with more leniency.

“All the public opinion polls say that everybody will reconsider sentencing for nonviolent offenders or drug offenders, but they’re not willing to do anything different for violent offenders,” Professor Petersilia. In fact, she added, polls show support for even harsher sentences for sex offenses and other violent crimes.

Burk Foster, a criminal justice professor at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan and an expert on the Louisiana penitentiary system, said the expansion of life sentences started at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the nation’s largest maximum penitentiary, in the early 1970s, when most people sentenced to life terms were paroled after they had been deemed fit to re-enter society.

“Angola was a prototype of a lifer’s prison,” said Professor Foster. “In 1973, Louisiana changed its life sentencing law so that lifers would no longer be parole eligible, and they applied that law more broadly over time to include murder, rape, kidnapping, distribution of narcotics and habitual offenders.”

Professor Foster said sentencing more prisoners to life sentences was an abandonment of the “corrective” function of prisons.

“Rehabilitation is not an issue at Angola,” he said. “They’re just practicing lifetime isolation and incapacitation.”

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Source: http://facthai.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/10-of-us-prisoners-serving-life-ny-times/

Just A Guy: The laws are wrong

Prison report: The laws are wrong

Editors note: Just A Guy is an inmate in a California state prison. His blogs typically run on Mondays and Thursdays, although it’s sometimes hard to communicate from prison.

By Just A Guy

Today Brett Pedroia, the brother of Boston Red Sox all-star Dustin Pedroia, received one year in jail and eight years probation for the molestation of a nine-year-old boy.

Last month, Dante Stallworth received 30 days in jail, community service, and probation for killing a man inFlorida while driving while intoxicated.

And here I sit, among many others, serving multiple years in prison for possession of a controlled substance — which is a victimless crime. Yes, I know that friends and family get hurt by our behavior if we’re addicts, but let’s face it – the emotional pain an addict causes to friends and family is not too different that caused by a verbally abusive spouse, parent or boss. Yet those people aren’t generally considered criminals.

Now that the governor has signed the budget, and part of the budget cuts more than $1 billion from corrections, it’s likely that a lot of us will be released. Remember thought, we are only released from prison, not from the custody of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. We will be on parole, which is change in custody status.

Let me ask you, would you rather have Brett Pedroia living next to you (a convicted child molester) or me, a recovering addict clean and sober for two years and eight months?

And what about Stallworth? Sure, he isn’t likely to rob you or molest your child, but will he drive drunk and kill your kid or someone else?

The Republicans are whining about potential releases, but that’s pure political posturing. Really, what’s the big deal? We’re all going to get out anyway. Do you really think the recidivism rate will be higher if we get out a little early?

What do you think is going to cause a high rate of crime – releasing inmates early or taking away education, health and welfare funding?

These questions are merely rhetorical — the answers are self evident.

If you put people in a situation where their chances of success have been greatly hindered because of economic conditions, most likely a good number of these people will resort to drugs or crime, or both — either to try to live or to bury the sad reality that they’re miserable.

Sure, it’s the responsibility of people to make proper choices and live decent lives, but we’re people and we don’t always see beyond ourselves or our families or comfort level. We make more decisions based on economics than on any other external factors.

Nine billion from education and one billion from corrections. It’s pretty obvious that something’s not right with numbers so skewed in favor of hurting your children’s future.

Now a large number of prison programs that are rehabilitative in nature will be shut down, and this will result in an even higher recidivism rate — thereby proving all the pundits right — that “early releases were a mistake.”

I cannot even image what the prison system will look like in five years. It’s going to get really bad, though, I promise.

What has become a prison state is going to be the laughing stock of the United States (even more than it is now). You cannot keep creating an environment conducive to higher crime rates without the resulting effects of higher crime.

Wise up, California — the mess of the prisons system was not created by 170,000 bad people but by silly laws. We just can’t seem to get it right — which is obvious because Brett Pedroia is getting a year for child molestation and I’m doing four years, more than 3 of them in state prison, for possession of a gram of coke.

I wonder if Pedroia’s arrest report lists the State of California as the victim

Howdy, neighbor.

Source: SFBG

Officials: Heroin busts show California problem

By DON THOMPSON

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Recent large heroin seizures show a resurgence of the drug in California unseen since the early 1970s, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

The flood of black tar heroin into the San Francisco area has driven down prices from as much as $500 an ounce to about $140 an ounce, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown said in Sacramento while announcing the latest drug ring takedown.

“Heroin is making a comeback in the Bay Area,” San Francisco Police Capt. Denis O’Leary said at the news conference.

A federal grand jury in Sacramento has indicted 21 Mexican and American citizens on charges of smuggling at least 440 pounds of heroin grown in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, through Tijuana to Modesto, in California’s Central Valley.

From there, it was shipped to wholesalers throughout the San Francisco area. Prosecutors said one East Palo Alto-based wholesaler supplied hundreds of customers, using runners equipped with cars and cell phones to make deliveries. Prosecutors put the street value of the heroin at $17.5 million.

The drug was brought into the United States and cash was smuggled back to Mexico in at least three vehicles with secret compartments in their engines and transmissions, investigators said.

The federal indictment followed last week’s arrest by state drug agents of a Mexican national accused of concealing 70 pounds of heroin in a secret compartment in the dashboard of his Lincoln Town Car. The seizure of heroin valued at $7 million was the largest ever in San Mateo County, south of San Francisco, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said.

In April, Brown’s Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement arrested another Mexican citizen with 95 pounds of heroin, valued at more than $10 million, hidden in the wheel well of his sports utility vehicle. That seizure was in Anaheim.

San Mateo County District Attorney James Fox said the busts appear unrelated, but show a surge in heroin use not seen in 40 years.

“Back in the late ’60s, early ’70s … heroin was much more prevalent,” Fox said. “It had not been a problem for some time. Obviously it has increased dramatically.”

Officials said they have arrested 10 of the 21 people indicted by the federal grand jury after an 18-month investigation.

They include the alleged ringleader, Fabio Cazares-Zamora, 36, of Modesto, along with his suspected top assistant and nephew, 22-year-old Hugo Cesar Toscano-Zamora of Hayward. Toscano-Zamora is serving an unrelated narcotics sentence in San Quentin State Prison.

Cazares-Zamora and his wife, Martha Garibay-Hernandez, did not enter pleas during their initial appearance in federal court in Fresno on Wednesday. Their attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Francine Zepeda, did not immediately return a telephone message Thursday.

An Aug. 10 court appearances was set in Fresno for those in custody.

Authorities are seeking 11 others indicted last week — five in Mexico and six in northern California.

The charges include conspiring to import and distribute heroin and smuggle cash back to Mexico. Possible sentences range up to life in prison.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Innocent in Prison

This is an update to my post regarding CMS- Correctional Medical Services;

With great sadness I must announce that Patrick Swiney passed this evening at Donaldson Prison in Alabama.

My heart is heavy for Sherry Swiney, who tirelessly devoted herself to bringing Patrick home- we all believed that justice would prevail and Patrick would be free to come home.

Please, go to Patrick Crusade website and examine the case of Patrick,  corruption within the American Legal System in General, and in Alabama in Particular. If you think this cannot happen in the USA, think again.

http://www.patrickcrusade.org/

12 and in Prison

The Supreme Court sent an important message when it ruled in Roper v. Simmons in 2005 that children under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed were not eligible for the death penalty. Justice Anthony Kennedy drew on compassion, common sense and the science of the youthful brain when he wrote that it was morally wrong to equate the offenses of emotionally undeveloped adolescents with the offenses of fully formed adults.

The states have followed this logic in death penalty cases. But they have continued to mete out barbaric treatment — including life sentences — to children whose cases should rightly be handled through the juvenile courts.

Congress can help to correct these practices by amending the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, which is up for Congressional reauthorization this year. To get a share of delinquency prevention money, the law requires the states and localities to meet minimum federal protections for youths in the justice system. These protections are intended to keep as many youths as possible out of adult jails and prisons, and to segregate those that are sent to those places from the adult criminal population.

The case for tougher legislative action is laid out in an alarming new study of children 13 and under in the adult criminal justice system, the lead author of which is the juvenile justice scholar, Michele Deitch, of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. According to the study, every state allows juveniles to be tried as adults, and more than 20 states permit preadolescent children as young as 7 to be tried in adult courts.

This is terrible public policy. Children who are convicted and sentenced as adults are much more likely to become violent offenders — and to return to an adult jail later on — than children tried in the juvenile justice system.

Despite these well-known risks, policy makers across the country do not have reliable data on just how many children are being shunted into the adult system by state statutes or prosecutors, who have the discretion to file cases in the adult courts.

But there is reasonably reliable data showing juvenile court judges send about 80 children ages 13 and under into the adult courts each year. These statistics explode the myth that those children have committed especially heinous acts.

The data suggest, for example, that children 13 and under who commit crimes like burglary and theft are just as likely to be sent to adult courts as children who commit serious acts of violence against people. As has been shown in previous studies, minority defendants are more likely to get adult treatment than their white counterparts who commit comparable offenses.

The study’s authors rightly call on lawmakers to enact laws that discourage harsh sentencing for preadolescent children and that enable them to be transferred back into the juvenile system. Beyond that, Congress should amend the juvenile justice act to require the states to simply end these inhumane practices to be eligible for federal juvenile justice funds.

Source: New York Times

Sentenced to life without parole: America’s new political prisoners?

We think of “political prisoners” as persons sentenced to prison because of their political views, not because they committed a criminal act. But now some say there is a new crop of political prisoner: people sentenced to prison for their natural life without hope of parole or release. Others believe that life without parole is a just sentence for those who have committed heinous crimes. What types of convicted criminals receive life without parole? Solomon Moore of The New York Times writes, “Although most people serving life terms were convicted of violent crimes, sentencing experts say there are many exceptions, like Norman Williams, 46, who served 13 years of a life sentence for stealing a floor jack out of a tow truck, a crime that was his third strike. He was released from Folsom State Prison in California in April after appealing his conviction on the grounds of insufficient counsel.” Before 1978, all people sentenced for any crime in Illinois were eligible for parole typically after 12 years, subject to the discretion of the Parole Board. This didn’t mean they would be automatically paroled, but over the years, with good behavior and by demonstrating transformation, they had a chance to be released. Now, however, according to The Sentencing Project, a record 140,610 individuals are now serving life sentences in state and federal prisons, leaving many to wonder what has caused such a change in the criminal justice system. A recent report released by The Sentencing Project also found: * In Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New York, at least 1 in 6 prisoners is serving a life sentence. * Five states – California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania – each have more than 3,000 people serving life without parole. Pennsylvania leads the nation with 345 juveniles serving sentences of life without parole. * In six states – Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota -and the federal government, all life sentences are imposed without the possibility of parole. * The dramatic growth in life sentences is not primarily a result of higher crime rates, but of policy changes that have imposed harsher punishments and restricted parole consideration. A growing movement of prisoner’s rights advocates is questioning the logic behind these increased sentences. Some of these advocates say that nothing proves that these sentences have any real impact on crime and that released prisoners who have served substantial time are only slightly less likely to commit another crime than someone who has never committed a crime. Jamie Jackson, currently serving a life without parole sentence in Illinois, says, “Every day that I wake up, it’s a pain knowing that I have this sentence, and if these devils get their way, I will have to be here the rest of my days. Knowing this and being in this situation, just the thought alone will kill you from the inside out. A natural life sentence tells the public that you are a vile and insidious person and that you possess no rehabilitative potential to reenter society and be a productive citizen. This is a bald-faced lie, and this lie can be brought to an end today.” Do you think life without parole is an effective way of dealing with crime? Why do you think people of color are disproportionately affected by these kinds of sentences? Should people serving life without parole be considered political prisoners? Do you think America’s “war on crime” has been effective? Why or why not? Should the legislature change these sentences? Should juvenile offenders be subjected to life sentences? Martin Luther King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere;” how does the quote shed light on the question of life sentences without the possibility of parole? Suggested Resources * The Sentencing Project Releases National Report: 1 in 11 Prisoners Serving Life Sentences * Study: More Black than White Inmates Get Life * Number of Life Terms Hits Record * Life without Parole * The Specter of Jon Burge Terrorists Chicago Police * Life without Parole: Living in Prison Today by Victor Hassine * The Slow Death of Life Without Parole, Living in Hell for Life * Categorically Less Culpable: Children Sentenced to Life Without Possibility of Parole in Illinois

* This week’s topic was written by James Chapman and students enrolled in the “Life Transformation through Communication” course at Stateville Correctional Facility.

Guest speakers James Chapman, President of the Illinois Institute for Community Law and Affairs, and Melvin Haywood, a community activist who was formerly incarcerated, will be at Valois on Thursday.

Event Details

When

07/30/2009
7:00pm – 8:00pm

Where

Valois

1518 E 53rd St

Chicago, IL, 60615-4503

United States

See map: Google Maps

County:

Cook

Fee:

Free. Open to the public.

Source: Prairie.org

Gate money: a quaint custom whose time is LONG GONE

$1.10 per day to a maximum of $200 dollars. That is what the People of this state pay criminals upon release from prison. Intended to provide offenders with the basics, gate money is invariably spent within 3 days on 3 things: bus fare, clothing and intoxicants. It is a HUGE waste of money.

Gate funds are a vestige of the past–a past lacking social services. Today, virtually no parolees are actually destitute upon release. Prior to the advent of the Great Society, MOST paroled to poverty sans a“social safety net.” In short, the justification and NEED for disbursing gate money died over 4 decades ago.

So, let’s look at how gate money is spent and what can be done to mitigate its (proposed) elimination…

DRESS OUTS

Dressouts.com is a company owing its existence to the practice of disbursing gate funds. Criminals eschewing the traditional “blues” want to “step out in style.” Dressouts.com fills that need.

Of course, inmates don’t have the money in time to order the clothes and also lack Internet access. So, their families purchase the clothes on their behalf. Presumably, they are reimbursed by the offender after the gate check is cashed–that all of Dressouts.com’s “packages” are in the $100-$150 range is no coincidence.

Without regard to how many offenders purchase “dressouts” prior to release, the salient point is DORC has never released an inmate without complete, proper clothing including hard sole shoes. Therefore, NOBODY needs to spend a single dime on clothes…stepping out in style is not a right and certainly NOT something the taxpayers should subsidize. AND, much as Paco believes in capitalism, businesses such as dressouts.com are NOT the kind of concern tax dollars should “stimulate.”

BUSFARE

Transportation and a few meals are the only justified expenses a new releasee faces. And, on the offender’s behalf, Paco says the state SHOULD be responsible for releasing parolees as close as possible to the county of parole. However, population pressure and transportation demands preclude housing all offenders in a hometown prison. So, when parolees must take a train, plane or bus it is wholly appropriate for the taxpayers to cover the tab. THEREFORE, DORC need only open an account with Greyhound, Amtrak etc. and purchase travel vouchers as needed. A non-transferable, non-refundable bus ticket gets parolees home–Cash gets them high.

INTOXICANTS

Here’s the one need we cannot fill. Parolees intent upon getting loaded upon release will do exactly that…regardless of gate funds. AND, with precious few exceptions, parolees deprived of gate money will obtain trust funds in advance to make certain their first day of freedom is NOT wasted on sobriety.

Any way you look at it, we are CURRENTLY paying for beer, wine, liquor, crack, crank (et al.) with STATE FUNDS. It is HIGH TIME it stopped.

So, Governor, that’s $200.00 saved per NEW parolee release every year in perpetuity. For the handful of parole violators you are willing to hold accountable for misconduct, the savings are $1.10 per day per violator. Granted, under your “leadership” the average saved per revocation release would be less than $20.00 a head. Even so, 50,000 revocations at $20.00 a head is a savings of one million dollars. Think of all the children you can bus to visit mommy in prison with $1,000,000!

That’s just ONE example of utter WASTE. Riders are invited to add suggested cuts via the comment link. Paco is confident we can identify enough waste to meet the 1.2 billion cut–I am equally confident the cowards and punks under the Capitol dome will ignore us. Gate funds will be maintained as staff are furloughed and cut.

Clearly, issuing gate funds is an absolute waste of scant public resources. It is a 19th century practice that SHOULD have died after Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society cemented our status as a welfare state.

Let’s kill it.

Posted by pacovilla at 05:38

Source: Paco’s Blogspot