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Assembly Committee Hears Ideas on Reducing Prison and Jail Populations

Dec 5, 2013 No Comments

By KTVU.com

SAN FRANCISCO — A state Assembly committee gathered ideas from Bay Area law enforcement and community representatives at a hearing in San Francisco Wednesday on how to help people avoid going to prison and avoid going back.

The purpose of the Select Committee on Justice Reinvestment session was to obtain information that could shape legislation aimed at reducing prison and jail overcrowding and increasing rehabilitation, according to committee co-chair Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.

“I think we have a long way to go. When you have a (statewide) recidivism rate of 70 to 30, we know there’s a lot more to do,” Ammiano said after the hearing at the State Building.

The San Francisco hearing was one of a series the committee is holding around California on various prison issues.

Programs described by local experts included diversion projects, alternative community courts, gang ceasefire efforts and services for released prisoners making the transition back to their communities.

Richmond police Chief Chris Magnus and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon told the committee that such programs make sense not only morally but economically as well.

Colorado Restorative Justice

Dec 3, 2013 No Comments

By Dianne Frazee-Walker

Dianne Frazee-Walker is the founder of Full Circle Restorative Justice (FCRJ) for the 11th Judicial District of Colorado, Chaffee County. (FCRJ) was formed in 2006 as a non-profit 501(c) 3 entity whose purpose was to provide an alternative route for young adult and juvenile first-time offenders entering the revolving court system.

The mission of (FCRJ) is “To enhance the safety of our community by addressing offender accountability and to empower victims through a supportive conflict resolution process.”

For the full story of (FCRJ) http://www.prisoneducation.com/prison-education/

There are many advantages to using restorative justice as a form of mediation to resolve crime-related conflict.

Offenders have an opportunity to face their victims and participate in creating a contract for repairing the harm. Victims, who are willing to participate in the process, are empowered by having a voice about how they were affected by the crime and what can be done to restore the damage.

The dialogue that takes place in a restorative circle has the potential of healing both parties. Offenders who participate in the restorative conversation are less likely to reoffend because hearing how their behavior impacted their victims and giving identity to their victims provides offenders with a sense of empathy, accountability, and responsibility that they do not have access to when there is no contact with their victims.

When restorative justice is used to rehabilitate offenders the recidivism rate is less than 10%.

Pete Lee, Colorado State Representative was reelected to represent House District 18 in 2010. Soon after being reelected, Mr. Lee drafted HB-11-1032, which gives victims of some crimes the right to meet face-to-face with the offender under highly-regulated circumstances, and allows for sentences that focus on compensating and repairing harm to victims. The bill passed unanimously.

Los Angeles Jail Reforms

Dec 2, 2013 No Comments

By Mike Brodheim and Alex Friedmann

WITH SEVEN FACILITIES THAT HOUSE from 15,000 to 18,000 prisoners, Los Angeles County’s jail system is the nation’s largest – and, arguably, among the most dangerous in terms of staff-on-prisoner violence.

The jail system, operated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), is facing an investigation by the FBI into allegations of corruption and abuse, as well as multiple lawsuits. Sheriff Leroy David “Lee” Baca, 70, has committed to numerous reforms following a report and recommendations by the Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence, but people familiar with long-standing problems in the county’s jails remain skeptical.

A Continuing Culture of Violence

THE LASD JAIL SYSTEM HAS BEEN UNDER federal court oversight since the 1970s when, following a 17-day trial, an injunction was issued that ordered the county to improve jail conditions – including overcrowding, inadequate exercise, and lack of clean clothing and telephone access. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had initially sued Los Angeles County in 1975, alleging that overcrowded conditions, systematic abuse of prisoners by sheriff’s deputies and inadequate medical care violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. See: Rutherford v. Baca, U.S.D.C. (C.D. Cal.), Case No. CV 75-04111 DDP. [PLN, March 2007, p.35].

A renewed deterioration of jail conditions led to the reopening of the case in 1984. Since then, a number of court-appointed parties and experts, including the ACLU, have been monitoring conditions within the county’s jail system. Other oversight agencies include the Office of Independent Review (OIR) and Special Counsel to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

In December 2010, the ACLU asked the federal court to order a new trial in the case based on what it described as “an escalating crisis of deputy violence, abuse, and inmate suicides.” Between 2006 and 2011 there were 5,630 use of force incidents reported in county jail facilities, and according to the LASD’s own data, deputies are more likely to use force against mentally ill prisoners. Of the 582 use of force incidents reported in 2011, about one-third involved prisoners with mental health problems.

Feinstein Wary of Proposals to Reduce Prison Sentences

Dec 2, 2013 No Comments

By John Gramlich, CQ Roll Call

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Wednesday that she is conflicted about legislation to scale back mandatory minimum sentencing laws, signaling that lawmakers in both parties are wary of the effort ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee markup in December.

Feinstein, the second-highest-ranking Democrat on the committee, said in an interview that she is “not comfortable” with legislation that would reduce criminal penalties for some offenders, even though Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., has strongly urged the panel to act on the issue.

“We’ve been wrestling with it,” Feinstein said. “For me right now, it’s not an easy question.”

The Judiciary Committee is expected to meet after the Thanksgiving recess to mark up four bills related to the federal prison system, including two that would effectively reduce criminal sentences and two that would allow some prisoners to earn earlier releases if they participate in rehabilitation programs. All four bills are aimed at curbing the rapid growth in the number of federal inmates.

Taxes Should Be Used for Education, Not Incarceration

Nov 29, 2013 No Comments

By Annette Sommers

Tangipahoa Parish officially acknowledged that voters shot down a proposed tax Tuesday which would have funded a new parish jail. The half-cent sales tax was expected to bring in $8.67 million a year to make more space for incoming inmates.

That makes total sense. Let’s tax our citizens so we can build a new jail for criminals instead of implementing a tax to help relieve our education crisis, which would help combat crimes in the first place.

Did Tangipahoa Parish really think its residents would fall for that?

While the people of Tangipahoa shot down the proposal for a jail tax, they approved the renewal of a tax that helps fund their parish library. A smart move credited to voters.

But it won’t be long before other parishes try to pull what Tangipahoa did because of money. Sheriffs are paid $24.39 a day on average, per inmate. They benefit from higher incarceration rates.

Let me repeat that. According to research done by the Department of Corrections, the more people who are in jail, the more sheriffs get paid. This is happening in Baton Rouge just as much as Tangipahoa, and unless people open their eyes to this corruption, it’s bound to continue.

New Jim Crow Author Lectures On Criminal Justice Inequalities

Nov 27, 2013 No Comments

Courtesy of Student Life and Senior Sports Editor Alex Leichenger

America’s criminal justice system is racially and socially oppressive, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argued in her recent speech on campus.

Addressing a crowd of undergraduates, law students, adults from the community, and local middle and high school students, Alexander, author of the 2010 bestselling book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” said most Americans believe their justice system only requires minor tinkering.

But, Alexander said, the facts that prison corporations are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and many rural communities are economically reliant on prisons has led her to believe that more fundamental social movement is required to reform the system.

“If you’re not directly impacted by this system, you can easily go your whole life without having any idea of what is going on,” Alexander said.

The Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall was packed to capacity for Alexander’s speech, and extra chairs were needed even in the overflow room. It was the keynote address at the conference, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Washington University School of Law’s Clinical Education Program.

Alexander talked about how Americans can turn on their televisions and see symbols of African-American social progress like President Barack Obama and the first family but that those examples are not fully representative.

“But then you drive less than a mile from the White House, and you find the other America,” Alexander said.

“Today, millions of children in America grow up believing that one day, they too will go to jail,” she added. “In our poorest, most segregated communities, young people are shuttled from our decrepit, under-funded schools to brand-new, high-tech prisons.”

Learning From European Prisons

Nov 19, 2013 No Comments

Dianne Frazee-Walker

Imagine a perfect world where the recidivism rate is low, prisons are not overcrowded, and offenders are rehabilitated. The correctional system in some European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands have made this a reality.

In February, a group of American corrections officials, judges, prosecutors and public defenders conducted research that proves the United States has a lot to learn from European countries about correctional rehabilitation. The group took the initiative and took a trip to Europe to investigate what was working for European prisons. The differences they discovered between the European and American penal system were astounding.

Germany and the Netherlands incarcerate one-tenth the rate of the U.S., where sentencing time is considerably longer. These American judicial officials spent a week visiting prisons in Germany and the Netherlands. The consensus was that the determining factor for these European countries’ success is their approach is directed more towards social reintegration than punishment.

A new report based on the group’s findings indicates that the failing American prison system has a hopeful chance of recuperating from the faltering situation it is in by adopting some of the European penal procedures that are working.

Practices in Germany and the Netherlands allows inmates to prepare for release ready to face the world as productive citizens. During the time inmates are serving their sentences they are allowed a significant amount of discretion over their lives.

Inmates are granted individual privacy and the privilege of making their own decisions about their lives. Some can wear their own clothes and cook their own meals.

Interaction with correctional officers is respectful. Prison staff are educated to use innovative management and conflict resolution skills along with security training.

Germany and the Netherlands use incarceration only when appropriate. Community-service programs, probation or fines are alternatives to prison time. American prisons impose much longer prison sentences than European countries. While the average state prison term in the United States is about three years, more than 90 percent of Dutch sentences and 75 percent of German sentences are 12 months or less.

International Men’s Day

Nov 13, 2013 No Comments

From Diane A. Sears Image courtesy ncfm.org

On 24 October 2012, Ms. Geneuvive Twala, the Botswana Coordinator for International Men’s Day conceived the “2012-2022 International Men’s Day Ten Year Plan” which is designed to help quantify the results which should be achieved during a 10 year period to eradicate key challenges that prevent Men and Boys from living fulfilled, happy, healthy and long lives. The idea is to determine by what amount one would like to, for example, reduce the school drop out rate for boys and adolescent young males through International Men’s Day. As a further example, Ms. Twala decided that by 2022, a 50% reduction in the number of boys and adolescent young males who drop out of school should be achieved. I was so impressed with Ms. Twala’s conception, that I immediately adopted this plan for the United States.

The USA 2012-2022 International Men’s Day Ten Year Plan will target for resolution the following challenges which prevent Men and Boys from living fulfilled, happy, and long lives:

1. Education

– Reduce school drop out rate for boys and young adolescent males by 50%.

– Increase literacy rate for boys and young adolescent males by 80%

– Explore existing models that effectively address school dropout and literacy issues to determine if they can be implemented nationally

– Design and implementation of tutoring and mentoring programs

2. Mass Incarceration, Re-Entry, and Reintegration

– Mass Incarceration: Identify causative factors attributing to rising number of boys, young adolescent males, and Men being incarcerated (e.g., poverty, lack of positive male role models, lack of mentoring, lack of education, dysfunctional families, etc.)

– Mass Incarceration: Explore existing models that eradicate causative factors attributable to placing boys, young adolescent males, and Men on the path to prison

– Re-Entry/Reintegration: Mandatory one (1) year minimum two-tiered “psychological debriefing program” for formerly incarcerated and their families and loved ones to (a) provide formerly incarcerated with psychological and emotional tools needed to resolve self-esteem, anger management, and decision making issues; and (b) provide family members and loved with emotional and psychological tools to help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully navigate the arduous journey to healing, redemption, and reintegration.

– Re-Entry/Reintegration: Mandatory Mentoring Program which matches up a newly released incarcerated individual with a formerly incarcerated individual who has a track record of successfully reintegrating into society and family life for one-on-one mentoring.

– Re-Entry/Reintegration: Paid Apprenticeship Programs in all industries which lead, after completion of apprenticeship, to full-time employment at companies offering the apprentice programs to formerly incarcerated individuals.

International Mens Day Announcement

Nov 8, 2013 No Comments

From Diane A. Sears Mr. J. Jondhi Harrell Founder and Executive Director The Center for Returning Citizens Telephone: 215-305-8793 E-Mail: [email protected] ATTORNEY AND WURD 900 AM RADIO TALK SHOW HOST MICHAEL COARD TALKS TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND REINTEGRATION THOUGHT LEADER J. JONDHI HARRELL ON “RADIO COURTROOM” PHILADELPHIA, PA (USA) – 6 NOVEMBER 2013 —

Former NYPD boss Bernard Kerik tells ‘Today’ show he wants prison reform after time spent behind bars

Nov 7, 2013 No Comments

By Larry McShane / New York Daily News His time behind bars convinced Bernard Kerik of one thing: Jail is a really bad place. The disgraced ex-NYPD commissioner, in an interview aired Friday on the “Today” show, said his three years as a federal inmate turned him into a proponent of prison reform. “You have to be on the other side

News

Assembly Committee Hears Ideas on Reducing Prison and Jail Populations

Colorado Restorative Justice

Los Angeles Jail Reforms

Feinstein Wary of Proposals to Reduce Prison Sentences

Taxes Should Be Used for Education, Not Incarceration

New Jim Crow Author Lectures On Criminal Justice Inequalities

Learning From European Prisons

International Men’s Day

International Mens Day Announcement

Former NYPD boss Bernard Kerik tells ‘Today’ show he wants prison reform after time spent behind bars

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