- 3. July 2009: Webb For Change
- 11. June 2009: Criminal Justice Accountability II
- 11. June 2009: Criminal Justice Accountability
- 11. June 2009: Criminal Injustice - A Nation In Decay
- 10. June 2009: Criminal Injustice-Adult Incarceration
- 10. June 2009: Criminal Injustice - Juvenile Detention
- 10. June 2009: Criminal Injustice - The Need For Reform
- 21. May 2009: The Need For Education and Reform
- 21. May 2009: Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009
- 13. May 2009: TOO YOUNG TO DISCARD
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Webb For Change
3. July 2009 by Rev Young.
have many articles from other sources to post. I have gotten a little behind. We attended a NJJN (National Juvenile Justice Network) Conference last week in Washington D we have been very busy preparing and then attending this convening of advocates. More about that later.
In this article the spotlight is given to Senator Webb and the hearing that was held at the beginning of June to give testimony concerning the Senator’s bill that was introduced in the senate calling for a thorough evaluation of our “Criminal Injustice” system. Read on……
Jim Webb Moves Forward To Fix Bloated Incarceration System by Focusing on Violent and Not Minor Offenders
Submitted by christine on Fri, 06/12/2009 - 11:19am.
· Alerts
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Christine Bowman
America’s prisons, recently deemed by frightened citizens and vocal politicians to benot up to the job of housing Gitmo detainees, truly do warrant a fresh look. That’s exactly what prisons and the process that feeds people into the “corrections” world will get, too, if Senator Jim Webb (D/VA) succeeds in building support for comprehensive reform of the US criminal justice system.
Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs heard testimony on a bill introduced by Webb in March to form a blue-panel commission to evaluate and recommend changes to correct systemic flaws in America’s criminal justice system. The presidential level bipartisan team would be empowered to conduct “an 18-month, top-to-bottom review.”
Although still in the early stages of the legislative process, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 appears to be attracting the interest of a broad range of groups. If they prove themselves able to work together, this may be the right bill at the right time to address an immense array of interlocking issues.
Initial testimony to the committee came from Webb, the LAPD police chief, Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree and representatives from the conservative Heritage Foundation and the Prison Fellowship — the Christian prison ministry founded by Watergate ex-con Chuck Colson.
The proposed commission would be charged with reshaping America’s entire criminal justice system by making policy recommendations to:
• re-focus incarceration policies on criminal activities that threaten public safety;
• lower the incarceration rate, prioritizing public safety, crime reduction, and fairness;
• decrease prison violence;
• improve prison administration;
• establish meaningful re-entry programs for former offenders;
• reform drug laws;
• improve treatment of the mentally ill;
• improve responses to international & domestic criminal activity by gangs & cartels;
• and reform any other aspect of the criminal justice system the Commission determines necessary.
http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony…
Bill Sizemore of The Virginian-Pilot gathered these highlights from the hearing:
“We call it a correctional system, but we all know it doesn’t correct,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on crime and drugs.
The most impassioned testimony came from someone with firsthand experience: Pat Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship, a former California state legislator who spent 29 months in federal prison after getting caught in an FBI sting for campaign finance violations.
“What I saw inside prison really troubled me,” Nolan said, describing widespread rape, disease and overcrowding. Most inmates are simply being warehoused, he said. There is little training or treatment, making it hard for them to find a job when they get out and raising the chances that they will return to prison.
The cost to taxpayers is staggering, Nolan said: $68 billion and rising.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said communities need to focus on preventing crime, not just responding to it. “There are too many people in prison who don’t need to be there,” he said, citing the mentally ill as an example.
The time is ripe for reform, said Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School. “You can be smart on crime and save a lot of money,” he said.
Webb’s bent on correcting broken corrections system
Decades of supposedly tough-on-crime legislation has resulted in a prison system that is overstretched, expensive, an often unjust. Four times as many people with mental health problems are in jail than are in psychiatric hospitals. Decades of the “war on drugs” has pushed addicts and casual users into prisons while cartels and street gangs have grown by leaps and bounds. Drug policy reform advocates are heartened, as are fiscal conservatives and rights advocates. Which is to say, it’s a big tent coalition seeking big reforms.
As Webb wrote in a commentary at Huffington Post:
The National Criminal Justice Commission Act has already garnered wide support from across the political and philosophical spectrum, including 29 sponsors in the Senate, among them many senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. My staff and I have engaged with more than 100 organizations and associations, representing the entire gamut of prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, former offenders, advocacy groups, think tanks, victims rights organizations, academics, prisoners, and law enforcement on the street. This engagement is ongoing, and support continues to grow. My goal, shared by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, is to pass this legislation soon and to enact it into law this year.
Building broad-based support for far-reaching reform “is an immodest goal for a freshman senator” — but an encouraging one.
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Criminal Justice Accountability II
11. June 2009 by Rev Young.
There are many large organizations who have joined with Senator Webb in calling for the Criminal Justice Commission. The letter below is from one of them.
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Criminal Justice Accountability
11. June 2009 by Rev Young.
Senator Webb has made a bold proposal that the United States create a commission to study, review and report on the condition of our criminal justice system in this nation. Some of you may remember a commission that was created several years ago to investigate the practices and conditions of our nations prisons. If you have not heard of, or read this report, you may find it at www.prisoncommission.org. From the findings of this commission, several programs and ideas have launched that eventually will bring change to our practices of incareration.
This next commission will investigate the entire system of criminal justice from start to finish. Many leaders, law makers and legislative members have come to the conclusion that our entire system is broken and in severe need of reform. There will be a hearing today on this very legislation. See below.
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The U.S. Senate is holding a hearing today on Senator Jim Webb’s (D-Va.) bill, S. 714, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009. The bill would create a commission charged with conducting a top-to-bottom review of the nation’s criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform. |
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Criminal Injustice - A Nation In Decay
11. June 2009 by Rev Young.
The practice of the Direct File Statute allows for District Attorney’s to transfer a juvenile case to adult court. Once that happens, the charges become adult charges, the sentences become adult sentences and the life of a young person is permanently changed.
There have been many cases that have garnered national media attention from horrendous crimes and acts of violence perpetrated by a youth. While the media and the press releases from the District Attorney’s office deliver to us a portrait of a child killer, the truth and facts of the stories are far more devastating. Behind these gruesome stories are histories of physical and sexual abuse, mental illness, addiction, generational gang violence, false confessions leading to injustice, entrapment and questionable interrogation practices, MIRANDA rights violations, constitutional rights violations and abuse on these young people from the authorities that are holding them.
In the past 20 years we have created a trail of terror for us as American citizens and we aren’t even aware of it. We have given ourselves over to media sensationalism, sound bites that influence our opinions and refused to look at the results of our choices and laws. If you have children in this country I am calling you to awaken and begin to take a long honest look at the conditions in your schools, communities, juvenile centers, justice centers, jails and prisons. Your child may be safe in your arms today but what is your child’s future? Are the systems we depend upon in this country truly preparing for and providing a future for your child? Or are we choosing, as a nation of uneducated and uncommitted parents, to rid ourselves of a generation of children?
This may sound very harsh and even exaggerated. It is not. We have lost 15,000 lives to the generational gang wars in California. These youngsters are not raised with right and wrong, as we suppose, they are raised with “survive or die”. We have 20,000 young people locked in adult facilities across this nation every night of the year. We have Children as young as 13 sentenced to die in prison. We have no mental health programs for children and as a result we use juvenile detention facilities as their treatment centers. Educators EXPECT and ACCEPT the fact that one third of all sixth graders entering middle school and one third of all ninth graders entering high school will fail. They prepare prison beds based on those failures. Upwards of 10,000 young adult people (per state !) with developmental disabilities have no programs or resources for their care or rehabilitation! This nation has fallen dramatically in it’s international ranking for the education of children.
With all of this neglect, we wonder why we have so much trouble among our youth. We have abandoned our responsibilities and our children. We have allowed laws to be put in place that say our children are not redeemable, that you cannot rehabilitate a child. We no longer believe that children make mistakes, even really big ones, but they can be reformed and become contributing citizens.
And we have lost our voice. We choose not to speak out. We choose to believe that our voice is not important. We put blinders on and choose not to look and the problems around us. I believe the day and time has come for us to take back our voice. I applaud you for reading these blog articles and educating yourself on these issues. I hope it has caused you to research issues involving the children in this country and education, reform and rehabilitation practices. Now I am asking you to use your voice. Write or call your senators, representatives and national leaders. Speak out for reform and change. Bring America’s focus back to the children of this country. Let us speak out so that we start caring for our children instead of trying to bail out corporations. Speak out so that we can get back to our basic moral responsibilities……caring for children, families and building a future for this nation.
Every major shift in history has come from a group of citizens who united in VOICE and caused change. I ask you to use your voice. Please click on the video link from Campaign For Youth Justice. http://www.campaign4youthjustice.org/video.html#
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Criminal Injustice-Adult Incarceration
10. June 2009 by Rev Young.
Many of us are under the false impression that only felons end up serving time in adult prisons. This is not the case. Even misdemeanor crimes can and do receive a sentence to prison. This includes juvenile misdemeanor cases that have been direct filed into adult court. An even further criminal injustice is that the majority of juveniles serving sentences in adult prison facilities were only an accessory after the fact in a crime and some of them did not result in the death of any victim. This is true of two cases being heard in the Supreme Court.
Still these young people are held in adult prisons and while this fact is disturbing, it is not as disturbing as what happens before they are sentenced. The direct file statute states that if a District Attorney files charges on a juvenile in adult court, the juvenile must be housed in an adult facility while the court proceedings are concluded. This means that during the time that a court is determining their guilt or innocence, a juvenile is subjected to incarceration in county jails across this country. The laws in most states require that a juvenile be separated from adults who are held at the same facility. In order to comply with the law, most county jails have to hold juveniles in holding cells. They are isolated for 23 hours a day, coming out for one hour to shower and maybe exercise. There is current legislation that would end this practice called The Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act.
I will relate one testimony of a juvenile offender to you, of his experience in county jail. He was placed in a holding cell that was used for suicide watch. In this cell, the lights stayed on 24 hours a day so he lost track of day and night and even the number of days he had been held. He created his own calender so that he could track days. He told time by the routine sounds of the facility and the activity around him. He would go 2 and 3 days between showers because the jail did not have the extra staff to deal with him. When he was allowed out to shower, he was moved with his hands and legs shackled. He had never been in a situation where he was hated so much. He had gone from being an ordinary kid to being treated as a monster. He was not allowed to go outside with the exception of three yard times in almost three years. This resulted in severe vitamin D deficiency and deterioration of his eye sight. He was in solitary confinement, a condition that prisoners of war herald as the most debilitating part of their captivity. It is also recognized by the military as a condition that must be treated in order for the soldier to return to normal function. Remember, this kid had not even been tried or convicted. He was only held on charges and in this country we are “innocent until proven guilty”. Or so they say.
Once a juvenile has been sentenced to an adult facility, they are subjected to a society and social hierarchy that they are unprepared for. They are preyed upon, abused, neglected, beaten and terrorized. That is the truth. If they are fortunate, they are large enough in stature to defend themselves. If they are not…….they will become victims in prison.
The conditions of our prison facilities are atrocious. The social structure and hierarchy in prisons, that are established and maintained by prison authorities, are destructive and violent. We expect people to “learn their lesson” while they are in prison and we expect them to return to their communities a better person. We are so mistaken in our assumptions.
Don’t believe it is that bad? Click on the link below and see for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MOtz-eJlPE&feature=email
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Criminal Injustice - Juvenile Detention
10. June 2009 by Rev Young.
When we are confronted with juveniles who have violated the rules, we have a system them deals with these young people and help to set them on the right path right? WRONG. Even the officials that are charged with running these facilities will tell you that they are not adequately prepared, educated, staffed or funded to deal with these young people and help them to become successful.
Because we have taken the focus off of our children in our communities, we leave the state to try and find solutions. Government entities are used to facilities. Facilities are sterile environments that house these individuals for predetermined terms of confinement. They are not structures or organizations of modeling and change, they are places of confinement.
We choose, as a society, not to take a look inside these facilities. We read the headlines involving juvenile crime statistics, shake our head and then forget about them. We also are not prepared to deal with the reality that it could very easily be your son or daughter. Our ZERO TOLERANCE attitude makes us feel that we are protecting our children. Then one day someone is not tolerant of your child’s youthful pranks and you and your family are plunged into a system that you were not prepared for. DON’T THINK SO?
Imagine that your child has asked permission to attend a birthday party for one of his/her friends at this friends home. Imagine that there is drinking at this party. Of course, if you had known this would happen, you would not have given your permission. How many of us engaged in this same activity when we were teenagers? Now imagine that the police show up at this party and arrests are made. Suddenly your son/daughter is calling you from a police station. You and your child will be faced with a system that you are not prepared to deal with. Suppose that your child ends up in court and is sentenced to a juvenile detention facility for 30 days. It can and does happen.
We cannot turn away from the problems in our communities or the lack of adequate and APPROPRIATE solutions. I believe that we do not address these issues because we would have to realize our responsibility and we would be forced to look at very ugly circumstances. The truth is….it is ugly, it is a mess, it is broken, it is in need of repair. We will not be able to make the changes necessary until we are willing to take off our rose colored glasses, roll up our sleeves and brave the awful truth. If you think I am exaggerating or you want an snapshot of what I am talking about, click on the link below. You can go inside of a juvenile detention facility and see for yourself. TIME magazine did an incredible job at presenting this story.
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/juveniles/
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Criminal Injustice - The Need For Reform
10. June 2009 by Rev Young.
The call for criminal justice and prison reform has been building momentum for years. Those who have experienced our system of justice and the resulting incarceration know first hand the state of disrepair our country is in. We have witnessed the violations of personal and constitutional rights. We have witnessed the mistreatment of human beings who are currently in prison.
Many people will justify this moral decay with “if you can’t do the time then don’t do the crime”. Those that make these kind of statements should count themselves lucky that the mistakes they have made were not brought to the attention of authorities and did not end in prison sentences.
I believe that we, as advocates, have done ourselves and those we advocate for a grave injustice by not being blatantly honest about the current conditions of communities, education, criminal justice systems and corrections systems. We have tried to play the political game and used the appropriate phrases so as not to “offend ” anyone while we tried to gain their support. This has not been productive thus far and I do not believe it ever will be. The first statement that must be made to all of the die-hard legislators that continue spouting tired rhetoric about the current laws that incarcerate youth for outrageous sentences is that “WE HAVE BEEN DOING THIS YOUR WAY FOR 20 YEARS WITHOUT POSITIVE RESULTS. IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE!” “IF THE ANSWER TO JUVENILE CRIME WAS ADULT INCARCERATION, WE WOULD HAVE SEEN THE IMPACT IN JUVENILE CRIME RATES AND INCARCERATION RATES.”
JUVENILE CRIME IS ONLY A SYMPTOM OF A MUCH DEEPER PROBLEM THAT STARTS IN OUR COMMUNITIES AND THIS COUNTRIES COMMITTMENT TO IT’S CHILDREN.
I will say that there are some candidates and government officials that are finally seeing the connection between the lack of funding and attention given to early childhood education and intervention and the rise in prison populations. This is called the school to prison pipeline. Yes there are really reports and statistics that give this information and they use the failure of children in elementary school to predict how many prison beds they will need for the future! They are actually preparing for these young children who fail and LOOKING FORWARD to their entrance into prison! If you think I am mistaken about this, please click on the video link and see for yourself. This video is from a candidate for the Virginia Governor’s seat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Yeprm-Z8U
If you want further information then I ask you to follow this link and it will give even more information concerning the issue of education funding and early intervention. http://www.smartoncrimesolutions.org/Special%20Education%20Concerns.ppt
In the state of Colorado, education disabilities are not categorized as a disability requiring intervention and treatment. For instance if your child is dyslexic or diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, he/she will not receive the intervention that can train them at an early age, to overcome these disabilities and become successful students. If you are having difficulty keeping up with your studies and your classmates, you develop an identity of yourself. You see yourself as a failure and you begin to actualize this belief. This starts the negative self image and the resulting behavior problems.
When are our children going to become the focus of this nation? When are we going to realize that they are the future of this country and therefore our most precious resource? When are we going to be willing to stop our self- indulgent behavior long enough to grab the hand of a child? They have been given to us as a responsibility and a charge. How they turn out and who they become is a result of our investment. Apparently we have not invested much.
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The Need For Education and Reform
21. May 2009 by Rev Young.
We are very hopeful about the possibilities that are being presented with Senator Webb’s proposal for a commission to look into, and make recommendations for, criminal justice reform. We, as advocates, know that this has been needed for a long time. We are keenly aware that even if the juveniles we advocate for did not have a history of crime, they have been damaged from their experience and time served in this system of justice.
I have a friend who’s career has been the department of corrections. He will tell you very plainly that prison has it’s own society, culture and set of rules. He calls it “cell block x mentality”. The fact of the matter is, we place people into a world of violence, intimidation, corruption and greed. If the person who is incarcerated did not have issues before he/she was sent to prison, they will when they come out.
My friend and team mate, Mary Ellen Johnson of The Pendulum Foundation, has been advocating to the Colorado Department of Corrections for programs, education and restorative justice. She has partnered with several organizations to make these available at LITTLE or NO cost to the state. The state has yet to move to implement any of these programs. While working on the issue of programs and education, we found out an interesting statistic for the state of Colorado. If you reduce the recidivism rate by 1%, you save the state 3 million dollars. You would think that this would be a great motivator in a time of budget crisis. It has not motivated them this far.
Even beyond the monetary gain from such rehabilitation programs is the human side. What an opportunity to see transformation in the lives of so many people. That is the purpose of this blog. While I do not normally do this, I am posting a blog from a christian organization, Prison Fellowship Ministries. This open letter is a shining example of what programs and education can do for individuals, facilities and governments alike. It is also a testimony to the power of one human being showing care and consideration to another. These people who have helped to implement these programs have chosen to go into these dark places called prisons and impact the lives of those held there. Most of you know that I am a Reverend as I sign my blogs that way. I do not intend to offend anyone and apologize if I do. What I want everyone to see is the possibility and hope that comes from applying education, rehabilitation and restorative justice. Prison Fellowship is only one organization with these kinds of programs to offer. Isn’t it time that we begin to look at the human cost and change the direction of prisons in this country? Please read on…..
May 2009Dear Friends,
Two weeks ago, I returned from a four-day trip to Costa Rica and Belize. Mike Timmis, the Chairman of our board, Ron Nikkel, President of Prison Fellowship International, and I joined six other men from the U.S. to visit Prison Fellowship’s work in these two countries. Despite the fact that I came back with a mildly “unhappy” stomach, we were astounded at what we saw and heard.
Belize has just one prison. Its population has doubled in the last few years — now more than 1,500 men and 30 women. Several years ago the country handed the prison system over to the Kolbe Foundation to manage, since the prison had such a high recidivism rate (70 percent) and frequent escapes and violence. It was filled with corruption. The Kolbe Foundation, run by followers of Jesus, partners with Prison Fellowship Belize. Prison Fellowship provides the rehabilitation programs in the prison. Today the prison is clean, well managed, and the recidivism rate is now only 10 to 13 percent. Perhaps most exciting, the primary residential rehabilitation program is patterned on the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI) here in the U.S.
Seven years ago, a retired schoolteacher in Iowa, Jeanne Goematt, felt led to go to Belize and minister to prisoners. She went to the IFI program in Iowa and asked if they would train her to work with inmates and teach her the IFI model. For several months she did just that. Then, armed with her training and experience, she went to Belize.
Mother Jeanne, as she is now called by the prisoners in Belize, approached the Kolbe Foundation and said, “You need a rehabilitation program.”
They agreed and asked her to do it. They gave her the most dilapidated building in the prison, and she went to work. Now the unit, named the Inner Change for Freedom Belize (IFFB), is the nicest in the prison. Mother Jeanne is retiring once again to return to the states. We happened to be there on the day they honored her with a going-away celebration. The men were in tears as they said goodbye to Mother Jeanne. Over and over, they repeated that she had shown them the love of Jesus and taught them the Scriptures. One man, who had been in and out of prison five times, was so overcome with tears that he could not finish as he shared how through her Jesus had changed his life. He is out of prison now and helps run the program. As Mother Jeanne leaves these men to return to Iowa, she leaves the program in the hands of another former inmate trained and discipled by her — now a laborer in the harvest.
When we arrived in Costa Rica, we visited a Prison Fellowship kitchen that serves street people — many of them drug addicts and former prisoners. While there, we met Cesar. Cesar has now been drug free for 12 years, is married to a college professor, and has five children. He owns his own business and is part of the Prison Fellowship Costa Rica outreach. But that was not always the case. His father spent 30 years in prison, and his mother died at a young age from substance abuse. Cesar grew up homeless on the streets, a drug addict himself, stealing to survive. Then one day he heard about some free food at the Prison Fellowship center. When he arrived, they were out of food for the day, and he was angry. But Jeannette Incera, one of Prison Fellowship’s leaders there, took him aside and told him to come back the next day, hugged him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The kiss changed his life forever! As he told us, no one had ever kissed him before because he smelled so bad from not bathing for months. He said from that day on, he was never the same. Days later he returned and the rest is history. He is now walking with Christ and advancing His kingdom.
Costa Rica also has an IFI-related program. Since the program began three years ago, the recidivism rate is 0 percent. The Minister of Justice of Costa Rica, who joined us on the visit, said he wants at least four more. In his words, “If we do not believe in this program, it is like saying we do not believe in man.” I could not agree with him more. Not believing in a program that helps men find Jesus and introduces them to mentors who are willing to love them and disciple them, is indeed giving up on man and saying you want nothing to do with mankind.
What we saw and heard in Belize and in Costa Rica is not unlike what we see and hear in the U.S. every day — men and women who never thought their lives could change until they met a follower of Jesus who loved them, invested time in them, and shared the Good News of Jesus with them. It is universal. And when it hits the prison cells of this world, it is very dramatic. Because of the darkness, the light of Jesus shines ever brighter, and the change He brings in men and women is so sharply visible!
Would you pray that Jeanne Goematt’s desire to continue to work with inmates in Iowa after she returns from Belize will be fulfilled? We can’t afford to lose her!!
Would you pray for Inner Change for Freedom Belize and the former inmate who has now assumed responsibilities for the program?
Pray for Prison Fellowship Costa Rica and that the Minister of Justice’s dream of four more IFI programs would come to pass!
Pray for Jeannette Incera in Costa Rica and the young man she kissed 12 years ago – Cesar. Ask God to raise up more men and women for Jesus who would powerfully impact the prisons of that country with the Gospel.
We are humbled by our inadequacy and depend upon Jesus to supply all we need. Thank you for praying with us and for us so faithfully! It gives us great strength and comfort.
In His Grace,
Mark L. Earley
1 Corinthians 1:9
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Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009
21. May 2009 by Rev Young.
I am very pleased to announce that HR2289 (formerly HR4300) has been re-introduced to congress. The language of the bill has changed. I believe that the bill is much strong and more comprehensive. The intent of this legislation remains the same. The goal is to give those juvenile offenders who committed a crime before the age of 18, and who have been sentenced to serve a sentence of more than 15 years in adult facility, the opportunity to appear before a parole board. While appearing before a parole board does not mean that the will be granted parole, it does mean that they have an opportunity to have their sentences commuted or the opportunity to come home. If they are not granted parole at the first hearing they may appear once every three years after that.
The new legislation addresses the rights and needs of victims, it addresses the requirements for the states to comply and addresses the need for this reform. Our thanks to the legislators for this bold move. I urge you to go to www.hr4300.com to read the bill in its entirety. There is also a link to the petition site for this legislation. EVEN IF YOU HAVE SIGNED THIS PETITION IN THE PAST (HR4300), WE REQUEST THAT YOU SIGN THE PETITION FOR THIS REVISED LEGISLATION.
I am also providing form letters that we ask you to send to members of the judiciary committee and their contact information is included in these attachments as well. If you know of others on your own e-mail lists that need this information, please forward. We need to rally the troops!
I want to thank all of you for helping us pass this important legislation. However, the next step is to help establish the rehabilitation program, education and restorative justice programs that will help insure that receive the opportunity for parole and will help them transition into communities with success. In order for this to happen we are going to need a comprehensive shift in the way we look at criminal justice. More to come on that in my next blog……….
letter_to_lamar_smith__and_the_judiciary.htm
letter_to_the_john_conyers_for_the_judiciary_committee.doc
us_house_judiciary_committee_111th_congress_member_contacts.htm
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TOO YOUNG TO DISCARD
13. May 2009 by Rev Young.
Life Sentence for Juveniles?
To the Editor:
Re “Justices Agree to Take Up Life-Without-Parole Sentences for Young Offenders” (news article, May 5):
There are currently almost 2,500 people serving sentences of life without parole for crimes committed before age 18. Fifty-nine percent received their sentences for their first-ever criminal conviction. Sixteen percent were between 13 and 15 when they committed their crimes, and 26 percent were sentenced under a felony murder charge where their offenses did not involve carrying a weapon or pulling a trigger.
Our society recognizes that juveniles differ from adults in their thinking, reasoning and decision-making capacities. Research also demonstrates that adolescents actually use their brains in fundamentally different ways from adults. As a result, they are more likely to act on impulse, without fully considering the consequences of their actions.
This fall, the Supreme Court will decide if juvenile offenders should be eligible for life without parole. One hopes they will concur with the growing public sentiment that it’s time to stop sentencing young people to die in jail.
David Fassler
Burlington, Vt., May 5, 2009
The writer is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont.
Article published May 11, 2009
Too young to discard
THE fundamental principle the Supreme Court applied to a 2005 ruling that declared the death penalty unconstitutional for juveniles should apply to life imprisonment sentences meted out to juveniles convicted of nonlethal crimes.
When the high court takes up two Florida cases later this year, it should decide against life sentences without chance of parole for criminal teens.
There is a good reason juveniles and adults are usually handled separately in the judicial system.
Children who commit crimes should be punished in some fashion, but they are held to lesser standards than adult lawbreakers because their poor judgment and misbehavior reflect their age and their still-developing maturity.
Much as it seems that juveniles are committing ever more serious crimes, most are simply too young to be permanently discarded by society via life sentences without possibility of parole.
In the two cases the court will hear, one defendant was 13 at the time he allegedly raped a 72-year-old Pensacola woman, and the other was 17 when he was charged with participating in a series of robberies.
Both had been involved in earlier crimes and both got life in prison without parole when convicted and sentenced as adults. But those sentences, their lawyers argue, are precisely the kind of extreme measures that, for adolescents, fall under the Eighth Amendment’s injunction against cruel and unusual punishment.
The Supreme Court used that yardstick when outlawing capital punishment for juvenile offenders. Now it should do the same for life without parole for individuals who are, despite the seriousness of their crimes, still children.
San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12339205?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
Calif. bill would give young killers rehab chance
By STEVE LAWRENCE Associated Press Writer
Posted: 05/10/2009 02:23:57 PM PDT
SACRAMENTO—State Sen. Leland Yee believes that wayward kids should have a second chance to make good—even when they commit murder or other serious crimes.
Yee, a San Francisco Democrat who has a doctorate in child psychology, has introduced legislation that would allow courts to reduce the sentences of inmates who were given terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole when they were minors.
The new sentence would make the prisoner eligible for parole after at least 25 years behind bars.
“No one who supports the bill is dismissing the gravity of the crimes that have been committed by these youngsters,” Yee said. “What we are saying is the people of California should not be throwing away these young people’s lives if there is a possibility of rehabilitation. We ought to look at these individual cases a little more closely.”
The bill, which is on the Senate Appropriations Committee’s agenda on Monday, would allow a prisoner who was sentenced to life without parole as a minor to petition a court for a new sentencing hearing after the inmate had served at least 10 years.
The court would have to grant the hearing—but not necessarily agree to change the sentence—if it found that the inmate met at least three of eight criteria. Those standards include the fact that inmate was an accessory to murder but not the actual killer, did not have prior convictions for assault or other violent crimes and had demonstrated remorse.
Elizabeth Calvin, children’s rights advocate with Human Rights Watch, an international group that investigates allegations of human rights violations, said there are about 250 California inmates who are serving life without parole sentences handed down when they were minors.
Most are behind bars because they were involved in a murder, often as an accomplice, Calvin said. But life-without-parole sentences can be given in a limited number of other cases, including kidnappings for ransom in which a death or serious injury occurs.
The United States is the only country that allows life-without-parole sentences for minors, Calvin added.
“There is a growing recognition that young people are different from adults,” she said. “There is no question that they understand right from wrong. The question is, are they as culpable in all ways as someone who is an adult? What science is finding is no.
“The brain development that is happening in early adulthood is relevant to how teenagers behave. Our laws should reflect that.”
Scott Thorpe, chief executive officer of the California District Attorneys Association, one of the law enforcement groups that opposes the bill, said the standards that courts must consider in determining whether to grant a new sentencing hearing are too weak.
“It really doesn’t take much for a juvenile to show that he or she is entitled to the hearing,” Thorpe said. “You have such things as the juvenile had insufficient adult support or supervision. That isn’t much. That he maintained family connections through phone calls or visits. That isn’t much.
“You’re going to set up a system where hearings are going to be mandated which are mini-trials…. We’re just concerned about the cost of this and the ease of which it would be established to have these kinds of hearings. The standards are too low.”
He said the minors who receive life-without-parole sentences are 16 and 17-year-olds “who commit the most severe types of crimes. Essentially we’re talking about juveniles who commit first-degree murder with special circumstances.”
But Yee said that sometimes there are extraordinary circumstances that don’t warrant lifetime sentences—for example, juveniles who grew up in abusive environments and turned to crime, were led astray by adult criminals or were caught up in a robbery or other crime that resulting in an unintentional killing.
He said he’s haunted by one case in particular—a 16-year-old Riverside girl who killed a man who had lured her into prostitution. The girl, Sara Kruzan, is 31 now and has turned her life around while in prison, Yee said.
“She is locked up in jail, and she is going to die there,” Yee said. “She could be a tremendous role model for abused kids, a tremendous humanitarian, such an asset to our society.
“Literally, life without parole is a death sentence for these kids. In a civilized society we should not throw away the keys but give these youngsters a chance to demonstrate they’re deserving of a second chance.”
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