Why California’s Prisoners Are Starving Themselves

12 Jan
English: Aerial view of San Quentin State Pris...

Image via Wikipedia

By Sadhbh Walshe

On 19 December 2011, three prisoners at Corcoran State Prison wrote a letter to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) threatening to go on hunger strike if improvements were not made to their living conditions. Evidently, they received no response from the CDCR: the hunger strike began on 28 December.

This latest hunger strike, the third in less than six months, is small potatoes compared to the previous two, which were state-wide and involved thousands of inmates. According to Terry Thornton, a CDCR spokeswoman, it may already be over. But the fact that Californian prisoners have once again resorted to starving themselves to protest the conditions of their confinement does suggest that something is rotten in the Golden State‘s penal system.

The first hunger strike began on 1 July 2011, and ended three weeks later when the CDCR agreed, in theory at least, to address the participants’ five core demands, which amounted to better living conditions, adequate food and clothing, an end to group punishments and most importantly, an end to the gang validation policy that sentences inmates to endless terms in solitary confinement cells, known as SHUs.

One of my correspondents, Anthony, who has an indeterminate SHU sentence (meaning, there’s no end in sight), described to me in a letter what it is about the SHU environment he and his fellow inmates find hard to tolerate.

“We’re entitled to receive 10 hours of ‘outdoor exercise’ a week, but lucky if we get half that. At times, we’re cooped up an entire week in our cells before the opportunity of expanding our lungs with fresh air. ‘Outdoor exercise’ consists of being placed in a dog kennel-like cage, no bigger than our cells. We’re prohibited from all recreational and exercise equipment, compelling most to pace idly back and forth.

“Blinding bright lights remain on 24 hours a day within our (windowless 8ft x 10ft) cells as we have been denied control over them. Our lavatories are electronically installed, allotting each cell two flushes every 15 minutes.”

The SHU residents are not alone in finding these conditions intolerable. On 18 October 2011, after inspecting such facilities, Juan Mendez, a United Nations expert on torture, called for all countries to ban the use of solitary confinement except in exceptional circumstances, and even then, for no longer than 15 days.

Personally, I don’t think I’d get through 15 hours locked up in a concrete box, with no window, bright lights glaring 24/7 and a toilet that won’t stop flushing, but 15 days would certainly be an improvement on 15 years, which is about the average length of time the men who have been writing to me from California‘s SHUs have been locked up in these sensory deprivation units.

The CDCR’s Thornton confirmed that many inmates have spent several decades in the SHU (the record so far that I know of is 35 years), but made the point that most inmates earned their stay for acts of violence from which prisoners in the general population deserve to be protected. A valid argument, certainly, but how can you tell if an inmate is still a threat to the mainline population after he’s been locked in a box by himself for 20 plus years?

The problem for SHU inmates is that once they get sent to the box, it’s almost impossible to work their way out of it. Their options are to either “debrief, parole or die”, which as it turns out are non-options. Debriefing, or “snitching”, on other prisoners can provoke retaliation; parole is rarely granted and dying … well, suicides are certainly not rare in solitary confinement, but it turns out many SHU inmates still have the will to live.

The first hunger strike, which involved more than 6,000 inmates, brought little meaningful reform. After three weeks of starvation, the prisoners found that what they had gained amounted to little more than the right to purchase sweatpants and coloring pencils. Less than two months later, despite threats of disciplinary action by the CDCR (pdf), the hunger strike resumed with almost double the number of original participants (pdf). It all got a bit ugly for a while: mail and visiting privileges were suspended; attorneys for the hunger strikers were banned from entering the prison; participants received behavior violation write-ups; and according to several testimonies, the alleged leaders of the hunger strike were placed in freezing cold cells without proper clothing and forced to remain there for 15 days.

Eventually, a deal was reached, with promises from the CDCR to address the prisoners’ demands and to set about instigating a “step down” program, which would allow alleged gang members to earn their release from the SHU – without having to debrief. Laura Magnani, a member of the mediation team representing the prisoners, says the CDCR appear to be negotiating in good faith and progress is being made.

If this turns out to be the case, it’s good news. If not, more hunger strikes seem inevitable as does the possibility that deaths will occur. One would hope it will not take the creation of martyrs to bring about the changes that anyone with a conscience knows are overdue.

By Sadhbh Walshe | Sourced from The Guardian UK

 

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Free Sara Kruzan…♥.NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS DAY♥

10 Jan

WE NEED YOUR HELP: January 11, 2012 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day and we need your support for our Nationwide Call in day to Free Sara Kruzan!

Please take a few minutes out of your day, Wednesday January 11 to call Gov Brown asking for him to grant Human Trafficking victim Sara Kruzan with time served!

Call  (916) 445-2841  starting at 8am PST

you can learn more about the call by clicking on the following link:

http://news.change.org/stories/nationwide-day-of-action-to-free-human-trafficking-victim-sara-kruzan

Thank you in advance for making the call!!

FREE SARA!!!! 

No Justice, No Peace!

Nationwide Call In Day to Free Sara Kruzan
Wednesday, January 11 at 8:00am pst

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Paying a Price, Long After the Crime

10 Jan
By ALFRED BLUMSTEIN and KIMINORI NAKAMURA

IN 2010, the Chicago Public Schools declined to hire Darrell Langdon for a job as a boiler-room engineer, because he had been convicted of possessing a half-gram of cocaine in 1985, a felony for which he received probation. It didn’t matter that Mr. Langdon, a single parent of two sons, had been clean since 1988 and hadn’t run into further trouble with the law. Only after The Chicago Tribune wrote about his case did the school system reverse its decision and offer him the job.

Steve Attardo

 

A stunning number of young people are arrested for crimes in this country, and those crimes can haunt them for the rest of their lives. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Crime Commission found that about half of American males could expect to be arrested for a nontraffic offense some time in their lives, mostly in their late teens and early 20s. An article just published in the journal Pediatrics shows how the arrest rate has grown — by age 23, 30 percent of Americans have been arrested, compared with 22 percent in 1967. The increase reflects in part the considerable growth in arrests for drug offenses and domestic violence.

The impact of these arrests is felt for years. The ubiquity of criminal-background checks and the efficiency of information technology in maintaining those records and making them widely available, have meant that millions of Americans — even those who served probation or parole but were never incarcerated — continue to pay a price long after the crime. In November the American Bar Association released a database identifying more than 38,000 punitive provisions that apply to people convicted of crimes, pertaining to everything from public housing to welfare assistance to occupational licenses. More than two-thirds of the states allow hiring and professional-licensing decisions to be made on the basis of an arrest alone.

Contnue Reading @ NY Times

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Outgoing Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour under fire after pardoning 4 killers

10 Jan

….and I keep thinking of the Scott Sisters…Barbour you egofag! you COULD have done right….but instead you do this!! IDIOT!!

 

‘Serving your sentence at the Governor’s Mansion where you pour liquor, cook and clean should not earn a pardon for murder,’ public service commissioner says

Image: Haley Barbour

Rogelio V. Solis  /  AP file

In the executive orders signed by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, he wrote that the pardoned killers each “proved to be a diligent and dedicated workman.”
msnbc.com staff and news service reports

JACKSON, Miss. — Outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has pardoned at least four convicted killers who worked at the Governor’s Mansion, including a man who was denied parole less than two weeks ago.

Relatives of three victims told The Associated Press on Monday that state corrections officials notified them over the weekend that the convicts were to be released this past Sunday. Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who weighed a presidential run last year before deciding against it, leaves office on Tuesday.

Video: Barbour’s refusal to run shocks supporters

In the executive orders Barbour signed, he wrote each “proved to be a diligent and dedicated workman.

The pardons outraged victims’ relatives. Democratic lawmakers called for an end to the custom of governors’ issuing such end-of-tenure pardons.

While Barbour’s office hasn’t responded to messages about the pardons, he told the AP in 2008 that releasing the trusties who live and work at the mansion is a tradition in Mississippi that goes back decades. Work by trusties would typically include kitchen duty, waiting tables, cleaning and washing vehicles, officials said.

The Barbour administration did not publicize the pardons, which became public when family members notified the media. The Mississippi Secretary of State‘s office released copies of the pardons Monday afternoon. They show Barbour has pardoned at least five men.

The former inmates are David Gatlin, convicted of killing his estranged wife in 1993; Joseph Ozment, convicted in 1994 of killing a man during a robbery; Anthony McCray, convicted in 2001 of killing his wife; Charles Hooker, sentenced to life in 1992 for murder; and Nathan Kern, sentenced to life in 1982 for burglary after at least two prior convictions.

Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said Monday afternoon that the inmates were released Sunday.

Continue Reading @ MSNBC

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Information wanted – Corcoran Hunger Strike

5 Jan
Via Sharon McNary of KPCC
Hi Carol — We’re interested in learning more about hunger strikers at Corcoran. Trying to figure out how many people are participating. I’ve got the petition signed by the three main people, but we’re looking for additional info. Can you circulate this link wth a request for Corcoran families to use it to contact us? www.scpr.org/network/questions/prisonconditions

www.scpr.org

California is cutting back on the money it spends on prisons, but how are those cuts being felt by the inmates who live in the state’s vast prison system? How are living conditions changing in California’s prisons? How are inmates adapting to cuts in education, rolling lockdowns, and cuts in family  visiting hours?

Most inmates are unable to respond to these questions, so we are turning to the people who work in prisons and who have family members or loved ones behind bars to help us understand this story.

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NY shutters 7 prisons, moves inmates and staff

4 Jan

Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. — The state recently closed the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility on Staten Island, the seventh prison, camp or work release facility shuttered in 2011 as New York transferred about 2,600 inmates and 1,400 staff to its 60 remaining penal units in an effort to save millions of dollars and remove excess capacity.

As the inmate population dropped to about 56,000 currently, continuing a decade-long decline, the Cuomo administration this summer closed two other medium-security prisons, Mid-Orange in the lower Hudson Valley and Oneida in central New York.

Four minimum-security facilities were also shut: Buffalo Work Release in Erie County, Camp Georgetown in Madison County, Summit Shock in Schoharie County and Fulton Work Release in the Bronx.

“It was a herculean process,” said Peter Cutler, spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services. Within a few months, 2,664 inmates were moved, while many staff members were reassigned based on seniority and “bumping” under union contract terms, he said.

“Some people did retire and there were some layoffs,” Cutler said. The recently consolidated corrections and parole department had 30,902 personnel, including 18,454 corrections officers, before the closings were announced June 30. That compared with 29,780 staff, including 17,996 corrections officers, by late December.

Data show 1,427 of the 1,706 staff at the seven facilities transferred within the department, 131 were laid off, 95 retired, 22 went to other agencies and some resigned.

The union representing prison guards, which in June said it was disappointed by the largest prison cuts in state history and that any closing would jeopardize safety and the integrity of the system, declined to comment last week.

Continue Reading @ Wall Street Journal

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Plan to change three-strikes law moves toward November ballot

4 Jan

California voters may once again have the opportunity to change the state's three-strikes mandatory-sentencing law

Photo: Inmates at the California State Prison in Lancaster on June 10, 2010. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

 

 

 
California voters may once again have the opportunity to change the state’s three-strikes mandatory-sentencing law.

An initiative to change the law has been cleared to gather petition signatures, a potential step toward the November ballot. The proposed change would reduce the sentences of some currently serving time, and reduce prison time for those who are convicted of nonviolent felonies and already have two prior felony strikes.

In an economic analysis of the measure, the state’s legislative analyst said the initiative, if passed, would save the state money but could increase costs for local governments.

Continue Reading @ LA Times

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Hey, Politicians! – Practical Prison Reform

1 Jan

By John Dewar Gleissner, Esq

 
Elections-ahead Your predecessors got our prison systems in a terrible mess. We stacked up many more prisoners than other nations, and at much greater expense, with disastrous consequences. Paying more for prisons and less for education is a sick trend.

Each prisoner costs us about $50,000 per year, and that cost must be multiplied by 2,300,000. You may have heard that it costs less than this to feed, clothe, house and provide medical care to prisoners, but that lower figure does not include the astronomical lost opportunity costs. Locking up that many people and not providing useful work for them means that the value of their labor is lost, too. On the average, each prisoner is able to make about $25,000 per year if put in a regular job. Add this to the direct outlays $25,000 per year, and the cost equals $50,000 per year. This does not count the increased welfare costs outside prison, the social costs of breaking up families and marriages and allowing children to be raised without parents. Nor does this include decreased productivity caused by felons not being able to find employment. Our nation incarcerates more people than any other nation on earth, and a greater percentage of our population is in prison than any other nation on earth. If prisoners were counted as unemployed in unemployment statistics, official unemployment would be 1/2% higher on account of our 2.3 million prison population. As you can see, this is a drag on the entire economy at a time we cannot afford it. Yes, we are in a tremendous predicament. Please take action.

Let’s face it: Modern prison does not work very well, at least not for its original purpose of rehabilitation, and it does not deter enough crime. It does keep criminals out of circulation for a while, and that’s good, but unfortunately prison releases them in worse condition. Prisons are an expensive way to make bad people worse. Many of us have been trying to get your attention. Please help solve the massive prison crisis we have and create more jobs.

Every enlightened warden and prison reformer in history believed that prisoners should work at useful labor. Hard labor is better for the prisoner, prison administration and taxpayers. Many offenders are supposedly sentenced to “hard labor,” but now only a minority of prisoners work, few of them in private businesses. Restrictive legislation was passed years ago due to the unfair competition created by prisoners working for nothing. But things have changed: Most consumer goods are now made outside the United States. Prison-made goods from China sneak into the U.S. easily, while we throttle our own prison industries.

Our laws should permit private businesses to manufacture goods now made exclusively in foreign countries. You should repeal or amend the Ashurst-Sumners and Hawes-Cooper Acts, because those federal statutes deprive prison-made goods the status of being made in interstate commerce, making it tough for them to cross state lines or enter the marketplace. Each state should repeal their statutes discouraging or prohibiting prison industries, at least to allow the manufacture of goods now made exclusively overseas. Prisoners don’t deserve wage and hour protection or the employment protection that law-abiding Americans enjoy, but their workplaces should be safe. Let’s wipe some laws off the books so that employers can freely negotiate with prisoners and not have to worry about most lawsuits. Everybody can win: taxpayers, crime victims, families of prisoners, our economy, organized labor, businesses, prison systems and prisoners. Prison industries will create jobs outside prisons. If we don’t get more Americans working, we will decline in the world, and that’s not our destiny.

 

Author John Dewar Gleissner, Esq. graduated from Auburn University (B.A. with Honor, 1973) and Vanderbilt University School of Law (1977), where he won the Editor’s Award and participated in the Men’s Penitentiary Project. In addition to practicing law in Alabama for the last 33 years, Mr. Gleissner is the author of the new book “Prison and Slavery – A Surprising Comparison”

 

Via Corrections.com

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CA reduces prison population by thousands, almost meets Supreme Court target

28 Dec
English: Aerial view of San Quentin State Pris...

Image via Wikipedia

 

California’s prison system has been shedding an average of 933 inmates a week since the governor’s realignment plan took effect this fall, and the state almost hit a court-mandated goal to reduce the population to 133,000 inmates by Dec. 27.

As of today, the state’s prisons held 134,804 inmates — just 1,800 short of the target and far closer to that goal than many expected.

California prison officials announced the numbers Tuesday and said they are in the midst of preparing a report, due by Jan. 10, that details the progress made toward meeting the court-ordered reductions.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that California must obey a lower court order to reduce its prison population, agreeing with federal judges who had found that overcrowding was the main cause of “grossly inadequate provision of medical and mental health care.”  In the 5-4 ruling, the high court agreed that the prison system — which has held nearly twice its designed capacity for more than a decade — should cut its population to 110,000 by spring of 2013. The court also and set a series of benchmarks for state officials to reach before then.

While state officials did not meet the first target — 167 percent of designed capacity, or 133,000 inmates — by Dec. 27, they got pretty close. In a short statement announcing the numbers, prison officials appeared to credit Gov. Jerry Brown’s realignment plan for the progress. The plan calls for most lower-level and nonviolent offenders to serve their prison sentences in local jails and report to county probation departments instead of the state parole agency upon release. In the written statement, prison officials said the plan — instituted Oct. 1 — has resulted in state prisons taking in an average of 933 fewer inmates per week.

The progress puts the state exactly where it said it would be in an August court filing.  In that filing, state officials predicted they would miss the 167 percent by two percentage points (the system is now at 169.2 percent of capacity) but would hit the next goal, a reduction to 155 percent, or 124,000 inmates, by June 27.

Via SF Gate

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10 corrections resolutions for 2012

28 Dec

As we get ready to ring in the new year, a good plan is to develop detailed goals that are more realistic for lasting societal change in a correctional setting.

English: Federal Correctional Institution, Ter...

Image via Wikipedia

By Robert Hood

As 2011 comes to an end, it is time to make plans for 2012. Many people are thinking of resolutions for the New Year. Each year millions of adults resolve to “get in shape” or “lose weight.” While the effort to adopt resolutions shows an optimistic sense of good intent personally, the same idea can be applied to your profession as a corrections officer.
As we get ready to ring in 2012, it’s a good time to develop detailed goals that are more realistic for lasting societal change in a correctional setting.
During recent personal visits to jails, prisons, and community corrections facilities, along with criminal justice conference attendance, I heard recurring themes from colleagues across the United States. No specific order was used in preparing this list of initiatives for corrections:
1. Recommend changes for new FBOP director.
Since 1930 only seven directors served the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP). Harley Lappin retired on May 7, 2011 after eight years as the agency’s most recent director, and the agency has been without a leader for the past eight months.
On December 21 the Attorney General appointed Charles Samuels, Jr. to serve as the 8th Director. Samuals was the FBOP’s Assistant Director since January 2011. He was responsible for all inmate management and program functions.
Recommendations to improve the federal prison system include:
• Provide greater public/media access to institutions to enhance offender reentry initiatives
• Increase evidenced-based programs designed to reduce recidivism
• Develop proactive training to reduce the level of staff misconduct
The FBOP has 217,000 inmates and 38,000 staff. Most local and state correctional systems follow the federal system’s model. Director Samuels will be tasked to bring major changes during budget and staff reductions.
2. Discontinue glorifying hardcore sheriffs/jail administrators.
Greater recognition is needed for the men and women who effectively manage our nation’s 2.3 million offenders. Far too much attention is placed on controversial leaders using pink underwear, tent cities, roundups of illegal immigrants, and other “above the law” tactics.
3. Provide geographic uniformity in capital punishment.
Thirty-four states have the death penalty (16 states and the District of Columbia do not have capital crimes). More than 98 percent of the men and women on death rows across the United States are incarcerated as a result of state laws. If the public wants to maintain capital punishment, then provide more consistency among states.
4. Address mental illness in correctional settings.
There is an inherent disconnect between the security mission and mental health considerations. There are perhaps as many as 300,000 offenders in jails and prisons suffering from mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. Mental health services are often limited to brief cell-side conversations with mental health staff, and excessive use of medication. Incarceration by its very nature has an adverse effect on mental health.
5. Reduce levels of incarceration.
America has one-quarter of the world’s prisoners. More than seven million people are under correctional supervision in this country. We are not just incarcerating dangerous predators. More than one million prisoners in the United States are serving time for nonviolent offenses. In the federal prison system, for example, 55.7 percent of the inmates are classified as minimum or low security. Approximately 50 percent off all federal offenders are in for drug offenses. Eleven percent are held for immigration offenses.
The prison population is growing 13 times faster than the general population and is cost-prohibited. State correctional spending has quadrupled in the last two decades and now totals $52 billion a year.
Reduce sentences for non-violent offenders. Start with the 100,000 youth under the age of 18 that are released from juvenile correctional facilities each year. Analyze their prison experience and reduce this target group currently inside institutional settings. We should invest in our public schools instead of schools of crime.
6. Assist children of the offender.
More than 54 percent of offenders are parents with minor children. One in every 28 children has a parent incarcerated. Two-thirds of these children’s parents were incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. Work to reduce the cycle of crime by helping to mentor children without ongoing parental support.
7. Start “correcting” in “correctional institutions.”
Far too many facilities are just housing offenders. The label “correctional institution” should be earned. It needs to be applied to public and private facilities exceeding the basic requirements used during internal and external audits. New facilities should be constructed with reentry to the community in mind. Remember 95 percent of all offenders are released to the community. How people are handled as inmates will determine how they interact in public.
Key indicators such as recidivism rates, evidence-based reentry programs, percentage of inmate enrollments, and other positive characteristics need to be measured. Institutions are public buildings. Engage families and community members in the entire incarceration and reentry process.
8. Close GITMO (The Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility).
The Gitmo facility holds only 171 detainees on 45 square-miles of a piece of island. The prison is the most expensive prison on earth, with base renovations estimated around $2 billion. The cost of housing each detainee is 30 times the cost of keeping a captive on United States soil. The nation’s most secure federal prison in Colorado currently holds only 451 sentenced inmates; mostly terrorists, gang members, and spies. Shut down Gitmo and place these detainees in a separate section of this facility. Administrators will just need to separate those sentenced from detainees. An inmate population totaling 622 should be no problem for the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”
9. Enhance evidence-based reentry programs.
Budget reductions often lead to diminished program opportunities for offenders.
Since most inmates will return to the community, effective programs should be identified and retained. Victim offender mediation, faith-based programs, education/vocational classes, drug treatment, parenting, alternatives to violence, and contemplative offerings (meditation, yoga, prayer) should be offered. Use of volunteers provides an invaluable asset for correctional staff. Without effective intervention programs, we are merely postponing the time when prisoners return to prison. If states could reduce their recidivism rates by just 10 percent, they could save more than $635 million combined in one year alone in averted prison costs.
10. Enhance staff training and address misconduct.
Staffing issues have become more critical in the face of budget reductions. Ongoing staffing analysis is needed. Quality training and proactive discussions on reducing staff misconduct would be of value.
Policy statements should identify an adequate number and types of staff to ensure the safety and security of staff, conduct operations, programs, and activities. The policy should also state the authority behind it (statutes, etc.). Staff should receive ongoing training on ethics using data from those who were found guilty of sustained misconduct.
Resolutions are much easier to make than to keep. Hopefully during 2012 correctional practitioners will strive to improve the correctional “system” by using the resolutions provided.
What is your corrections-focused resolution for 2012? What resolution do you think decision makers in the field should be making?

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