23. April 2009 by Rev Young.

This article was posted in the Baylor University newpaper The Lariat.  It points out the reasons for challenging the validity of Juvenile Life Witout Parole.  It also asks the question, shouldn’t kids be given a chance at life?  We have all heard the stories about the accidental shootings, the car accidents, the deaths of loved ones at the hands of youth.  Have we ever stopped to really listen to the story?  Or have we been content with the sound bytes that the television news reporters have given us?  We need, as a nation, to stop believing everything we hear and we need to start asking questions.  Not only about this topic, but about our nation in general.  Read on….

Editorial: Life without parole cruel punishment for minors

April 15, 2009

Claire Taylor/Lariat Staff (Click here for larger view)

While most teenagers spend their days doing homework, hanging out with friends and dreaming about the rest of their lives, some teens are sitting behind bars with no hope of getting out. These youths have committed a crime, were tried as adults and given the maximum sentence of life without parole. This punishment is too extreme for a minor and should be prohibited.

At least 73 inmates in the United States were sentenced to life without parole for crimes they committed when they were only 13 or 14 years old, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama nonprofit group that defends impoverished defendants and prisoners. There are more than 2,000 who were under 18 when the crime was committed.

Though the specifics vary a bit from state to state, minors generally can be tried as adults when the crime they’re accused of is violent or premeditated, such as a rape or murder.

The maturity and the history of the minor, the need to protect the public and the predicted ability of the minor to be rehabilitated also often go into a judge’s decision to try a minor as an adult, according to legalmatch.com.

Minors should be punished for their actions and in cases of some violent crimes, should even be tried in adult courts. But the sentence of life without parole shouldn’t be an option for anyone under 18. Only five states, including Texas, that offer life without parole for adult offenders prohibit these sentences for juveniles, according to pbs.org. The other 45 need to institute this same restriction.

Youths’ brains are still developing, which means important brain functions that could have prevented them from committing the crime have not fully matured. Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), a child psychologist who is pushing resentencing for juveniles sentenced to life without parole, said in the California Chronicle that brain maturation happens throughout adolescence and skills needed for impulse control, planning and critical thinking have not fully developed.

For these reasons, the Supreme Court ruled that people under 18 could not be sentenced to death in the 2005 case Roper v. Simmons.

Their reasoning was based on the fact that minors do not have the maturity or sense of responsibility that adults have.

The court noted that most states keep those under 18 from voting, serving on a jury or getting married without the consent of their parents because of their lack of maturity.

It was deemed cruel and unusual punishment to condemn someone with this lack of reasoning to death.

The court or states should also extend this reasoning to life sentences without parole. This punishment is basically sentencing the person to die in prison. It should be considered with the same weight the death penalty is.

This also means that minors are easier to rehabilitate than adults. The juveniles may have committed the crimes before their brains had the capability to make the right decision. They should have the chance at parole once their brains have matured.

Even notorious adult murderers are often given the chance for parole. Charles Manson, who committed seven murders at the age of 27, has been up for parole 11 times, though it’s never been granted. He will be eligible for the 12th time in 2012, according to CNN. David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer who murdered six people in his 20s during the ’70s, has been eligible for parole four times.

Quantel Lotts, however, killed his stepbrother after their horseplay escalated when he was only 14, according to CNN. He will not be eligible for parole in his lifetime unless his sentence is reconsidered.

It doesn’t make sense that adults with fully developed brains at the times of their crimes, especially crimes where so many people were murdered, should have a better chance at parole than teenagers who may have only committed one crime.

There’s no doubt that juveniles should be punished for serious crimes they commit, but they shouldn’t be locked away in prison with no hope of parole. Texas and the handful of other states that prohibit life without parole for minors have the right idea. All states should take this lead and give minors a chance at life.

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23. April 2009 by Mary Ellen.

The first time my friend Jacob Ind went to Colorado State Penitentiary, our state’s Supermax, he was 18. He emerged at 25. He returned last year at the ripe old age of 30.

I visit Jacob every other week. Rules allow us three hours. Even though we’re separated by plate glass and concrete blocks Jacob’s legs remain shackled and he sits upon an uncomfortable metal stool that’s bolted to the floor.

Jacob seldom complains. He’s always cheerful and engaged. During our last visit we discussed Shakespeare, which he’s reading and I largely haven’t. He wonders why Shakespeare’s characters are talking about “garters” and asks whether the term had the same meaning then as now. We discuss politics – we’ll never agree–, the atmosphere in his pod – too many fishes who don’t know how to do time –, the status of his case – nothing going on –, whether he might soon be moved back into g.p., and two books I’ve recently read, I’M PERFECT, YOU’RE DOOMED and LOSING MY RELIGION. He’s witty, insightful, occasionally profound — and is often far more coherent than his visitor.

Occasionally, when I remember where we’re at and that such manufactured isolation can create psychosis, hallucinations, and mental, emotional and physical deterioration after weeks, let alone years, I study Jacob for signs of deterioration. Outside visitors help prisoners maintain sanity, studies show. That’s good. Jacob has dropped at least 50 pounds but he says he meant to lose weight. I think that’s okay. After his last stint at CSP – seven years–, he was pretty wild-eyed and it took him a while to get re-adjusted to other humans, not to mention larger spaces. But since Jacob’s not drooling, doesn’t laugh inappropriately or display any weird facial tics, maintains good eye contact – though he’s actually close to blind from years where his vision was confined to very short distances — and can speak coherent sentences, hey, let’s give solitary confinement a big thumbs up!

Control units must be a-okay. Otherwise Supermax prisons wouldn’t be increasing as inexorably as our national debt.
Atul Gawande, author of Hellhole: (The New Yorker magazine ), disagrees.

In a long article that is as appalling as it is powerful, Gawande lays out the case against prolonged isolation – whether for prisoners of war or prisoners of our courts.
Gawande cites a study out of California’s notorious Pelican Bay where Professor. Craig Haney noted that after time in isolation, many prisoners began “to lose the ability to initiate behavior of any kind—to organize their own lives around activity and purpose… Chronic apathy, lethargy, depression, and despair often result. . . . In extreme cases, prisoners may literally stop behaving,” becoming essentially catatonic.”

We humans need social interaction. We need the presence and companionship of our fellow humans. When we don’t receive it, we go insane.

Yet…this is public policy in America.

This is what we are doing to Jacob. This is what we are doing to more than 1,000 prisoners in Colorado. This is what we are doing to at least 25,000 other prisoners around the country. (And another 50-80,000 in isolation within regular prisons.)

John McCain was a P.O.W for 5 ½ years. His symptoms and experiences were very similar to those we deplored when delivered by the Vietnamese, and proudly initiated in America’s prisons.

From Hellhole: “When P.O.Ws are isolated, they “begin to see themselves primarily as combatants in the world, people whose identity is rooted in thwarting prison control.”

We call that anger, that determination to foil the enemy “heroic” when practiced by prisoners of war. We produce movies about their bravery. We snap up their memoirs. We applaud their courage and grit on Fox News

“According to the Navy P.O.W. researchers, the instinct to fight back against the enemy constituted the most important coping mechanism for the prisoners they studied. Resistance was often their sole means of maintaining a sense of purpose, and so their sanity. Yet resistance is precisely what we wish to destroy in our supermax prisoners. As Haney observed in a review of research findings, prisoners in solitary confinement must be able to withstand the experience in order to be allowed to return to the highly social world of mainline prison or free society. Perversely, then, the prisoners who can’t handle profound isolation are the ones who are forced to remain in it. “And those who have adapted,” Haney writes, “are prime candidates for release to a social world to which they may be incapable of ever fully readjusting.”

John McCain has spoken against conditions at Guantanomo. Has he EVER spoken out against conditions in the Supermax prisons in his home state? Have any of our politicians?

What have we the people become?

Prison officials maintain that long-term isolation cuts down on violence and is reserved for “the worst of the worst.” However, since the wholesale implementation of control units – and America is the only nation that uses control units so extensively – institutional violence has not decreased.

“Perhaps the most careful inquiry into whether supermax prisons decrease violence and disorder was a 2003 analysis examining the experience in three states—Arizona, Illinois, and Minnesota—following the opening of their supermax prisons. The study found that levels of inmate-on-inmate violence were unchanged, and that levels of inmate-on-staff violence changed unpredictably, rising in Arizona, falling in Illinois, and holding steady in Minnesota.”
States with fewer control units do NOT have higher rates of crime and violence.

The current buzz in corrections is, “Don’t present us anything unless you can show that it works.” Their only interest is in successful “evidence-based practices.”

Well, the evidence shows that control units don’t work. So why do we continue to think it’s perfectly okay to lock people away in rooms the size of a parking space for years on end?

We don’t…think, that is.

The rise in prison sentences has largely been pushed by liberals who fear being seen as soft on crime. How’s that for integrity? Using the least among us, using the most despised, to further political careers? As politicians have scapegoated prisoners – let’s remember that the rich and the politicans are seldom ensnared in the morass of our criminal justice system – they’ve also cut back on programs or other forms of rehabilitation. We can afford to build and staff regular and supermax prisons into infinity but we can’t afford to provide programs that would increase public safety and end recidivism. Those who want prisoners to exist on bread and water and spend their days on chain gangs or rotting in their cells without anything but cockroaches to keep them company get re-elected. Those who don’t lose. So we can’t really blame our representatives. We the people are driving their votes and their faux ourtrage. (Because most of them have known for many years these policies don’t work.) We’ve all happily conspired to create cesspools of violence and dehumanization and we don’t care – as long as we don’t have to see the results or nobody in our family ever ends up sleeping among the cockroaches.

What has happened to us as? We weren’t always so barbaric. Only in the last two decades have Supermax prisons become de rigueur. One hundred years ago our social conscience was more evolved.

Atul Gawande writes:

“In 1890, the United States Supreme Court came close to declaring the punishment to be unconstitutional. Writing for the majority in the case of a Colorado murderer who had been held in isolation for a month, Justice Samuel Miller noted that experience had revealed “serious objections” to solitary confinement:
“A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others, still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community.”

Yet, we in the 21st century with gritted teeth and flashing eyes declare that it’s perfectly okay to treat human beings worse than beasts.

Why are we so angry?

Why are we so heartless?

Why are we so short-sighted?

Other nations, after determining that isolation will never garner the desired results, have deep-sixed control units. Great Britain, which was infamous for its treatment of members of the Irish Republican Army, once used solitary confinement as a means to control the rebels.

It didn’t work. The violence inside prisons remained unchanged while related costs skyrocketed.

So what did the British do?

Unlike America where, when we determine something doesn’t work we throw more money at it and increase its usage, the Brits

“gradually adopted a strategy that focussed on preventing prison violence rather than on delivering an ever more brutal series of punishments for it. The approach starts with the simple observation that prisoners who are unmanageable in one setting often behave perfectly reasonably in another. This suggested that violence might, to a critical extent, be a function of the conditions of incarceration. The British noticed that problem prisoners were usually people for whom avoiding humiliation and saving face were fundamental and instinctive. When conditions maximized humiliation and confrontation, every interaction escalated into a trial of strength. Violence became a predictable consequence.

“So the British decided to give their most dangerous prisoners more control, rather than less. They reduced isolation and offered them opportunities for work, education, and special programming to increase social ties and skills. The prisoners were housed in small, stable units of fewer than ten people in individual cells, to avoid conditions of social chaos and unpredictability. In these reformed “Close Supervision Centres,” prisoners could receive mental-health treatment and earn rights for more exercise, more phone calls, “contact visits,” and even access to cooking facilities. They were allowed to air grievances. And the government set up an independent body of inspectors to track the results and enable adjustments based on the data.
The results have been impressive. The use of long-term isolation in England is now negligible. In all of England, there are now fewer prisoners in “extreme custody” than there are in the state of Maine. And the other countries of Europe have, with a similar focus on small units and violence prevention, achieved a similar outcome.”

So why do we happily continue spending money we don’t have on a policy that doesn’t work?

We are to blame. No one else. Politicians are voting for these tough-and-dumb-on-crime policies because we demand it, condone it or don’t give a rat’s butt about it. How can it be that we’ve so devolved as a nation? When did we become so self-absorbed and so mindlessly cruel and so mindlessly stupid – because we are getting the opposite outcomes that we supposedly intend — that we would allow torture to go on right under our noses? What is wrong with us? After 9/11 we trembled and swooned like 19th century heroines over the terrorists who, “Oh, please, sir, don’t!” might hurt us once again. Talk shows called for torture; we agreed. Opinion polls showed that the majority condoned or even applauded torture, just so long as it would make us safe. What cowards we have become! And the irony is, torture makes us LESS safe. Just like isolating and torturing our own makes us less safe. Most of the men and women locked down 23 out of 24 hours for years on end will come out of prison, after all.

Do you want someone who’s been locked down for years on end without programs or mental health treatment, who are fed a diet of oppression and hatred, coming to a neighborhood near you?

Of course you do. Because you demanded this. You voted for this. You’re fine with this—at least until you have a husband or a brother or a Jacob rotting away in a control unit somewhere.

Then you say, “This is awful.This is inhuman. We have to do something.”

I used to wonder what it would have been like to live in Nazi Germany. Would I have had the courage to speak up? Would I have risked my family’s life or my own to rebel against tyranny?

Possibly not.

Just as we don’t know how we would behave in situations or living in environments that caused many of America’s prisoners to be incarcerated, we can bluster about how courageous and strong and principled we would be fighting Nazis or terrorists or crime in our neighborhood, but the truth is far different.

A strong, courageous and moral people wouldn’t incarcerate more men and women than any other nation. We wouldn’t torture people and call it rehabilitation.

Such actions come from weakness and fear.

How low we’ve sunk.

UPDATE: Two weeks after penning this blog, Jacob was busted back from Level III to Level II. So the pattern begins again. Will it take Jacob another 7 years to work his way through CSP a second time? Whatever causes my friend to endlessly repeat this pattern I’m not capable of either understanding it or of fixing it. Perhaps all I can do is observe and report. And mourn.

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15. April 2009 by Rev Young.

One of the things that I hope to accomplish through this site is not just educating the public on the issues of Juvenile Justice Reform but beginning a ground swell call to action.  As we become more educated on the issue of criminal justice reform , we can’t help but ask ourselves the question, “What can I do to change this?”.  I want to ask everyone of you who read this to follow through with the process of reform by contacting the legislators of your state and also contacting the legislators of other states and let them know that you support changes in legislation to reform our justice system.  It is one thing to be educated and not take action, it is another to be educated and then take the small steps necessary to bring about change. 

The article posted below is an example of the hard work that has gone into bringing a sweeping change to the laws in Michigan.  Michigan incarcerates the 3rd highest number of juveniles serving LWOP in this nation.  They are trying to turn the tide in that state and have run up against the “political wall”.  I urge you to read the article and then take action by sending letters or e-mails in support of those who are proposing these changes.  Thank You!

As bill to ban life imprisonment for children languishes, inequities of defense persist

Children facing prospect of life sentence often have no choice but rely on state’s overworked and under-resourced public defenders.

By Eartha Jane Melzer 4/13/09 1:00 AM

As legislation to end juvenile-life-without-parole sentences in Michigan remains stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee, some court watchers are warning that the controversial sentence may not be in tune with recent public opinion and is not applied fairly by the justice system.

Currently, nearly 350 people in the state are serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were age 17 or younger. Seventy percent of them are African American, according to the state’s Department of Corrections.

Michigan, which currently spends approximately 20 percent of its general budget on corrections, has the third-highest number of inmates serving juvenile-life-without-parole sentences, according to a 2005 study by the Wayne State University School of Social Work.

Wayne State’s study surveyed public sentiment on juvenile crime and punishment and found that a majority did not support juvenile-life-without-parole sentences.

“Michigan residents are unequivocal in their belief that youth should be held accountable for their violent crimes,” the study’s authors wrote, “but that it should be in a manner that recognizes the physiologic, psychological and emotional capabilities of the youths, understanding that these capabilities differ from that of adults. These findings seem to support alternative sentencing arrangements and changes to Michigan’s current policies and legislation.”

When asked what would be an appropriate sentence for a juvenile convicted of homicide, the largest portion of respondents, 39 percent, said they preferred confinement in a juvenile facility then transfer to an adult facility for a life sentence with possibility of parole. Only 5 percent said life in adult prison without parole was the appropriate sentence; 78 percent of those surveyed said that 14-16 year-olds should not be sentenced to adult prison.

Patricia Caruso, director of the state Department of Corrections, supports the legislation to end juvenile-life-without-parole sentencing and told the Capitol News Service last month that juveniles should never come into the adult prison system.

“When you put a 14-year-old in an adult system, you’ve given up.” she said. “Adult prisons are not designed for juveniles.”

The legislation, sponsored by State Sen. Liz Brater, an Ann Arbor Democrat, would ban juvenile-life-without-parole sentences and allow those already serving mandatory life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles to apply for parole after a portion of their sentence is served. The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, where it has been stuck ever since.

Young Defendants Often Lack Adequate Defense

When juveniles are facing charges that carry a life sentence, they are especially dependent on legal counsel in a state that has one of the most under-funded public defender systems in the country. A recent report by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association done in cooperation with the State Bar of Michigan found that the lack of state funding, standards and oversight leads to inadequate public defense locally where counties often lack the resources to provide adequate support for those who can’t afford an attorney.

Because young people are especially dependent on counsel to represent their interests, the failure of the state to provide adequate resources for public defense hits youth especially hard. According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, 78 percent of juveniles sentenced to life without parole relied on appointed counsel.

Coalition for Justice, an alliance of legal and human rights groups concerned about inequities in the state justice system, together with the ACLU of Michigan is suing the state for failing to ensure equal access to representation in Michigan. The group point out that in Berrien County, for example, the prosecution receives four times as much funding as the defense.

Scott Elliot of Benton Harbor is a member of the Coalition for Justice’s public defense task force and is also the chair of groups racial relations council of Southwest Michigan.

Elliot has closely followed the case of Efren Paredes, a 15-year old Latino honor student who in 1989 became Michigan’s first juvenile to receive the life-without-parole sentence after being convicted of murder and robbery. Paredes, who has now served 20 years in prison, maintains that he is innocent.

During his years of incarceration he has become a widely known advocate for sentencing reform and he works translating books for the blind.

Elliot said stereotypes and cultural bias were an important factor in Paredes conviction.

A notebook with lyrics from rap group N.W.A.’s double platinum selling “Straight Outta Compton” album was found in Paredes’ locker at school.

Despite the fact that Paredes was a good student and had no criminal record, the prosecutor, who assumed that the lyrics were written by Paredes himself, Elliot said, introduced them as a “window into his mind” and tried to characterize him as a dangerous gang member.

Twenty years later, the lyrics remain a key element of the case against Paredes, Elliot said. At a December 2008 parole board hearing for Paredes commutation request, Berrien County Prosecutor Arthur J. Cotter again read the lyrics to the parole board as a central element of his testimony about Paredes.

The Berrien County prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on use of the lyrics and the county’s sentencing statistics.

Uneven Treatment, County by County

According to an American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan report, “Second Chances: Juveniles Serving Life Without Parole in Michigan,” the rate of juvenile-life-without-parole sentences varies widely among Michigan counties. Between 1990 and 2000, the counties with the highest rate of this sentence were Saginaw, Calhoun and Berrien counties.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Saginaw and Berrien rank among the top 25 most segregated metropolitan areas in the country.

Elliot, who has studied trends in punishment in Berrien County over three decades, said that social exclusion is a key factor in why some counties are more likely to send juvenile offenders to adult prison for life.

“It’s kind of easy to say that it was racial. I think in this community everybody’s father and uncle either belongs to Rotary or the Lion’s club or Kiwanis or their brother-in-law was a police officer,” Elliot said.

“If you are outside that large circle which is 99 percent white then you are vulnerable whether you are Latino of some other minority or black or even like me don’t go to church and don’t belong to those clubs. Anybody who is not under that umbrella is vulnerable.”

Michael Thomas, prosecuting attorney for Saginaw County, said that he was unaware that the U.S. Census Bureau lists the Saginaw as among the nation’s most segregated areas. “Segregation,” he said, “is a word I haven’t heard in around 15 years.”

Thomas said that he does not believe that racism or inability to pay for lawyers are direct factors in Saginaw’s rank as the county with the highest rate of juvenile-life-without-parole sentences in the state.

“There has been a loss of public safety in Michigan,” he said. “We now have the highest violent crime rate in the Midwest with Saginaw and Detroit tied for most violent crime,” in this climate, there are more murders committed by people of all ages.

“Children who are raised in homes where they don’t see violence and don’t have to worry where their next meal is coming from are less likely to commit violent crimes,” Thomas said.

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15. April 2009 by Rev Young.

Today I want to bring your attention to a couple of pieces of media that relate to the topic of juvenile justice reform.  First of all I have posted an article on “Free Jonny” concerning Florida legislation that calls for a second chance for youth who were sentenced as adults to adult prison facilities.  One of the things that many of these young offenders have asked for is a chance to redeem their lives and show that they can be contributing members of society instead of a burden to the taxpayer.  Please follow this link to read the article:  http://s246427087.onlinehome.us/freejonny/the-chance-to-redeem

Next is a brief article and a link to the radio broadcast “Between The Lines” which interviewed the sentencing project on the issue of JLWOP.  The practice of sentencing kids to life without parole is widely used in this nation.  While there are states that have changed their laws recently to abolish the practice of JLWOP, the majority of states still practice JLWOP.  While the other states have changed their laws going forward for future juveniles who appear in the courts, the others who have been impacted by the old legislation still languish in prisons.  When we address the use and practice of JLWOP, WE MUST NOT FORGET THOSE WHO ARE CURRENTLY SENTENCED TO JLWOP AND SENTENCES EQUAL to LIFE! 

Follow these links to listen to the radio broadcast:

BTL:Critics Charge U.S. Practice of Sentencing Youth to Life in Prison Without Parole is I

by Distributed by Squeaky Wheel Productions http
Saturday Mar 28th, 2009 2:49 PM

BETWEEN THE LINES Syndicated Radio Newsmagazine

Critics Charge U.S. Practice of Sentencing Youth to Life in Prison Without Parole is Inhumane

VIEW the Between the Lines website by clicking on the link below:
http://www.btlonline.org

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8. April 2009 by Rev Young.

IF YOU DO NOT READ ANOTHER THING THIS WEEK, I URGE YOU TO READ THE ARTICLE FROM THE NEW YORKER CONCERNING SOLITARY CONFINEMENT THAT IS LINKED IN THIS BLOG!

I received a plea from Julie Hamos of Illinois to sign a petition in support of her TAMM bill.  This calls for changes at the Illinois supermax that houses men in solitary confinement for years at a time.  The practice of Supermax prisons and isolation is widespread in America.  We believe the reports from corrections officials that state these facilities are necessary to promote safety for inmates and guards alike. 
I have found that inmates can be sent to a supermax facility for very minor infractions.  Not only have I heard this from other inmates but I have experienced it with my own son.  Prison authorities have the right to send an inmate anywhere they want….including into solitary confinement.  My son was sent to the “hole” for almost 2 weeks before he was brought before the facility board and given the reason why.  Within weeks he was sent to solitary confinement while he was contesting the allegations against him.  I have even heard of instances of inmates being sent to supermax facilities as retribution for complaining against prison infractions. 

The effects of isolation for long periods of time are extremely damaging.  I tried my best to write often, talk to my son twice a week on the phone and visit him as often as I was permitted so that the effects of solitary confinement would be minimal.  Even with my efforts and his determination to do this time without effect, we saw the change in is ability to communicate, his social responses and his anger.  When he was released and sent back to general population, he had to be always cognisant of his behavior and work to regain his humanity. 

Human Rights Watch, SuperMaxed and many other organizations are lobbying against the use of supermax facilities.  However, in Colorado we are about to open another supermax facility….against the wishes and votes of the taxpayers. 

I have copied Julies letter below which includes the link to her petition.  It also includes the link to the article on the impact of solitary confinement on animals, orphans, POW’s and finally inmates.  Please read and then sign the petition.

Thank you!

Dear Rev Bonnie, On Monday, Human Rights Watch, the international human rights organization, released a letter calling for passage of HB2633, my Tamms Supermax Prison reform legislation. The letter, written by David C. Fathi, Human Rights Watch’s Director of the U.S. Program, points out a number of deficiencies in Tamms, including its treatment of mentally ill prisoners. “There is an abundant body of evidence that isolated confinement of the kind that exists at Tamms can have catastrophic effects on the seriously mentally ill, leading to exacerbation of their illness and sometimes to self-mutilation and suicide.” Human Rights Watch is one more voice of a growing chorus calling for change at Tamms. The prison system cannot explain why they need to administer extreme punishment by keeping prisoners in isolation for as long as 11 years. We need HB2633 to set Tamms back on track with basic American values. And that’s not all, two weeks ago The New Yorker magazine highlighted Tamms as an example of solitary confinement management gone wrong.  Many of the issues cited by Human Rights Watch are detailed in that story. Support for HB2633 is growing.  Over 1,300 people across Illinois have signed our online petition in support of passage.  But we still need more grassroots support.  If you have not already, please sign our petition: www.juliehamos.org/tamms And we need your help spreading the word.  Please spread the word about our petition to your friends and colleagues.  The more public support there is for our petition, the more likely it is to pass. Tell A Friend About The Tamms Petition Thank you for your continued involvement in this crucial issue. Sincerely,

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7. April 2009 by Rev Young.

In my last post, I gave you an article to read from Missouri.  There is another state that has been working very hard to find answers to prison reform for adults and juveniles.  In some of my past blogs, I have informed you about the prison reform that is happening in the state of New York.  This year, New York will close 4 adult prison facilities, because they have no one to house in these facilities.  How did they accomplish this?  By focusing on re-entry, treatment and rehabilitation programs.  They closed the revolving door.

Most state department of corrections are only focused on housing individuals who have been sentenced to prison.  Period.  While they may list some programs that are available to a portion of the population, if you truly investigate, they are not in place.  Most states have required budget cuts from their department of corrections and the very first thing that is slashed is programs, rehabilitation and education. 

In Colorado we have researched and found rehabilitation programs that can be offered to the state at no cost to the state.  These are widely used, well documented programs that are able to evaluate and track the progress of the individual as they move through the program.  We get no response.  We get no interest, we get no where.  I imagine that many others have been met with the same obstacles.

Yet is we are to truly turn a life around and help them to become successful citizens, assure that they are no longer a threat but an asset to the communities where they live, we have to help them change some patterns.  New York has successfully impacted the cost and effectiveness of their prison facilities by putting emphasis on rehabilitation.  In addition to the adult facilities that they are closing, they will be closing or down sizing eight juvenile facilities. 

“I want to share with you some very exciting news here in New York. The Governor and Legislature have agreed to close six youth prisons and downsize two others. In addition, the state budget restores $13 million in funding for local alternatives to detention programs and adds an additional $5 million in funding for community-based alternatives (using TANF money).

This is a huge victory for juvenile justice reform in New York and is in large part due to the visionary leadership of Commissioner Gladys Carrion and the advocacy of the New York Juvenile Justice Coalition.”

If states are seeking answers to their current fiscal crisis, all they need to do is look for examples of success in other states.  Then they need to seek the visionaries that can facilitate these changes.  Congratulations New York!

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7. April 2009 by Rev Young.

While many states are hoping to avoid building more facilities of any kind, some states are moving towards alternatives.  The interesting point to me, is as they consider options, they must decide on a “quick fix” or a plan that will give lasting benefit. 

We have all heard the news concerning California and their over crowded facilities.  We have also heard that they may be required to release offenders to address this issue.  Although I advocate for prison reform and I believe that we incarcerate an alarming number of people, I cannot imagine the mayhem that would come as a result of this “plan”.  The truth is that, although an individual may have some serious problems that need to be addressed and these problems resulted in their incarceration, prison makes people worse.  So after exposing a person to the atrocity of prison for any length of time, we cannot and should not expect that they have “learned their lesson” and are ready to be released. 

What we need to do is take a good hard look at our prison and detention facilities.  We need to honestly assess the broken system that we have created and look for new ways of dealing with people.  We also need to remember that they are people.

The article below demonstrates how one state is addressing the issue of juvenile detention and incarceration.  Funny that it is modeled after a “home” environment and they are creating “families” of accountability.  Read on…..

Missouri System Treats Juvenile Offenders With Lighter Hand

By SOLOMON MOORE

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — VonErrick celebrated his 14th birthday last year by committing a daylight carjacking, beating the driver to the ground. With a long record of truancy, assault, and breaking and entering, he was sent to a state group home — the same home that his two older brothers passed through after their own scrapes with the law.

Both of those brothers are out now. Tory, 16, has A grades and plans to attend college. Terry, 20, has a job and has had a clean record for four years. VonErrick was recently released and immediately started high school.

The brothers say they benefited from confinement in the Missouri juvenile system, which emphasizes rehabilitation in small groups, constant therapeutic interventions and minimal force.

Juvenile justice experts across the nation say that the approach, known as the Missouri Model, is one of several promising reform movements that strapped states are trying to reduce the costly confinement of youths. California, which spends more than $200,000 a year on each incarcerated juvenile, reallocated $93 million in prison expenses by reducing state confinement.

There is no barbed wire around facilities like Missouri Hills, on the outskirts of St. Louis. No more than 10 youths and 2 adults called facilitators live in cottage-style dormitories in a wooded setting, a far cry from the quasi penitentiaries in other states. When someone becomes unruly, the other youths are trained to talk him down. Perhaps most impressive, Missouri has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country.

Other states, including Florida, Illinois and Louisiana, have moved in a similar direction, focusing on improving conditions at state facilities to keep young offenders from returning.

Some states have worked at the county level to avoid confinement altogether, keeping youths in their communities while they receive rehabilitative services, which advocates say is a cheaper alternative to residential care.

The two largest state systems, Texas and California, cut long-term youth confinement by requiring counties to house low-level offenders in detention halls. Texas cut its 5,000-youth population by half within two years, while California reduced its population to 2,500, from more than 10,000 in 1997. But critics say that city and county detention programs are uneven and point out that states often do a poor job of monitoring them.

Missouri and other states are using new approaches in the juvenile justice system to try to stem the flow of adults behind bars. Missouri managed to cut its adult population from 2005 through the first half of 2007 by applying techniques from the Missouri Model.

The reforms have begun to have a national impact, with a 12 percent decrease in juvenile offenders from 1997 to 2006, from 105,000 youths to 93,000.

Most of the decline during that period was in state confinements, although some of the decrease is attributed to a 28 percent decline in youth arrests, which reform advocates say proves that there is no detriment associated with fewer incarcerated juveniles.

The Anne E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore has been a leading advocate for ending the confinement of low-risk offenders and placing them in community programs. Since trying the foundation’s approach in 2003, five counties in New Jersey have reduced juvenile detention by 42 percent, to 288 youths from 499.

Three years ago in California, Scott MacDonald, who is in charge of probation in Santa Cruz County, began asking courts to use Casey Foundation methods. Instead of confining every gang member accused of a crime, or every juvenile who failed a drug test, judges now look at a youth’s record and risk to determine whether he should remain free. A youth who fails a drug test, for example, might be ordered to attend substance abuse classes.

“Even if a kid doesn’t follow all of the rules — particularly rules that have nothing to do with crime — we won’t necessarily detain him,” Mr. MacDonald said.

In the 1990s, the Santa Cruz juvenile hall averaged 50 to 60 youths. Now it averages about 20 detainees, most of them under community supervision. More than 90 percent of those in the community programs have not committed new crimes within three years, Mr. McDonald said.

“The question we’re always starting with is, How do we keep them home?” he said.

Isela Gutierrez, a juvenile justice expert with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, a nonprofit group, said one drawback to the Missouri state system was that too many low-level offenders there were being confined, while serious juvenile felons were being sent to adult prisons, where conditions are harsher.

Tim Decker, director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services, said judges preferred to send youths to state facilities — Missouri Hills or the Hogan Street Regional Youth Center, with dorms that have wooden beds, male health and wellness classes, group counseling and game rooms — rather than dismal county lockups or to backlogged community programs.

“Judges have more faith in us,” Mr. Decker said. “So far we’re O.K., but you can’t do what we do with 25 kids in a group.”

Missouri Hills is clean and homey, with plush couches, stuffed animals on the bunks, and a dog rescued from the pound. The violence that plagues many juvenile prisons is also absent.

In a typical juvenile corrections environment, Mr. Decker said, if a youth becomes aggressive “you would have guards drag him into isolation” for three days.

“But,” he added, “the problem is that a young person doesn’t learn how to avoid that aggressive behavior and it will get worse.”

In Missouri Hills, isolation rooms were used only about a dozen times last year, Mr. Decker said, and never for more than a few hours. Pepper spray is banned, and youths are taught to de-escalate fights or apply grappling holds, a form of restraint.

Victoria, 16, who stole her grandmother’s car, her second offense, explained how her housing unit does a “circle-up,” or ad hoc counseling session, several times a day, whenever there is a conflict, like cursing.

“There’s drama all the time,” she said. “It’s like having a bunch of sisters.”

The Missouri system provided triage for an imploding system in Washington, where the juvenile corrections agency was plagued by vermin-infested buildings, overcrowding and chronic violence.

“The kids were stuffing their shirts with paper before they went to sleep to keep the roaches and rats from biting them,” said Vincent Schiraldi, head of the city’s Division of Rehabilitative Services.

With advice from experts in Missouri, Mr. Schiraldi divided platoons of youths into small groups. By October, the number of juveniles reconvicted within a year of release dropped to 25 percent, from 31 percent four years earlier. However, as conditions improved, confinements have risen, even as juvenile crime has declined.

Mr. Decker said that upgrading facilities and training new staff cost more initially, but that the reforms would reduce recidivism, which would result in long-term savings.

VonErrick has been home for a few weeks, and his 18-year-old sister said he seemed calmer and less interested in running with the wrong crowd. Their mother, Rosie Williams, said all three of her sons seemed more focused, and she attributed the changes to the counselors at the state group home.

Ms. Williams, whose husband is in prison, occasionally attended family counseling sessions where she said she learned important lessons as a parent. “Instead of just hollering at them and trying to keep them out of trouble,” she said, “I try to do things with them one on one, to get to know what’s on their mind and what’s going on in their lives.”

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6. April 2009 by Rev Young.

Below is an article from Justice Fellowship, the judicial advocacy arm for Prison Fellowship Ministries.  Pat Nolan, Vice President of Prison Fellowship Ministries, works tirelessly to try and bring much needed changes to prisons as well as opening doors for organizations to partner with offenders and bring positive influence to their lives as they transition back into their communities.  Mr. Nolan also participated with the Sentencing Commission and the resulting national report “Confronting Confinement”.  He was also instrumental in helping to draft “The Second Chance Act” that will provide funding to re-entry programs across the United States.  We thank you for your efforts, Mr. Nolan.

Dear friends,

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA), in Senate bill 714, has proposed the creation of a National Criminal Justice Commission to “review all areas of Federal and State criminal justice costs, practices, and policies.” The bill is co-sponsored by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), who is a former prosecutor.

This top to bottom review of our criminal justice system is sorely needed. Senator Webb emphasized five reasons the legislation is critical:

• With 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses 25% of the world’s reported prisoners.
  
• Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1200% since 1980.
  
• Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals.
  
• Approximately 1 million gang members reside in the U.S., many of them foreign-based; and Mexican cartels operate in 230+ communities across the country.
  
• Post-incarceration, re-entry programs are haphazard and often nonexistent, undermining public safety and making it extremely difficult for ex-offenders to become full, contributing members of society.
  

We spend $68 billion per year on our prisons. That figure does not include the costs of law enforcement and courts. The Commission will examine if we are getting all the public safety we are paying for, and it will recommend ways to refocus prison and sentencing policies to reduce the incarceration rate while preserving public safety, conserving tax dollars, and maintaining societal fairness.

I met with Senator Webb early this year to discuss the concept of a commission. We spent 45 minutes batting ideas back and forth, exploring what governments are trying in some parts of the United States or in other parts of the world. Senator Webb had invited me to testify before the Joint Economic Committee in October, 2007, about the costs of mass incarceration. The Senator is as much a policy wonk as I am, so it was an animated conversation. I was very impressed with his deep knowledge of, and an insatiable curiosity about, what may work to improve our system. This is not a headline-grabbing, show-horse of a legislator. He is definitely a workhorse, and we are fortunate to have such a thoughtful and hardworking sponsor for the bill.

The Senator’s interest in criminal law reform began right after he departed from the Marine Corps. On assignment from PARADE Magazine, he was allowed inside Japanese prisons to see what they were doing to suppress crime and punish offenders. He wrote about his observations and mentioned his vivid impressions often as we contrasted the American penal system with the Japanese system. He picked up on my frequent mention of the importance of including victims in the criminal justice process. He told me that the Japanese require reparations, and we discussed why that is good for both the offender and the victim.

Most of us who deal with the criminal justice system believe that it is clearly broken. That is not a knock on any of the dedicated people that are working within the system. Instead, it is a criticism of our policy makers, who have built a Rube Goldberg-like contraption of criminal laws and sentencing policies based on whim and anecdote. There is no coherent focus to our criminal code, and sentences bear little resemblance to the harm done by a crime. Seemingly trivial errors are punished with many years in prison, while horribly violent crimes often get less time.

I applaud Senator Webb for tackling this very important task. He needs your help to get the bill passed. Please write or call your Senators and Representative and ask them to co-sponsor S 714. In case you don’t remember who your legislators are, you can use our Legislative Action Center to look them up and send them an email. However, a phone call from you would be even more effective. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121.

Please share this information with your friends, co-workers, neighbors, and the folks at church. Everyone agrees that our criminal justice system doesn’t work very well. This bill will give us a chance to make it work for us. 

In His service,

Pat Nolan
Vice President, Prison Fellowship

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6. April 2009 by Rev Young.

  I recently posted an article concerning the exposure of a judge which took kick-backs from a juvenile corrections facility.  This example of corruption in our criminal justice system is just that……an example.  For many years we have been reading the stories of those who have been wrongly incarcerated for crimes they did not commit.  We have read accounts of juveniles who gave false confessions that sentenced several juveniles to prison for crimes they did not commit.  We have read accounts of abuse of authority in prisons and prison conditions that promote violence and anti-social behavior. 

There are now a group of individuals and organizations that are coming together and calling for a Criminal Justice Commission that will research and report on the problems in our system as well as making recommendations for solutions.  Below is an article published by Senator Jim Webb who is introducing legislation calling for this commission to be enacted. 

Why We Must Fix Our Prisons

By Senator Jim Webb

Publication Date: 03/29/2009

America’s criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation’s prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.

We need to fix the system. Doing so will require a major nationwide recalculation of who goes to prison and for how long and of how we address the long-term consequences of incarceration. Twenty-five years ago, I went to Japan on assignment for PARADE to write a story on that country’s prison system. In 1984, Japan had a population half the size of ours and was incarcerating 40,000 sentenced offenders, compared with 580,000 in the United States. As shocking as that disparity was, the difference between the countries now is even more astounding–and profoundly disturbing. Since then, Japan’s prison population has not quite doubled to 71,000, while ours has quadrupled to 2.3 million.

The United States has by far the world’s highest incarceration rate. With 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses nearly 25% of the world’s reported prisoners. We currently incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, a rate nearly five times the average worldwide of 158 for every 100,000. In addition, more than 5 million people who recently left jail remain under “correctional supervision,” which includes parole, probation, and other community sanctions. All told, about one in every 31 adults in the United States is in prison, in jail, or on supervised release. This all comes at a very high price to taxpayers: Local, state, and federal spending on corrections adds up to about $68 billion a year.

Our overcrowded, ill-managed prison systems are places of violence, physical abuse, and hate, making them breeding grounds that perpetuate and magnify the same types of behavior we purport to fear. Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard or, in some places, nonexistent, making it more difficult for former offenders who wish to overcome the stigma of having done prison time and become full, contributing members of society. And, in the face of the movement toward mass incarceration, law-enforcement officials in many parts of the U.S. have been overwhelmed and unable to address a dangerous wave of organized, frequently violent gang activity, much of it run by leaders who are based in other countries.

With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.

Over the past two decades, we have been incarcerating more and more people for nonviolent crimes and for acts that are driven by mental illness or drug dependence. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 16% of the adult inmates in American prisons and jails–which means more than 350,000 of those locked up–suffer from mental illness, and the percentage in juvenile custody is even higher. Our correctional institutions are also heavily populated by the “criminally ill,” including inmates who suffer from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis.

Drug offenders, most of them passive users or minor dealers, are swamping our prisons. According to data supplied to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, those imprisoned for drug offenses rose from 10% of the inmate population to approximately 33% between 1984 and 2002. Experts estimate that this increase accounts for about half of the dramatic escalation in the total number imprisoned over that period. Yet locking up more of these offenders has done nothing to break up the power of the multibillion-dollar illegal drug trade. Nor has it brought about a reduction in the amounts of the more dangerous drugs–such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines–that are reaching our citizens.

Justice statistics also show that 47.5% of all the drug arrests in our country in 2007 were for marijuana offenses. Additionally, nearly 60% of the people in state prisons serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence or of any significant selling activity. Indeed, four out of five drug arrests were for possession of illegal substances, while only one out of five was for sales. Three-quarters of the drug offenders in our state prisons were there for nonviolent or purely drug offenses. And although experts have found little statistical difference among racial groups regarding actual drug use, African-Americans–who make up about 12% of the total U.S. population–accounted for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison.

Against this backdrop of chaos and mismanagement, a dangerous form of organized and sometimes deadly gang activity has infiltrated America’s towns and cities. It comes largely from our country’s southern border, and much of the criminal activity centers around the movement of illegal drugs. The weapons and tactics involved are of the highest order.

The Mexican drug cartels, whose combined profits are estimated at $25 billion a year, are known to employ many elite former soldiers who were trained in some of America’s most sophisticated military programs. Their brutal tactics took the lives of more than 6000 Mexicans last year alone, and the bloodshed has been spilling over the border into our own neighborhoods at a rapid pace. One terrible result is that Phoenix, Ariz., has become the kidnapping capital of the United States, with more than 370 cases in 2008. That is more incidents than in any other city in the world outside of Mexico City.

The challenge to our communities is not limited to the states that border Mexico. Mexican cartels are now reported to be running operations in some 230 American cities. Other gang activity–much of it directed from Latin America, Asia, and Europe–has permeated our country to the point that no area is immune. As one example, several thousand members of the Central American gang MS-13 now operate in northern Virginia, only a stone’s throw from our nation’s capital.

[ Who are the world’s most wanted criminals? See the list »]

In short, we are not protecting our citizens from the increasing danger of criminals who perpetrate violence and intimidation as a way of life, and we are locking up too many people who do not belong in jail. It is incumbent on our national leadership to find a way to fix our prison system. I believe that American ingenuity can discover better ways to deal with the problems of drugs and nonviolent criminal behavior while still minimizing violent crime and large-scale gang activity. And we all deserve to live in a country made better by such changes.

Senator Jim Webb (D. Va.) is a PARADE Contributing Editor and the author of nine books, including “A Time to Fight.”

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