Will Sheriff Alderden Pitch a Tent Also?

The Larimer County Jail has been bursting for awhile. Once again, what do you do when the money runs out? Bond reform and sentencing alternatives are on the table, but money isn't.

By Kate Martin
The Daily Reporter-Herald

FORT COLLINS — The group argued as only lawyers, public defenders and judges could.

In the end, the competing interests found little common ground on Tuesday. The Criminal Justice Advisory Board backed Sheriff Jim Alderden’s decision to set a jail cap, but not his campaign to ask commissioners for more money.

Conditions at the county jail are deteriorating, said Alderden.

Within the past week and a half, three deputies have been placed on light-duty assignments after fights with inmates. Alderden said sometimes inmates will resist an order and deputies will try to make them comply, which sometimes results in injury.

Inmates fight each other daily.

Committee members also talked about lowering or removing bonds for pretrial inmates and possibly shortening jail sentences.

Public defender Kathryn Hay said the punishment of a longer sentence would make less sense than a shorter sentence in some cases.

“It’s like putting a 3-year-old in a timeout. Five minutes is good, where 10 or 15 minutes, the lesson is lost,” she said.

The Criminal Justice Advisory Board voted 3 to 3, with one member abstaining, on the sheriff’s bid to commissioners for more detention center deputies at a price tag of $575,000 the first year and $1.1 million every year thereafter.

Reporter-Herald Article here.

HB 1313 Second Reading Calendared

House Bill 1313 has been calendared for Second Reading on Friday March 2nd.
Call or email your representatives and ask them to support HB 1313.
(Who's your rep? go to www.votesmart.org )
SB 83 Parolee Voting Bill has been re-calendared for tomorrow March 1st.

On Tuesday March 6
Upon adjournment
Room 0112 Judiciary
--Presentation on Private Prisons

Corrections Corporation of America
Community Education Centers
Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition

Please feel free to attend this presentation

Sheriff Maketa Pitches a Tent

This is what happens when the money runs out and there just isn't anywhere to put people. Colorado Springs Independent story on the new tent jail in Colorado Springs.

It looks like a wedding tent, or perhaps a circus tent without the stripes.

To Sheriff Terry Maketa, the big white tent looks like an almost-immediate way to avoid jail crowding.

"I'm kind of running out of options," Maketa told El Paso County commissioners late last week, showing them a photo of a tent whose multiple peaks also call to mind Denver International Airport.

His idea, which could be implemented within six weeks, comes at a time when the county's 1,599-bed Criminal Justice Center hovers near capacity, particularly on weekends. If he could put minimum-security prisoners in a tent, Maketa says, they'd be less likely to be released early or turned away.

The tent, which Maketa says would cost about $100,000 to purchase, would stand in a parking lot near the 2739 E. Las Vegas St. justice center, surrounded by a chain-link fence, until the downtown Metro jail is reopened. Closed because of safety problems in 2005, Metro "hopefully" will be ready to house about 375 work/release inmates in six to nine months, Maketa says.

Yet he can't say exactly when Metro will open, noting that contractors have yet to be secured.

Inside the tent, deputies would guard 150 to 180 minimum-security prisoners, such as part-time inmates who serve their sentences on weekends, Maketa says. They'd have open-area bunks and common toilets. The tent would have a floor and heating.

A Captive Audience...Medical Research on Prisoners

Thanks to Grits for Breakfast for pointing us to this posting at Backgate.

Research involving human subjects has become big business. Currently, more than 10,000 programs and an estimated 45,000 researchers conduct medical research on humans in the United States. With some 2 million Americans now behind bars, prisoners are increasingly being viewed in utilitarian terms by researchers eager to test experimental procedures on an array of chronic medical problems, ranging from asthma to cancer. Prisoners represent a particularly compelling and convenient test group for anti-viral medicines and vaccines: At least 17 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States have spent time in correctional facilities, and the HIV rate in prisons is believed to be six times greater than in the outside population. In addition, prison populations have the highest concentrations of Hepatitis C in the country; from state to state, between 20 to 60 percent of inmates are believed to harbor the virus.

Black Market Tobacco

Cigarettes that cost $125 a pack? That is the going rate for cigarettes in prison these days. Smoking in prison is illegal in many states, Colorado being one of them. Has that changed the amount of smoking that goes on? To a certain extent, but as with any other illegal drug, it has just driven the price up, it doesn't make it go away.
Read the Article here.

Sentencing Commission Needed

Don Quick wrote this article about why we need a sentencing commission in Colorado. His points are not only valid but on the mark. My concern is the make up of the commission itself. I believe that a commission must be set up that evaluates current practices, but the people at the table need to understand the population that they are dealing with. Community must be involved if a truly holistic approach is going to work.

Those who set policy and procedure need to understand what works in different communities. A one-size-fits-all policy isn't practical when you are dealing with the diversity and richness of culture that is Colorado. The bridge between system and community has often been non-existent and only recently has begun a fragile attempt at working together to solve the problems that we must address. That bridge must be strengthened in order for a sentencing commission to be successful and that strength will only be attained if everyone involved is allowed a voice in the process. A commission is more than it's mission, it's about who is at the table that maks it real, effective, and ultimately successful.

The other aspect that isn't addressed is the fact that the sentencing commission will address things in the longer term, but we what are we going to do right now? Today, we have 500 people who are out-of-state in private prisons and thousands who are past their parole eligibility date sitting inside. Private prisons companies are hovering over Colorado like vultures waiting to take advantage of the overcrowding crisis that is happening right now. Something needs to come down the pike to make significant change in current policy or statute.

Colorado's prison population has grown at a significant rate over the last two decades. Although violent crime decreased as the prison population increased, the prison population has reached crisis levels. Our prisons are filled to capacity and we do not have the resources to build endless new prisons. Prison overcrowding is a serious problem. Something needs to be done.

If you examine who is actually in our state prisons, you will see that inmates are the violent or repeat offenders. Prisons serve a critical public safety need by protecting our communities from such offenders. But incarceration alone cannot be our only solution. In order to address prison overcrowding, we must intervene with future defendants before prison is their only option. An increased focus on prevention programs, intervention programs and re-entry programs, as well as reviewing our sentencing practices, are the best ways to address this growing crisis.

Let's begin with sentencing. Some have proposed the creation of a sentencing commission to make recommendations for cutting sentences and releasing prisoners. I agree that such a commission should be created, but its mandate should be broad. Such a commission must undertake a comprehensive review of Colorado's sentencing practices.

the Denver Post editorial

Who's Gonna Work the Farms?

After the crackdown on immigration this year, there have been complaints from farmers that they aren't going to have any help out in the fields. The Department of Corrections has tentatively decided to jump in. The farmers are willing to pay pretty well, although we know that the people doing the work aren't going to make $9.60 an hour.... but they should make more than $2.00 a day.

It's basically "plantation revisited" and the fact that people want to exploit a prisoner's desire to work. This wouldn't be a job training program. It's a work program. Call a spade a spade. There aren't going to be jobs waiting for people once they get done on the farm and picking beans isn't going to be a great resume builder once they get back to town.

"Department of Corrections executive director Ari Zavaras said the work program would operate under the department's Correctional Industries Program, which helps inmates obtain work while in prison and learn a skill at the same time.

"We have a lot of details to work out, but this probably will start as a pilot program in Pueblo County. Depending on how well it works, we'll see where it will go," Zavaras said Monday.

Colorado prison inmates may soon help the state's farmers plant onions and pick melons under a program being developed by corrections officials and lawmakers.

The project is aimed at helping strapped farmers deal with a shortage of farm laborers caused by a crackdown on illegal immigration.

"When you have a crop sitting in the field and you have no one to harvest it, you'll try anything," said Pueblo County farmer Phil Prutch. "I'm willing to try it."

Prutch, who grows tomatoes, peppers, corn and squash, said tougher immigration laws passed by the legislature last year chased away most of his reliable help from Mexico and other countries.

Zavaras said the program fits in with his and Gov. Bill Ritter's new emphasis on reducing recidivism in state prisons....

The two Pueblo vegetable farmers said they need from five to 20 workers and are willing to pay up to $9.60 an hour, more than they've paid migrant workers in the past, but they can't find anyone to do the work.

Zavaras said he is hopeful something will be done before the farmers need them in May and June, when the local growing season begins." Denver Post

City Attorney Resigns Over Stolen Computer

Manzanares was sworn in as Denver's City Attorney on January 4, 2007. Deputy City Attorney Arlene Dykstra will serve as Acting City Attorney until a new City Attorney is appointed by the mayor.

In a prepared statement, Manzanares said, "Current events which have been highlighted by the media have created an untenable distraction for the Mayor's office and the position of Denver City Attorney. The position of City Attorney should be uncompromised by such distractions, and it would be unfair to the City and to the many fine attorneys in the City Attorney's Office to allow such a situation to continue. Therefore, I believe it is in the best interests of the City and the City Attorney's Office that I resign my position as City Attorney. I have had very many well-wishers and supporters encourage me to ride out the storm, and while I am grateful for their support, I believe the continued effectiveness of the City Attorney's Office must come first." Denver Post Article Here

We Cleared the First Hurdle

YOU DID IT!!! HB 1313 The Identity Bill
Passed Through the House Energy and Transportation Committee!!

Update on HB 1313 -- Please call your Representative today!!!
HB 1313 The Identity Bill, passed through the House Energy and
Transportation Committee with a vote of 11 Yes votes-0 No's-1-Absentee!!

HB 1313 was introduced by Rep. Rosemary Marshall and testimony in favor
was provided by lawyers, people who couldn't get state IDs, CCJRC, the Colorado
Coalition for the Homeless, and the St. Francis Center.

There were a couple of amendments approved, most notably,
one that was suggested by CCJRC. In the original bill, a DOC ID would only
be accepted by the DMV if the person also had a social security card. CCJRC suggested
that a birth certificate should also be accepted along with the DOC ID as an approved
document when applying for a state driver's license or ID.

The Bill will heads to the full House for second reading.
We will keep you updated as to when that will happen.

Find your representative's contact info by going to http://www.leg.state.co.us and
click on the legislative directory for the House.

Or go to www.votesmart.org and enter in your nine-digit zipcode (if you don't
know what that is you can get it from their website as well.)

Great work by Deb DeBoutez of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless
and Linda Olsen from Colorado Legal Services for working so hard for several years
to address this problem. Many thanks to Representative Marshall for taking
the leadership in making the change happen.

Will the Death of Ken Gorman Lead to Changes?

"(CBS4) DENVER Police are still searching for a suspect in the murder of marijuana advocate Ken Gorman. He was shot to death at his Denver home Feb. 17 in what police think was a robbery.

Gorman grew pot in his home for himself and others. Just days before his murder, he spoke to CBS4 of the dangers.

"I've had a gun stuck to my head," Gorman said. "I've had people stabbed here, in my house, from people trying to get my marijuana."

Gorman called Colorado's amendment legalizing medical marijuana "a great, great law." The law allows patients and caregivers to grow pot, but makes no provision for secure marijuana dispensaries, like they have in some other states. It leaves it up to the user to find their own.

Medical marijuana patient Dana May said finding it can be dangerous.

"You try your luck down on Colfax and get shot," May said. "Or, get your car hijacked for a $20 bag.""

Westwords Fourth Installment--Casey's Still Okay

Casey Holden and his parole officer seem to be getting along just fine so far. She approves of his decision to go to school, to try to make something of himself after spending most of the last decade behind bars. He appreciates that she treats him like a human being, even though the law doesn’t require her to do that.......

Holden has a lot to figure out if he’s going to complete his parole, a journey Westword is following in the blog series “I Shall Be Released” (see previous entries here ). But one of the most critical challenges is to live within the terms of his parole conditions — to do what The Man says. This isn’t as simple as it sounds. The 26-year-old has spent half his life in cells of one kind or another because the rules and Casey Holden don’t always get along. His story is one of long periods of neglect and minimal supervision, followed by disastrous confrontations, during which someone tried to shove a bunch of authority down his throat all at once.

At CSP Holden took classes that are supposed to prepare him to deal with the world again, this time as a citizen. But going straight from CSP to the street has been wildly disorienting. “There is no class that will prepare you for being around people again,” he says.

In moments of great stress and frustration, it’s easy to yearn for his old criminal life again — weed, riding around, short hours — even though a trip in that direction would probably end up back in the oblivion of prison life, surrounded by the kind of people he’s no longer allowed to write.

“They break you down in that place,” he says, “but they don’t build you back up.” — Alan Prendergast READ THE FOURTH INSTALLMENT HERE

Community Corrections in Colorado

One of the best researchers in America is Kim English at the Colorado Department of Justice. She and Nicole Hetz-Burrell published this paper on community corrections to try and discover some of the intricacies of the perfomance of the programs here in Colorado. What works, what doesn't, and why. Here is the report they have provided us, including the analysis and policy recommendations that they distilled from the data that they collected. If you want to read more of the wonderful research that Kim has done over the years go the the DOJ website here.

Community Corrections in Colorado: A Study of Program Outcomes and Recidivism, FY00-FY04

Research Findings
Financial Outcomes
• Offenders in halfway houses across the state paid more than $2.6 million
in state taxes and approximately $6.7 million in federal taxes between
FY00 and FY04. They earned more than $115 million and paid over $36
million in room and board during that period.
Program Outcomes
• Successful completion rates ranged from 39.6 percent to 72.8 percent
across 30 halfway houses.
• Between FY00 and FY03, approximately 62-63 percent of offenders
successfully completed their stay in community corrections. However, in
FY04, the successful completion rate dropped from 63.1 percent to 56.1
percent.
• Success rates for diversion clients dropped from 58.8 percent during
FY00-03 to 52.2 percent in FY04 while success rates for transition clients
dropped from 67.2 percent to 60.1 percent in FY00-03 and FY04,
respectively.
o Success rates for community corrections clients increased
consistently between 1989 and 2003, a period during which
programs managed increasingly more serious offenders, as
measured by the criminal history score.
Read the Entire Report

Is Bad Treatment Worse Than No Treatment?

As Colorado launches itself towards a paradigm shift in how we think about subsance abuse treatment, corrections, and sentencing, it would be good business to watch what happens when there is no oversight, or proper evaluation on how we spend our money. Just because we write the almighty check to providers, doesn't mean we won't get snake oil. We need to be extremely thoughtful about who we decide will provide GOOD treatment as opposed to just any treatment that's available.

What can a billion dollars buy?

It could buy health coverage for all California children for a year.

It could increase per-pupil spending by $169, enough to nudge California above Louisiana in the national rankings.

It could pay the cost of double-tracking light rail all the way to Folsom and add hundreds of new buses -- and still have money left over.

Instead of spending money on any of those worthy projects, the state has wasted $1 billion since 1989 in ineffective prison drug abuse programs. How ineffective are these programs? In a scathing report, Inspector General Matthew Cate found that the recidivism rates for prisoners enrolled in two of the largest in-prison substance abuse programs were actually higher than those of a control group that did not receive treatment.

The failures Cate documents are stunning in their magnitude. In some cases program contractors were paid for beds that went unfilled, so the cost of treatment zoomed from $3,832 per inmate to $5,079. Even when drug and alcohol addicted prisoners were enrolled in programs, months-long lockdowns in overcrowded prisons kept them away from required counseling sessions.

Although the contracts required that inmates enrolled in treatment were supposed to be isolated from the general prison population, none of the programs complied with that basic requirement, a serious lapse that ensured programs would fail.

GEO Private Prison Posting Profits

How much are we willing to pay when there are alternatives available that are more effective and will save us money and lives in the long run. Geo was recently fired from a contract in Colorado because they were unable to perform, that is, build the prison they were contracted to build in Pueblo.

Like license plates, shivs and pruno, there's money to be made in prison. Just ask investors in Geo Group who've seen their stakes in the private jailer more than triple in value in the past year. A breakout as brazen as that might have some investors thinking about locking in profits, but the prison business, sad to say, is booming, and Geo Group looks to have secured its place in the yard.....But it's the severe shortage of prison space and the climbing prison population that make the best case for Geo Group going forward. There are currently 2.2 million people behind bars in the U.S. More than 7% of them are held in the type of privately run facilities built and operated by Geo Group, which has about 30% of the market, according to Patrick Swindle, an analyst with Avondale Partners, the Nashville, Tenn., investment bank. "It's difficult for me to see an environment where we don't grow the aggregate inmate population between 1.5% and 2% each year," Swindle says.
Article Here

HBO's Addiction Premiere

Invitation to March 7 Premiere of HBO Documentary “Addiction”

HBO is partnering with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NIDA, NIAAA, Faces and Voices of Recovery, and others to conduct a national public outreach campaign, “Addiction and Recovery: Communities Take Action.” This is a one-year multimedia effort culminating in a national Rally for Recovery on September 15. The key television event is "Addiction", a 90 minute documentary initially airing on March 15. The documentary is supplemented by 4 independent films on addiction, podcasts, a book, and a comprehensive website. This campaign offers an opportunity to continue to educate our communities about addiction as a chronic and treatable brain disease. For more information on the Addiction project, go to http://www.addictionaction.org/ . Advocates for Recovery will be the lead organization for this campaign in the Denver/Boulder area.

On March 7, HBO will be hosting the Denver premiere of "Addiction" at the Cable Center on the DU campus - http://www.cablecenter.org/. A reception with food will be held at 6PM with the premier of “Addiction” at 7 PM. Following the documentary will be discussion by a local panel of experts and members of the recovery community. This is an invitation only event with limited theatre seating.

To RVSP, please call 1-888-745-7425.

Parole Hearings Are Public by Law

Ann Imse, reporter for the Rocky Mountain News did a story a couple of weeks ago on a man caught up in the revolving prison door in Colorado. When she attempted to attend his parole hearing she was denied access.

Rocky Editorial Here

Hope Where There Has Been No Hope

First ladies often take on an agenda when their husbands assume positions of power, and that is going to ring true in Colorado as well. Advocates for those with mental illness are cheering Jeannie Ritter as she takes on the problems of the the mentally ill in Colorado.

Our overburdened prison population is no secret and nearly twenty percent of that population has a mental illness. Colorado has consistently released those folks from prison without the means necessary to take care of themselves. They often recieve the medication that they need to stay stable while they are in prison but once they are released they are only given enough medication to last for thirty days. After that time is up, they are on their own, and often that means a return to street drugs or alcohol to combat the problems they face.

Realistically, we also need to address the need for substance abuse treatment and the deeper issue of sending people to prison who have addiction problems from a standpoint of public health policy instead of a punitive criminal justice one.

Jeanne Rohner, president and CEO of the Mental Health Association of Colorado, said the mood began to change when Jeannie Ritter started talking. "She brought hope where there was no hope," Rohner said. "The room just totally energized because they saw the potential that we could do something."

Mental health specialists say there are signs of movement. A bill before the state Senate would mandate expanded insurance coverage for mental illnesses, a measure that advocates see as important.

Another key public policy piece, Rohner said, is to divert mentally ill inmates out of the criminal justice system. As a longtime district attorney, Gov. Bill Ritter is well aware of the connection between law enforcement and the strains of mental illness and last week he announced he'll ask the legislature to fund an effort to reduce the prison recidivism rate. His proposal includes $3.1 million in 2007-08 for mental health services and substance abuse treatment and $858,438 for transitional mental health beds.

Rohner is convinced that the governor's initiative will benefit the state far more than simply adding more and more prison beds.

The state never has been a leader in mental health spending. For instance, in 2001 Colorado spent $64 per person on mental health services while the national average was $81. The state department of mental health, which has a $154 million budget for mental health services this year, plans to ask for an additional $77 million over the next five years.

Jeannie Ritter says that she has come to realize how mental health issues reach into so many different arenas. She had just returned from a meeting of the Denver Crime Prevention and Control Commission recently when she spoke to The Denver Post. She was taken with how many of those at the table saw the same problems but didn't have the right tools to deal with them.

Regina Huerter, executive director of the commission, offers a compelling example. On any given day, she says, 350 to 400 Denver County jail inmates are suffering from severe and persistent mental illness. They should be in treatment, she says. That costs about $12,000 a year per patient while incarceration runs about $30,000 annually. But the facilities and programs don't exist to accommodate them.

Denver Post Opinion

Denver Post Letters to the Editor

I had the privilige of being at a conference last year where LEAP presented. It was probably one of the most powerful statements on what policy does to affect us on a social level that I have ever been invited to see. The truth is powerful and sickening, but the story needs to be told and something needs to be done about the level of corruption that is at the core of the War on Drugs.

Drugs and Prisons

Re: "Aiming for course corrections on prison priorities," Feb. 15 Diane Carman column.

Diane Carman hits the target in this column. Cutting to the matter's core, her summation of the "bogus war on drugs," defining "Colorado's very own Iraq war," is eloquent. And her reference to the drug war as "insanely self-perpetuating" is a bull's-eye.

The facts and figures on the costs of this ill-conceived policy in Colorado are just the tip of the iceberg. Nationwide, it is a 37-year, trillion-dollar abject failure.

Carman ends her column with a simple statement, saying, "Now all we need is a leader."

I challenge Department of Corrections Director Ari Zavaras, who is a former Denver police chief, and Gov. Bill Ritter, who was Denver DA, to take the lead. Join me and more than 6,500 other current and former criminal justice professionals at LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) in working to end the "war on drugs."

When substance abusers are no longer criminals who commit more crime to pay for their addictions (less crime/incarceration) and drug dealers are out of business for lack of profit (less crime/incarceration), then Colorado, like New York, can close prisons. That's a real "win-win."

Tony Ryan, Aurora

Lawsuit Demands Care For Mentally Ill Veterans

It's becoming less of a secret, for years now the Department of Corrections has mishandled those people who are considered mentally ill. They are expected to live up to the same standards as everyone else when it comes to be competent enough to handle the rigors of being on parole or in community corrections. The lawsuit was filed by civil rights attorney Anne Sulton as a class action suit that alleges cruel and unusual punishment and violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The suit seeks class-action status on behalf of all incarcerated, honorably discharged veterans receiving Veterans Affairs care for their service-connected disabilities, whose incarceration is related to the failure of prisons and jails to provide them with mental health care. The filing estimates that 100-400 inmates fall into the class.

The class would be far larger if not limited to these military veterans. Colorado estimates that 19 percent of its 23,395 inmates are mentally ill.

The suit says 45 percent of Colorado offenders received mental health services in 2000 but that dropped to 20 percent by 2004, after a $1 million funding cut.

Sulton said she limited the case to these veterans because parole and community corrections officials cannot plead limited resources in failing to arrange mental health treatment for them.

"All you have to do is make a call and get the VA to take care of them. It takes 10 seconds," said Sulton, the former Denver attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She is now based in Olympia, Wash.

Read Anne Imse's article here

Life Returned

As a society we always seem to be looking for that magic "program" that is going to keep people out of trouble after they are released from prison. Mountains of research has been done to fine tune programs to reduce recidivism. What we have discovered is that when people have healthy family support, they are more likely to be successful. It is important that we start to work more towards developing systems that keep healthy family and community ties from being severed.

Here's a story of young man who came up the hard way and fell and is trying to get his life back.
Rocky story here

DUI? 5 Year Sentence - Rocky Mountain News Editorial

As introduced, House Bill 1189, by Rep. Joel Judd, D-Denver, would have made Colorado's penalties against drunken driving the toughest in the nation. First-time offenders would lose their licenses for at least five years, and multiple offenders for 20 - unless they satisified other requirements we'll discuss later.

We're open to the suggestion that the state's penalties against impaired drivers are too lenient. But as originally envisioned, HB 1189 was simply too harsh.

Increases the driver's license revocation period for first-time
DUI/DUI per se violators after July 1, 2007, to 5 years.
Increases the driver's license revocation period for multiple DUI/DUI per se violators who commit a second or subsequent violation after July 1, 2007, to 20 years. (Bill Language)

Fortunately, Judd has had second thoughts and plans to ease some of the penalties before the bill is heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

No law can totally eradicate drunken driving. If criminal penalties against driving while intoxicated are too severe, motorists who are caught will simply drive without a license. Even with current penalties, federal officials report that 60 percent to 80 percent of drivers whose licenses have been suspended or revoked keep getting behind the wheel. Rocky Editorial

Not A Good Week For Attorneys

I think it's called theft by receiving...

Denver city attorney Larry Manzanares was put on paid "investigatory" leave Friday after a stolen computer was found in his home, Denver's 7 reported.

Mayor John Hickenlooper put Manzanares on leave after being contacted by Denver's 7.

"We are extremely concerned about the serious issues raised by this situation and the fact that we were not made aware of the investigation until today," Hickenlooper said.

Manzanares told Denver's 7 reporter Tony Kovaleski he had bought the Gateway computer from a man in a parking lot one block south of the City and County Building last month. Rocky article

And this story that was pointed out by Public Defender Blog is just astounding

SACRAMENTO - The California attorney general on Wednesday charged a private investigator with filing bogus documents to aid four death row inmates, calling the case one of the largest frauds ever perpetrated on the state's criminal justice system.

Kathleen Culhane was arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Sacramento on 45 felony counts of forgery, filing false documents and perjury.

"This is fraud at the highest level," Michael Farrell, a senior assistant attorney general, said after the arraignment. "This is someone who is trying to undermine the system." Read the article here

...And then there's the sad story of Michael Andre who police found dead in his home after a stand-off in Cherry Creek yesterday. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family. Thirty-eight year old Michael Andre was a well known and well liked attorney who represented people facing drug charges and those who worked in the adult entertainment industry. Rocky article here

Wyoming Inmate Dies In Oklahoma Prison

CHEYENNE - A Wyoming inmate housed at the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, Okla., has died, according to the state Department of Corrections.

No foul play was involved in the death of Charles E. Birr, 60, who was pronounced dead on Monday, agency spokeswoman Melinda Brazzale said Friday.

The exact cause of death was being investigated.

Wyoming currently has about 500 inmates housed out-of-state due to lack of room in the state's prison system. (Colorado currently has 480 people housed in the same facility.)
Billings Gazette

Families Behind Bars

This story doesn't just leave a bad taste in my mouth, it makes me physically ill. We should be ashamed of ourselves, as a nation. How do we wrap our national conscience around the fact that CCA is making money off the incarceration of children and families?

Named after the co-founder of the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the T. Don Hutto Correctional Center in Taylor, Texas, opened as a medium-security prison in 1997. Today, the federal government pays CCA, the nation's largest private prison company, $95 per person per day to house the detainees, who wear jail-type uniforms and live in cells. (Truthout)

But they have not been charged with any crimes. In fact, nearly half of its 400 or so residents are children, including infants and toddlers.

The advocacy groups -- the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services -- said they based their complaints on visits to these sites by their members and interviews with detainees.

At the Hutto site, their report said, a child secretly passed a visitor a note that read: ''Help us and ask us questions,'' it said. The groups reported that many of the detainees cried during interviews.

''What hits you the hardest in there is that it's a prison. In Hutto, it's a prison,'' said Michelle Brane, detention and asylum project director for Women's Commission.

At a news conference, the groups charged that some families are kept up to two years in the facilities, with those petitioning for asylum or trying to prove they shouldn't be deported, remaining there the longest. NYTimes

HBO Addiction

Contact:
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA)
www.cadca.org
Faces & Voices of Recovery
www.facesandvoicesofrecovery.org
Join Together
www.jointogether.org

Washington, DC - A groundbreaking collaborative project aimed at expanding public understanding of addiction and recovery was launched today by Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Faces & Voices of Recovery and Join Together, three national organizations supporting policies to promote prevention, treatment and recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.

In 30 communities from coast-to-coast, this partnership and its affiliates, in conjunction with HBO, will be working intensively to educate Americans about advancements in the understanding of drug and alcohol addiction and its treatment as a brain disease. HBO's multi-platform campaign on "ADDICTION" debuts on March 15, 2007 on HBO.

Don't Follow Our Lead! (Ethan Nadelman on Drug Policy)

Ethan Nadelman the Executive Director at the Drug Policy Alliance, takes on John Walters, the U.S drug czar, who is trying to get Canada to follow in our footstepts on the failed War on Drugs. He discusses our persistent consistency in pursuing something that obviously isn't working. Ethan puts things into perspective here...

The U.S. drug czar, John Walters, is in Ottawa today, trying his best to put a positive spin on one of the greatest disasters in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Part of his agenda is to persuade Canada to follow in U.S. footsteps, which can only happen if Canadians ignore science, compassion, health and human rights.

The United States ranks first in the world in per-capita incarceration, with roughly five per cent of the earth's population but 25 per cent of the total incarcerated population. Russia and China simply can't keep up. Among the 2.2 million people behind bars today in the United States, roughly half a million are locked up for drug-law violations, and hundreds of thousands more for other "drug-related" offences. The U.S. "war on drugs" costs at least $40 billion U.S. a year in direct costs, and tens of billions more in indirect costs.

Read the article here

34.1 Million for El Paso County Jail

The work-release program in El Paso County will be revitalized. Terry Maketa knows that this program is a vital part of reducing recidivism...we are glad to see that it's been given new life.

A multimillion-dollar project is the result of a four to one decision by El Paso County Commissioners for funding expected to help with overcrowded jails.

The money, which will come from refinanced certificates of participation, allows the sheriff's department to reinstate the inmate work release program.

"This gives us temporary relief, it mitigates some of the overcrowding we're facing and it's a very viable option," El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa says.

The program had previously been cut in the county's most recent budget, but can now play a major role in generating revenue to compensate for the project. "The county has an opportunity to refinance some assets and get a reduced interest rate and I think that is good judgment and good use of the tax dollars," Maketa says. "It reduces the payments that they make on existing facilities."

The funding calls for a renovation of the Metro Detention Center in downtown Colorado Springs, making room for an inmate work release dormitory with room for 375 inmates. "This gives us the capital we need to start a self funded program which will repay the debt that we're borrowing the money on."

KRDOTV Article

Legislative Update CCJRC

CCJRC LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!!!!!

Your action is needed!

It sure has been a whirlwind at the Capitol. The Governor announced that
reducing recidivism is one of his major goals during his tenure and has
already requested over $8million for substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment
and additional community corrections beds to fund his plan. There is also a proposal
to award $14 million of the tobacco funds to substance abuse treatment.

The following is an update on issues important to CCJRC and what you can
do to help. Many thanks to our various coalition partners like the
ACLU (SB 83), the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar (HB 1107),
and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (HB 1313) for their leadership.

Item 1.

Save the Date! March 6th at 9:30am at the House Judiciary Committee
Hearing Room, 0112 - Private prison operators will be making a presentation
before the House Judiciary Committee. CCJRC has been allotted 15
minutes to also make a presentation. Please come, if you can
Item 2.
Update on Senate Bill 83 - that, among other things, would allow people on parole to vote.
SB 83 is still waiting to be heard on 2nd reading in the Senate. We'll keep you posted.
If you haven't had a chance to contact your Senator, you still have time.

Item 3.
Update on House Bill 1107 that would allow people to petition the court
to seal a criminal conviction after 10 years of completing the sentence.
HB 1107 was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in a very strong 9-2 vote.
It is now waiting to be scheduled for a hearing in the House Appropriations Committee.
This should happen sometime in March. We'll keep you posted.

Item 4. Please support HB 07-1313.
Identifies what documents
the Department of Revenue is to accept in issuing state identification cards,
including a DOC inmate ID.

Hearing Scheduled in the House Energy and Transportation Committee
Tuesday, February 27th at 1:30pm
House Committee Hearing Room 0107

On February 20, 2007, Representative Rosemary Marshall (D) and
Senator Paula Sandoval (D) introduced HB 07-1313 that lists what documents
the Department of Revenue shall accept in issuing state identification cards.
HB 07-1313 would also require that a Department of Corrections photo
ID be one of the forms of ID that is accepted.

Photo identification has become a necessity in daily life. People need an ID to drive,
obtain employment, open a bank account, rent an apartment, and apply for many social services.
Many homeless people and people recently released from prison find it very difficult,
if not impossible, to get a state ID. Without ID, many people can be denied access
to shelters, motels, clothing closets, food pantries, and certain public benefits.

HB 07-1313 provides clear legislative direction to the Department of Revenue
on the types of documents that should be considered secure and verifiable forms
of identification for obtaining a state ID or driver's license. The documents listed include:
" Passport
" Valid birth certificate and a valid social security card
" Valid driver's license or identification document issued by a state government
" An identify document issued by the department of corrections and a valid social security card
" Documents issued by the U.S. government granting or recognizing the person's immigration, asylum, or refugee status
" Documents recognized by the U.S. government to prove identity

HB07-1313 lists that the following documents or combinations be valid
methods of proving that a person is lawfully present in the United States:
" Passport
" Valid birth certificate and a valid social security card
" Valid driver's license or identification document issued by a state government
" Documents issued by the U.S. government granting or recognizing the person's immigration,
asylum, or refugee status
" Documents recognized by the U.S. government to prove lawful presence

In addition, HB07-1313 authorizes an applicant who is denied a driver's license, permit or
identification card to request a hearing to determine whether the applicant is qualified.
Your support is needed to ensure that Coloradans get the documentation
they need in order to live, work, and maintain their lives here.

Many thanks to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless for their
diligent work on this issue over the past several years. If you have any questions,
contact Deb DeBoutez at 303.285.5220 or ddeboutez@coloradocoalition.org.

Please contact the members of the House Energy and Transportation Committee
for HB07-1313. Phone calls or emails. We can't do this without your help.

Representative Alice Borodkin
District 9 Democrat
Denver/ Arapahoe County
303-866-2910
E-mail: aliceb321@aol.com

Representative Gwyn Green
District 23 Democrat
Jefferson County
303-866-2951
E-mail: gwyn.green.house@state.co.us

Representative Dan Gibbs
District 56 Democrat
Eagle/Lake/Summit County
303-866-2952
E-mail: dan.gibbs.house@state.co.us

Representative Don Marostica
District 51 Republican
Larimer County
303-866-294

Representative Liane "Buffie" McFadyen (committee chair)
District 47 Democrat
Fremont/Pueblo County
303-866-2905
E-mail: buffie2006@hotmail.com

Representative Frank McNulty
District 43 Republican
Douglas County
303-866-2937

Representative Michael Merrifield
18 District Democrat
El Paso County
303-866-2932
E-mail: michael.merrifield.house@state.co.us

Representative Dianne Primavera
District 33 Democrat
Adams/Boulder/Broomfield/Weld County
303-866-4667
E-mail: dianne.primavera.house@state.co.us

Representative Joe Rice
District 38 Democrat
Arapahoe/Jefferson County
303-866-2953
E-mail: joe.rice.house@state.co.us

Representative Jerry Sonnenberg
District 65 Republican
Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick,Weld
303-866-3706
E-mail: jerry.sonnenberg.house@state.co.us

Representative Spencer Swalm
District 37 Republican
Arapahoe County
303-866-5510
E-mail: spencer.swalm.house@state.co.us

Representative Glenn Vaad
District 48 Republican
Weld County
303-866-2943
E-mail: glenn.vaad.house@state.co.us

Pamela Clifton
Outreach Coordinator
CCJRC
1212 Mariposa St #6
303-825-0122
www.ccjrc.org

Contempt Citations Issued in Disregard of the Mentally Ill

Mentally ill inmates would wait no longer than 28 days for treatment or evaluations under an agreement reached today with state officials.(Rocky Article here)

The settlement between state officials and attorneys representing inmates came after a Denver judge issued contempt citations against the state hospital superintendent and the director of the department of human services for failing to provide court-ordered competency evaluations or treatment for inmates.

Denver District Judge Martin Egelhoff, who pushed the state to treat inmates more quickly, was elated Thursday at a hearing where the settlement was announced.

Inmates were caught in a backlog that left some of them waiting as long as six months for evaluations or treatment. The state blamed the backlog on a lack of funding for staff and beds. ...

"Their mental illness was exacerbated and compromised," she said. "They were given meds here and there at the local jails. But lack of immediate help takes them back months and years in their treatment." (Denver Post)

She added that the hospital staff cares about helping the mentally ill but hadn't received enough money.

"They are rich in the heart but poor in the pocket," Eytan said.

Gov. Bill Ritter's transition team was involved in the settlement conferences.

"Under this settlement, detainees will get the services they need in a reasonable time frame, the jails can manage their populations better, and the state can meet its obligations," Ritter said.

The agreement will run until a new 200-bed high-security unit at the state hospital is opened in the summer of 2009. It should easily accommodate criminal defendants who need mental health treatment, officials say.

If the state hospital and the Colorado Department of Human Services fail to meet the 24- and 28-day deadlines, they face hefty penalties, including fines of $1,000 per quarter, per patient.

A Stroll Through Supermax

Yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales toured Supermax and he said that things are fine concerning the monitoring of phone calls and mail.

The issues certain are other security improvements sought by the prison's staff and the townspeople of Florence, including more corrections officers and a perimeter fence around the four-prison federal complex that includes Supermax.

Alan from Westword has his own particular take on the issue:

"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales walked the buttoned-down halls of the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum in Florence yesterday, then announced that all was super at the federal supermax. No need for more staff or monitoring at the high-tech prison, a repository of terrorists and superfiends. No need for a new $20 million perimeter fence that some in the community have been demanding, afraid that Eric Rudolph or Ted Kaczynksi might slip out and bomb the local Carl’s Jr...."

Westword article here

Changes at DMV

HB07-1313 has been introduced into the legislature. This very important piece of legislation and an action alert has been issued by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and CCJRC.

Rocky Mountain News article here

Give'em A Chance

This is a great story about how those directly impacted by the system are the ones who may be the best equipped to work with others who are struggling with re-entry. This story also reminds us how small policy changes can be so debilitating and in some cases devastating.

This is why we support the Record-Sealing bill, the Parolee Voting bill, The Second Chance Act, and the Identity Bill (HB07 1313, which will allow people recently released from prison easier access to a state identification when they get out.) We have to remove those barriers that keep people from being successful if we want to reduce recidivism and increase public safety. Every felony conviction shouldn't carry a life sentence.

In a storefront church in Brooklyn, a half dozen people with criminal records listened intently as another ex-offender led a workshop on their rights and employer hiring practices.

Toward the end, one of them asked if it was a waste of time pursuing a civil service job.

Glenn Martin, who served six years in prison for armed robbery and is now co-director of an organization focused on helping ex-offenders find work, offered reassurance.

"Does anybody here know somebody who works with city sanitation with a conviction record?" he asked on Monday from the pulpit area of Peterson Temple Church of God in Christ in Crown Heights.

Martin, 36, of Midwood, and several supporters -- including church members, workshop organizers and representatives from other groups that work with ex-offenders -- quickly raised their hands.

"Does anybody here know somebody who works for probation with a conviction record?" More raised hands. "Does anybody here know an attorney with a criminal record?" Same thing.

"You can get into these fields," Martin said. "I'm telling you, I've seen it. I've seen it. It's more difficult but it's not impossible."
READ HERE

Death Penalty Crazy

Carol Chambers is going after more death penalties than any DA in the state put together, all by herself. She was going after both of the men convicted in a murder earlier this year, but now is told; You can go after one, but not the other.

Is it because one is more guilty than the other? Oh no, it's far more heinous than that, it's because of a "clerical error" or more elegantly put,""It is the grossest incompetence imaginable in a death penalty case, to be this sloppy," defense attorney David Lane told the television station. "This kind of mistake will result very possibly in striking the death penalty against Robert Ray." ...Which would allow the state to kill one man and not another. The whole thing is barbaric and deeply disturbing.

But the district attorney "is moving forward with the death penalty in this case," Chambers' spokeswoman, Kathleen Walsh, said Thursday. Rocky Article here
and here

Alan from Westword puts his own particular spin on the issue here.

The squish pundits and squash-eating liberals are once again questioning the wisdom of Colorado’s death penalty. But that doesn’t mean squat to Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers.

Okay, so the death penalty as practiced here has claimed exactly one life since 1968 - that of the eminently qualified Gary Davis, whose sordid career as a rapist and murderer was examined in unflinching detail in these pages a decade ago in “The Killer Inside Him.” Okay, so the futile effort to make a few of our least wanted pay the ultimate price has cost close to $50 million, with the taxpayer footing the bill for the legal arguments on both sides. So state representative Paul Weissmann wants to abolish the death penalty and plow the savings into solving cold cases. So death penalty cases tend to be a big waste of time, an excruciatingly prolonged and emotional quest for votes and revenge, not justice.

So what?

None of it matters to Chambers. She’s always marched to a different tune — the executioner’s song. WESTWORD ARTICLE HERE

Connect the Dots Arnold

His prison population is exploding, he's been ordered to reduce that population and his most recent attempt to force prisoners out-of-state has been blocked He agrees that more programs need to be in place to reduce recidivism and that people should be in smaller community-based centers closer to their homes in order to help them on re-entry. Corrections Sentencing points out that he's also moving the drug czar to take over the drug treatment failure within the prison system.

The governor issued a news release calling Jett, 53, "the right person at the right time to take on this critical responsibility. There is no one more experienced in addiction and recovery services and no one more committed to making substance abuse treatment the cornerstone of our rehabilitation efforts in Corrections."

And he wants to wereck the funding for Prop 36. On one hand, he said, Jett has overseen implementation of the Proposition 36 treatment-not-jail law for nonviolent drug offenders; that law has saved taxpayers more than $800 million and is on target to graduate more than 70,000 participants over five years.

I just wonder if the Gov. hasn't connected the dots somehow.

Read the article here.

Death Penalty Repeal? Maybe Not

A town hall meeting in Longmont on Saturday was attended by Paul Weissman-D, the sponsor of the bill to repeal the death penalty. He doesn't expect it to pass, and is already looking to reform sentencing laws next year.

Read the John Fryar article here

Colorado Women's Corr. Fac Running Help Desk

There is a only a small number of women that can participate in this program, but it will give them a sense of hope, so that when they leave prison they feel that they have a marketable skill that may keep them from coming back. What would be best, is if companies like these would have jobs waiting for these folks when they are released, or at least set up referrals so that they have a better shot at being successful.

When Terri Moore is released from the Colorado Women's Correctional Facility in Canon City today, after serving two and a half years for fraud, she'll re-enter society with a brighter future than most felons. That's because she has spent the past 15 months working five days a week on the Colorado Department of Corrections IT help desk -- and she has already drawn interest from a company that hires ex-cons.

"I've gained a lot there," said Moore, explaining that the job has helped her deal with anxieties she once had over working with or talking to people.

Moore participated in an innovative program developed by the Colorado Department of Corrections in which a handful of female inmates from the nearby women's prison have been working on the agency's IT help desk since 2005. Corrections officials came up with the idea in the face of planned IT cutbacks.

Gonzales Says Supermax is Safe

FLORENCE, Colo. -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales toured a federal prison holding some of the nation's most violent and disruptive inmates on Wednesday and said the facility is secure, but he conceded that it could be improved.

"Are there challenges? Yes," said Gonzales, the nation's top law enforcement official. "Can we do better? Yes."

Gonzales agreed to visit the prison, known as Supermax, after Colorado's two senators raised concerns about staffing and security.

He stopped short of promising to increase the number of guards or build an additional fence around the compound, as some state and local officials have advocated. Instead, he said he was willing to listen.

Washinton Post article here

Parolee Voting Bill -- Laid Over Till Thursday

The Parolee Voting Bill has been laid over five times now. It's on the schedule for tomorrow, so if you haven't called your senator in favor of this bill, you still have time.

Colorado Parolees Deserve the Right to Vote We need your help with Senate Bill 83 ASAP!

Find your senator's contact info by going to http://www.leg.state.co.us and
click on the legislative directory for the Senate. Or you can go to http://www.Vote-Smart.org

To Read More Click here

Tobacco-cash Means Millions for Treatment

Tobacco-cash plan OK'd

Senators approved diverting $34 million from tobacco-settlement money Tuesday into health-care programs and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

On a 25-10 vote, the Senate passed SB97 by Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County, which would give 49 percent of the money to CU. Health-care programs - including rural health care, mental-health and drug-and-alcohol counseling for inmates, and immunization programs - would divide the rest.

Sen. Paula Sandoval, D-Denver, said she voted against the bill because nearly half the money would go to higher education rather than health care.

"There just is so much need, and I really feel strongly that those dollars could be better spent on the needy and disabled," she said.

Spitzer and Swarzenegger - Prison Reform

From coast to coast, how small changes in policy can divert a crisis, or create one. My mother always said "if you want to be successful, find someone who is and just do whatever it is that they do." We need to decide what we want our own prison crisis to look like in five years, and what success really means to Colorado.

New York's Eliot Spitzer, the tough ex-prosecutor turned governor, wants a commission to examine closing some of his state's dozens of prisons. Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pressing for $11 billion in bonds to add 78,000 beds to California's already burgeoning and overtaxed system.

What's going on here?

Partly, it's what both men inherited. New York's prison population peaked at 71,000 inmates in 1999 but has dropped by 8,000 since. Major explanations: dropping crime levels (especially in New York City) and increased efforts to find alternative treatment for nonviolent offenders.

California's prison population, meanwhile, has continued to surge. It's now at 173,000 inmates, an $8 billion yearly bill. Overcrowding and threats of riots are so serious that a senior prison official last year warned of "an imminent and substantial threat to the public."

Seattle Times Editorial here

Judge Stops Out Of State Prison Transfers

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Sacramento judge Tuesday blocked California corrections officials from transferring inmates to out of state, ruling that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's declaration of a prison overcrowding emergency was "unlawful" and that the movement of the prisoners violates the state's civil service principles......."The emergency here is not within the control of any single county or city in California," Ohanesian wrote. "This is so not because of the magnitude of the crisis. It is because control of the state prisons is exclusively within the purview of state government and not local government. The intent of the Emergency Services Act is not to give the governor extraordinary powers to act without legislative approval in matters such as this that are ordinarily and entirely within the control of state government."
Read the article here

Nearly $10 Million For Metro Denver Homeless

We are very excited to announce that long-time CCJRC member, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless was awarded more than $4 million from the federal government today. We'd like to take a moment to acknowledge all the excellent work that these groups have done over the years.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today awarded agencies that serve the homeless in metro Denver more than $9.9 million.

The money is a crucial part of the budget for many groups that serve the homeless.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless was awarded more than $4 million for a variety of projects, including the 100-unit Renaissance Riverfront project along the South Platte River at Park Avenue West..

Rocky Mountain Article here

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NY Times Article -- Supreme Court and Sentencing Guidelines

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 — The Supreme Court returns on Tuesday from a monthlong recess to face a daunting and urgent task: explaining what it meant two years ago when it ruled that the federal sentencing guidelines were to be treated as “advisory,” no longer binding on federal judges.
The justices will hear arguments on Tuesday morning in two cases that will provide the latest chapter, although almost certainly not the final one, in the court’s continuing and, to many, profoundly unsettling reappraisal of the roles of juries and judges in criminal sentencing.
NY Times article here

Prisoners of the Census Bureau

The Real Cost of Prisons points us to an article that examines how we have no idea how or where to count the 2.2 million people that we have incarcerated and what the consequences of that are. It's an issue for Colorado since most of our 22,000 incarcerated people are in rural areas spread out across the state, and in time, the prison populations for these rural towns can match or even exceed the real populations of those towns.

TODAY, MORE THAN 2 million people, or nearly one out of every 100 adults, is sitting in a jail or prison in the United States -- an incarceration rate unprecedented in U.S. history.

The total number of prisoners is not in dispute. But how to tabulate them is emerging as perhaps the most vexing issue of the 2010 census.

The U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners as residents of the towns and counties where they are incarcerated, even though most inmates have no ties to those communities and almost always return to their home neighborhoods upon release.

This has enormous and unsettling political and economic consequences, especially for California. The state banishes many of its urban offenders to prisons clustered in rural areas and intends to send at least 5,000 of its inmates out of state to cope with the prison overcrowding crisis....A provocative analysis by the Prison Policy Initiative estimates that if prisoners held in upstate New York were counted in their home neighborhoods, at least four state Senate seats — all Republican — would be in jeopardy after redistricting.

As Michigan state Rep. LaMar Lemmons (D-Detroit), a proponent of census reform, said: "Prison is not a residence; it is a condition."

LA Times Editorial here

W.W.A.D.

Michael Connelly has a great post/essay for Presidents' Day that he calls, W.W.A.D? (What Would Abe Do?

But of course you know that Lincoln was not that hard line. He had practiced defense law. He had a view of humans as capable of improvement and furthering themselves, hence his dislike of slavery which threathened individuals because it took a person's work from them and which threatened society because it substituted a system of a person's own labor and its subsequent reward with the forced labor of others....Lincoln saw a human sameness, a "there but for the grace of God," that is lacking in much of our corr sent policy today. We don't have to wonder what he would think about alternative sanctions and treatment for substance abuse....

Supermax Overcrowded and Understaffed

Years of get tough on crime policies, mandatory minimum sentences and over incarceration of low-level drug offenders is finally coming home to roost. There isn't enough space or money to run Florence. They can only spread themselves so far, and in response, the nation's highest-security federal prison is resorting to exteme tactics that results in long-term psychological torture of human beings.

United Nations officials have condemned the U.S. use of prolonged isolation and other tactics in Supermax and other prisons, citing the International Convention Against Torture that the U.S. ratified in 1994.

"This is against international law and against human decency," said Bonnie Kerness, coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee's Prison Watch monitoring campaign.

It's also a place where the extreme isolation of prisoners raises concerns among human- rights advocates about psychological torture.

Gonzales' visit Wednesday - with lawmakers, prison administrators and union leaders in tow - is designed to help tackle these and other troubles that could threaten security at the ultra-high-security Supermax prison and the adjacent high-security U.S. Penitentiary.

Post Article here

Ken Gorman -- Medical Marijuana Activist Killed

Police identified Ken Gorman as the man who was killed in a South Decatur Street home over the weekend, but would not say if they believe marijuana theft was a possible motive in the homicide. Gorman, a 59-year-old activist who sold marijuana for medicinal purposes, was shot to death sometime after 7 p.m. Saturday in his home. Post article here

"Ken has been around forever, and he did quite a bit to draw attention to an issue that he believed in," said Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER, an organization that helped legalize possession of small amounts of pot in Denver.
.
"For over 20 or 30 years, (Gorman) has been at the forefront of the issue, but if marijuana was legal, this would not have happened," Tvert said. "The thing that Ken spent his entire life fighting ended up killing him, and that's marijuana prohibition, and not marijuana." Rocky article here

No Answers in Jail Death - A Year Later

A year ago today, Emily Rae Rice bled to death and was found facedown on the floor of Denver's city jail, hours after she was arrested in an alcohol- related crash.

On Sunday morning, dozens of friends, family members and activists from Denver CopWatch began a 24-hour vigil outside the jail to express outrage over the way she died.

They played music, held signs that read, "The longer she pled, the more she bled," and chanted for justice in her name.

Rice was drinking before the crash, her parents acknowledge, but they say her injuries were then ignored by doctors at Denver Health Medical Center and by Denver sheriff's deputies who worked in the jail.

Denver Post Article here

Higher Education is Feeling the Pinch.

A Denver Post Editorial points out that we are below average is spending for higher education statewide, we also know that we are dead last when it comes to funding substance abuse treatement....and our budget for prisons keeps going up. The Department of Corrections asked for another $53 million dollars this year and if they get it, that means they win over education who only got an additional $49 million dollars. What a message we are sending....

The puzzle over how to fund higher education has been solved at the state legislature for another year: Each of Colorado's public colleges and universities get a little bit of, well, not much.

Rather than tearing "each other to ribbons for a relatively small advantage," as University of Northern Colorado president Kay Norton put it, the schools have agreed to divvy up next year's state funding in the same proportions as this year's funding.

And even though schools came to the Capitol armed with a study showing Colorado's higher education system needing $832 million just to meet the average state funding of their peers across the country, lawmakers could offer only an extra $49 million. So, even if other states held the line on higher ed, Colorado would need another $783 million just to be average....

Either way, students heading to campuses across Colorado next fall can expect another round of higher tuition rates.

With prison costs and Medicaid gobbling up greater portions of Colorado's budget, and so many other parts off-limits to cuts, the riddle of higher education funding won't be solved under the current system.

A new funding stream for higher education must be found.

A Letter from Lisl's Dad - Editorial

In Aspen Daily News' article, "Ritter defends Auman case; moves on to running Colorado," that recounts the tragic death of Denver police officer Bruce VanderJagt, the governor stated, "... we offered Lisl Auman a plea bargain. She could've gotten as little as 15 years and she might have been out in five years for good time. (Auman and her attorney) turned the plea bargain down. They wanted probation. I didn't believe Lisl's conduct warranted it."

Thank you Dr. Hunter S. Thompson for continuing to haunt Gov. Bill Ritter's political life by forcing the resurrection of the revisionist lie of the purported alternate plea bargain that never occurred. Lisl, who did not know the murderer, was offered one plea bargain that would have resulted in her spending a minimum of 30 years in prison. There was no other offer.

Read the Editorial here

Opposition To The Death Penalty

David Lane wrote this article that appeared in the Denver Post Perspective (I couldn't find in online though). David is an extremely well-respected civil-rights attorney in Denver, member of CCJRC and long-time opponent of the death penalty.

By David Lane

Opposition to the death penalty is rising around the nation, and that should motivate newly-elected officials in Colorado to seriously reconsider the conventional wisdom of the past and consider abolishing the Colorado death-penalty law, as well as broadly reforming our sentencing laws.

A legislative commission in New Jersey recently recommended by an overwhelming majority that the state legislature abolish the death penalty as being contrary to “evolving standards of decency” in society.

It is expected that New Jersey will be the first state in 35 years to abolish this relic of a barbaric past. Colorado should follow suit.

Currently Colorado has only two people on death row. Experts deem it likely that procedural errors at the trial level will ultimately result in death sentences being vacated for both Nathan Dunlap and Edward Montour, who will instead receive sentences of life imprisonment without possibility of parole, thereby emptying our death row. Montour was convicted in the 2003 murder of a corrections officer. Dunlap was convicted for the 1993 murder of four employees at a restaurant in Aurora.

Since 1980, Colorado has spent well over $50 million dollars in the extended trial and appellate procedures of potential death penalty cases for the sole purpose of executing one person — Gary Davis in 1997. These costs are built into every death penalty case and include attorneys fees and expert witness fees for both the prosecution and defense of a death penalty case. Putting aside all the philosophical arguments about the death penalty, spending that kind of cash for a demonstrably failed government program is foolish beyond words.

It is reflective of a social pathology that values naked vengeance over rational public policy. Are we willing to spend millions to execute one person while our children are attending failing schools?

The death penalty is in full retreat nationally. Last year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, there were fewer than 114 death sentences imposed by juries, down from a high of 317 in 1996. Last year 53 executions were carried out, down from 98 in 1999. This is reflective of society’s understanding that wrongful convictions are not uncommon and that life without possibility of parole (Colorado’s alternative to death) is a just punishment.
Politicians for years have been far more committed to the death penalty than the public. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, national polls have shown that when the death penalty is compared to life without parole, where the killer is forced to work his entire life making restitution to the victim’s family, only 41% percent of the public favors the death penalty.

Colorado is currently considering sentencing reform on a large scale. HB1094 sponsored by rep. Paul Weissman would eliminate the death penalty and cycle the savings into the investigations of cold cases. This is a far more productive use of scarce resources than spending millions to satisfy a mythical societal blood-lust.

It has recently been reported that the cost of prison expansion in Colorado under current law could cause a virtual standstill in other capital improvement projects statewide.
Mandatory sentencing resulting in thousands of non-violent offenders being incarcerated for years is draining the life out of this state.

Throwing money down the rat-hole of prison expansion and the death penalty is absolutely absurd, given the plight of our schools and the availability of sound alternatives. Forcing judges to ignore justice in any given case and send non-violent people to prison so that politicians can crow about how tough they are on crime is harming Colorado.

The legislature and governor need to take a hard look at sentencing in Colorado. We can make a good start by eliminating the death penalty and many mandatory sentences for non-violent offenders.

Habitual criminal statutes such as California’s notorious “three strikes” law sound good but often result in massively expensive long-term incarceration not for people who are menaces to society but who are instead merely public nuisances. Sending low-level drug users who have written bad checks and shoplifted to prison for decades of incarceration at about $30,000 per year to the taxpayers is simply a foolish waste of money and lives.

For a fraction of the cost of incarceration, the state could run serious intervention programs designed to change people’s behavior, give them skills to live successfully and ultimately become productive members of society.

Any society is in dire straits when its prison budget squeezes other, more valuable government programs, and this is where Colorado finds itself. Serious sentencing reform will go a long way toward restoring fiscal sanity to our state.

Of Meth and Men

This article was posted in the Westword in December by Luke Turf, prior to Think Outside the Cage being launched. Not only is it a very personal story about methamphetamine addiction, it also tells the stories of two CCJRC members, Bob Dorshimer and Imani Latif and the work that they are doing, on the battlefront, helping people recover.

In public, gay men once called meth "Christina" because it sounded like "crystal." The nickname was soon shortened to "Chrissy," then changed again to "Tina" by the time Rod Rushing finally decided to get rid of the bitch.

Rod and Tina had been up for a night, maybe two, three or more, and hard rain was pouring down when Rod sought shelter -- and help -- at Addiction Research and Treatment Services, a clinic in City Park West. In 2003, more and more gay men were showing up at ARTS with meth addictions. They were all assigned to Bob Dorshimer's caseload.

Bob took Rod to the clinic's conference room, where they sat down for lunch. It was the first food Rod had eaten in days.

As he ate, he talked with Bob about the rising popularity of the "party and play" scene in the Mile High City. Men who craved meth-fueled sex could find each other by surfing websites and chat rooms or cruising the bathhouses in town and searching out the party. But Bob could see that the party was about over for Rod.

"I thought to myself, "Wow, look what meth is doing, look what meth has done to this man,'" Bob remembers. "It had taken away his job and his career; he was homeless, and all he had left was meth."

Read the story by Luke Turf here at Westword

Making Up Their Own Rules ...

I love this. A Rocky Mountain News reporter was accessing her legal right to attend a public hearing of a parole revocation.
"But parole board hearing officer Celeste C de Baca then refused to allow the reporter to attend, citing jail rules giving the defense attorney the right to refuse access...
Parole board staff members told the Rocky this week that a parole revocation hearing scheduled for Friday at the Denver jail would be open to the public, and no special arrangements were required."

It's pretty bad when contracted parole hearing officers don't know the rules and are supposed to navigate through the myriad of technical violations and laws to decide whether someone has to go back to prison.

"Finally, Parole Board Chairman Stanley was tracked down. He called C de Baca to say the hearing was public. By then, it was over.

Stanley said that many parole hearings are conducted in prisons and jails because that's where the prisoners are. Wardens can deny access to anyone, he noted.

In Jefferson and Arapahoe counties, where jails are near the courthouse, parole hearings are in public courtrooms, he said.

"They should abide by the law" and allow the public to attend, said Christie Donner, director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

But jail staffers refused to allow the reporter inside the locked gates without prior approval.

When contacted, Denver corrections director Bill Lovingier agreed the meeting was open to the public and informed his staff.

But Donner said "it's very, very difficult" for the public to go to hearings in jails and prisons.

Sometimes they are simply refused by the jail staff. Sometimes, they run afoul of unpublicized dress codes, such as no skirts above the knee, she said."

Rocky article here

Dunston Released To The Streets

The street definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and
expect different results. In a closed (?) parole hearing on Friday, (see the story above) Dunston was released to go to treatment again to a program that doesn't have room for him. Read the first excellent article by Ann Imse here about the revolving door.

Dunston Sidner, a mentally ill crack addict who has cost taxpayers $200,000 in the past 12 years, was ordered released to parole Friday - once again to a treatment program that may not have room for him.

Sidner, 56, who was profiled in the Rocky on Friday, illustrates one of the problems contributing to the state's skyrocketing bill for prisons: half of Colorado's inmates return to prison within three years.

Parole board hearing officer Celeste C de Baca on Friday said after a closed hearing that she had approved a plan that may send him to his sister's home over the weekend, and move him next week to a residential treatment center for mentally ill addicts run by Mental Health Corp. of Denver.

MHCD has two such facilities sufficiently staffed to take parolees, said MHCD chief Dr. Carl Clark. But there's a waiting list. And the state has no contract with MHCD to pay for parolees like Sidner....

"So they're competing with everybody else for these slots," Clark said.
Finding room for parolees "is really hard to do."

Ann Imse's follow-up article here

Kids On Drugs -- The Legal Ones

Michael at Corrections Sentencing hit it here: Methadone abuse is up. Not just by former heroin addicts .... part of increased abuse of prescription drugs by teens. (They're not using marijuana as much right now so that means, the gateway closed, we'll have fewer addicts in the future, right? Putting money on that?

THURSDAY, Feb. 15 (HealthDay News) -- American teens are cutting back on their use of marijuana, but their abuse of prescription drugs in recent years has stayed the same or increased.

That's the conclusion of a report released Wednesday by White House drug czar John Walters.

Teens are also abusing anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax and stimulants like Adderall, Walters said. Overall, 2.1 million American teens abused prescription drugs in 2005. "The drug dealer is us," Walters said, adding that adults need to keep track of prescription drugs and dispose of them properly when the drugs expire.

Washington Post article here

Ft. Collins Jail Is Capped

The Larimer County Detention Center is going to put a cap on the number of inmates it houses — about 50 fewer than are in the jail on an given day.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports that Sheriff Jim Alderden said at a meeting of the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee that he’s capping the number at 450 inmates.

The Rocky Article here

Putting Money Into Treatment

An amended budget plan submitted by Ritter last week calls for an $8 million increase in spending next year with the aim of decreasing future prison construction and operating costs by $14.2 million or more.

To cover some of the costs of the programs, Ritter would reduce prison-bed spending by $3.2 million in the 2007-08 budget. Owens' budget called for $12.9 million to cover the costs of additional prison beds.

"I think this is a good first step," said Ari Zavaras, executive director of the Department of Corrections....

On the campaign trail, Ritter described his commitment to reducing the state's prison costs as a "moral obligation."

The cost of building and running prisons is squeezing the state budget and taking money away from schools, he said.

Twenty years ago, the state spent $63 million from the general fund budget to run prisons. In 2006-07, the cost was $585 million from the general fund.

Advocates for criminal-justice reform said they were encouraged by Ritter's shift in priorities but want him to do more.

Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, which represents 104 organizations and faith-based groups, said they want the state to put even more money into programs because putting sick people behind bars doesn't solve the problems.

"Incarceration doesn't cure mental illness," she said. "Incarceration doesn't cure substance abuse."

Denver Post article here.

How Much Does A Revolving Door Cost?

Bad policy decisions and budget cuts hurt people. Colorado's policy of catch and release and catch again has caught up with us and has hurt thousands of people in the process. We are a state full of collateral consequences. People caught up in the system who could have been caught up to and resucitated years ago have continually fallen through the cracks. Read Ann Imse's report on Dunston Sidner and realize that his story echoes throughout the Department of Corrections.

Dunston Sidner, like many felons with drug addictions and mental illness, has received little treatment, repeatedly fails parole and ends up back behind bars. So far, he's cost taxpayers at least $200,000. The state Department of Corrections hasn't done much to increase his odds of making it. Twice, prison officials released him to a homeless shelter packed with other addicted felons and surrounded by drug dealers. Last time, he was let loose without his psychiatric medications. He lasted barely a week before wandering off, a parole violation.

Figuring out how to keep Sidner and others like him - minor criminals, drug addicts, the mentally ill - from returning to prison is one key to solving Colorado's corrections crisis.

The state's prison population is soaring five times faster than the national average. Taxpayers are facing an $800 million bill for new state prisons over the next five years, and that doesn't include the cost of running them.

Colorado's new governor and legislators have made it clear they aren't happy about this.

"The costs (of prisons) are spiraling out of control and eating into our ability to fund education and health care," Gov. Bill Ritter said in his State of the State speech days after taking office.

Dunston Sidner is well-spoken and polite as he sits in the Denver jail. He's honest about his mental problems and addiction.

"I can't stand in front of a judge and say, 'I won't do this anymore,' " he says

Somehow, he stayed out of serious trouble with the law from 1980 to 1995.

But on the evening of March 4, 1995, Denver police picked him up for loitering at 22nd and Stout streets. They found one-hundredth of an ounce of crack in his pocket.

That was the beginning of 12 years in and out of prisons and jails.

Rocky Article here

Lafayette Council Withdraws Bid To Increase Marijuana Penalties

For Immediate Release -- Feb. 16, 2007
Lafayette City Council withdraws bid to increase marijuana penalties
Officials reconsider drastic and unnecessary ordinance in light of
strong public opposition

Contact: Mason Tvert, SAFER executive director, 720-255-4340

DENVER -- The Lafayette City Council has withdrawn a municipal
ordinance that would have drastically and unnecessarily increased the
fine for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The proposed
measure would have increased the fine for possessing less than one
ounce of marijuana from a maximum $100 fine and no time in jail -- as
called for under state law -- to a maximum $1,000 fine and up to one
year in jail.

Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), along with the
ACLU of Colorado, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, and
Sensible Colorado, coordinated a strong grassroots response in
opposition to the proposal, which the council initially approved at
its Feb. 6 meeting. According to a statement on the Lafayette City
Council's Web site (see below or http://www.cityoflafayette.com/
News.asp?NewsID=1466), "City staff and City Council have determined
that more information and analysis are needed on this matter."


"We are very pleased that the Lafayette City Council has withdrawn
this drastic and unnecessary measure," said SAFER Executive Director
Mason Tvert. "We appreciate their responsiveness to the concerns of
Lafayette and Boulder County citizens, and we look forward to serving
as a resource for accurate information on marijuana at the council's
public workshop on this issue in April."

Prison Break (Colorado Springs Independent)

We need to hear more success stories like this one. It was a long time coming, but it just goes to show that we don't need to give up on people when they make mistakes. People need options in order to be successful.

One month ago, Ernie Medina stepped from his navy blue pickup, slipped and fell on the ice near his apartment complex just south of downtown Colorado Springs.....Medina's arm was X-rayed for a possible broken bone that could have seriously hampered his work and his life. But the X-rays were clear.

Medina turned down a prescription for the painkiller Vicodin. Even the tiniest trace of the drug could rouse the addictions that brought him a total of eight years behind bars, thousands of dollars in court fees and countless urine analysis tests... By many standards, Medina has broken out of the prison-life cycle...."You can't say that we are success stories until we die," he warns. "Any one of us, especially on an addiction, is subject to falling off the path. ... That is a possibility for me until the day I die."..

Felons like Medina are regularly turned down for jobs. In Colorado, private employers can refuse anyone with a felony conviction. Public employers also can ask about criminal background information, but cannot require details of prior arrests. The state doesn't track unemployment rates of ex-felons.

"We are creating a growing segment of the population that is unemployable," says Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. "Not just unemployed, but unemployable."

Read the Article here

Westwords Third Installment --Casey Finds A Job

Alan's third part in his ongoing series about Casey and his journey through parole.

Fresh out of prison and hunting for a job, Casey Holden has picked up a few dirty looks and plenty of don’t-call-us-we’ll-call-yous. Now 26, Holden has been locked up most of the time since he’s sixteen, including the last four years in Colorado’s supermax — not the best place to polish your interview skills.

But persistence can sometimes trump the odds

Get the Whole Story here..

Prison Crisis Can't be Fixed With A Band-Aid

Diane Carman hits the nail on the head with this article about what has happened in Colorado to create the prison crisis that has given us the 6th fastest growing prison population in the nation.

The prison crisis is not something that calls for a bit of judicious tweaking.

It's Colorado's very own Iraq war.

It was sold to voters on flawed intelligence, distorted over the years to evoke irrational fear, exploited by politicians for their cynical self-interest and transformed into an industry that feeds on the whole unseemly, craven, warped public policy for the sole benefit of its own insatiable greed.

Now it's a bona fide quagmire, and nobody in power has the guts to admit it.

Colorado's prison population has exploded because politicians in the mid-1980s created the bogus war on drugs instead of doing the right thing - treating mental illness and addiction. Then to look tough, they doubled the sentences for all felonies....

Now, 20 years and billions of dollars later, the war continues without end, and no surge in incarceration is going to stop it.

DOC figures reveal that of the 21,000 inmates in state prisons, more than 4,000 are doing time for drug offenses, and 50 percent of those arrests were for simple possession. At the same time, funding for drug-treatment programs in the state has plummeted.

In contrast, New York state funded an aggressive program targeting nonviolent drug offenders in 1990, offering them deferred sentences if they pleaded guilty and enrolled in drug-treatment programs.

It cut recidivism rates 87 percent.

Diane Carmans article here

Out of Jails Into Hospitals

Prosecutors and a state agency have reached a settlement designed to get mentally ill criminal defendants out of local jails and into the state hospital for treatment.

Prosecutors Iris Eytan and Marcus Lock had asked Denver District Judge Martin Egelhoff to hold the superintendent of the state hospital and the executive director of the Colorado Department of Human Services in contempt for failing to treat the inmates....

Specifically, the special prosecutors had charged that the state was violating the constitutional rights of two categories of inmates - those who had been found incompetent and those awaiting mental- health evaluations.

Late last year, they claimed that there were as many as 77 Colorado defendants, who were found incompetent to stand trial, awaiting admission to the state mental hospital. Many of the inmates had been in jails for months despite court orders saying they were to be moved to the hospital.
Read the Post article here

and this one here
..outlines the problems associated with people with people who have mental illness and what some cities are doing.

The Army veteran was homeless and disoriented when he was arrested for burglary in Boulder County. Prior to 1999, he would have been sentenced, served his term and been released from jail. Then, most likely, he would have been returned to jail for another offense or for a technical violation of parole, such as not keeping an appointment with his parole officer. He would have joined the legions of mentally ill going in and out of jail in what amounts to a revolving door

.

Give Parolees the Right To Vote!!

Help the ACLU and Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition

Colorado Parolees Deserve the Right to Vote
We need your help with Senate Bill 83 ASAP!
SB 83 will be heard on the Senate floor early
Friday morning. That’s why you need to act now.

Find your senator's contact info by going to http://www.leg.state.co.us and
click on the legislative directory for the Senate.
SB 83 is about treating people fairly and increasing access to voting.
One of the important parts of the bill will allow parolees to vote.
There is some evidence from other states that voting is an important part of
reintroduction into society.
SB 83 brings more consistency to Colorado policy around voting
eligibility of people involved in the criminal justice system.
Currently, people on probation and people in jail serving a
misdemeanor sentence are allowed to vote. Since people on parole, like
people on probation, are living in the community, working and paying
taxes, parolees should have the right to vote, too.

Voting is one of the critical components to becoming a full member
of society. Since one of the critical goals is for people to
successfully reintegrate back into the community following
incarceration, allowing people on parole to vote is one way to create
an opportunity for civic participation and social connection.
It may play a role in reducing repeat offenses. The Colorado constitution says
that persons confined in prison may not vote, but it leaves the voting rights
of parolees at the discretion of the legislature, granting that body the power
to define “term of imprisonment.”

The Colorado Supreme Court recently confirmed this by stating, “...parole is part of the
incarcerated person’s sentence when the General Assembly so provides.”
Previous legislatures saw fit to disenfranchise parolees by voting to define
parole as part of the "term of imprisonment."

Today, our General Assembly has an opportunity to reverse that
misguided decision of years past. Opponents, however, don't want the
issue to make it to a vote, preferring instead to
rip the language from the bill entirely.
Don’t let them get away with it. SB 83 will be heard on the Senate floor early
Friday morning. That’s why you need to act now.

Call your state senator now and urge him or her to support parolee voting.
Find your senator's contact info by going to http://www.leg.state.co.us and
click on the legislative directory for the Senate.

By making your voice heard now, you can help all Coloradans have their voices heard at the polls.

Press Release From Leonard Frieling

Following my resignation as a Lafayette Municipal Court Associate Judge in protest of an unnecessary and drastic proposal to increase marijuana possession penalties in the City of Lafayette, some misinformed officials with the city launched an attack on my character, spurring news stories that suggested I was no longer an associate judge with the city at the time of my resignation.

As a result, the message I intended to send with my resignation is still as pertinent now as it was when this story first broke. The City hired me because they trusted my judgment, and I can no longer serve as a judge for a city willing to go to such great measures to ensure they have the ability to punish non-violent adult marijuana users more harshly than the state mandates. I do not pretend that it was a huge personal sacrifice. I am not the issue. The issue is the issue.

Thus, I will be standing in opposition to this measure at a press conference Tuesday, the day on which this measure's fate will be determined. More details about this event will follow from Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER).
Read the Entire Press Release here

Lafayette Increasing Marijuana Penalties?

Boulder County Action Alert -- Lafayette considering ordinance to
drastically increase penalties for adult possession of marijuana

Last week, the Lafayette City Council gave initial approval (5-1) for
Ordinance 6 which would increase the municipal penalties for an adult
to possess small amounts of marijuana. Only Mayor Pro Tem Strungis
opposed this ordinance. Currently, both state law and Lafayette
municipal code penalize adult possession of under 1 ounce of
marijuana with a $100 fine. Under Ordinance 6, these penalities
would increase to a fine of up to $1,000 and up to 1 year in jail.

Ordinance 6 was considered without public input so NOW is the time to
have your voice heard!

The Lafayette City Council is likely to have a final vote on
Ordinance 6 at the next City Council meeting on February 20th. Even
though this is a Lafayette ordinance, it affects all Boulder County
residents because someone sentenced to jail under this ordinance
would be sent to the Boulder County Jail which is funded by Boulder
County taxes.

In the November election, 56% of Boulder county voters supported
Amendment 44 which would have decriminalized adult possession of
marijuana in small quantities.

Please join CCJRC and SAFER in opposing this ordinance. Below is a
link to an action alert issued by SAFER that includes the phone
numbers and email addresses for the Lafayette City Council members.

SAFER's "action alert" is available at
http://www.saferchoice.org/content/view/60/1/

Prison Growth Could Cost Up to 27.5 Billion Over the Next Five Years

RELEASED TODAY

Prison Growth Could Cost Up to $27.5 Billion Over Next 5 Years

Washington, DC -- February 14, 2007 -- By 2011 one in every 178 U.S. residents will live in prison, according to a new report released today by the Public Safety Performance Project of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Public Safety, Public Spending: Forecasting America’s Prison Population 2007-2011 projects that by 2011 America will have more than 1.7 million men and women in prison, an increase of more than 192,000 from 2006.

“As states continue to struggle with tight budgets and competing priorities among health, education and safety, they are beginning to question whether huge additional investments in prisons are the most effective and economical way of combating crime,” said Susan Urahn, Managing Director of State Policy Initiatives at The Pew Charitable Trusts. “The challenge for state policy makers is to ensure that taxpayers are getting a strong return on their investment in corrections: safer communities, efficient use of public dollars, and ex-offenders who become productive, law-abiding members of society.”

Public Safety, Public Spending was prepared for the Trusts by the JFA Institute, a Washington-based, nonprofit research and consulting firm. Among the report’s projections for 2011:

• Without policy changes by the states, the nation’s incarceration rate will reach 562 per 100,000, or one of every 178 Americans. If you put them all together in one place, the incarcerated population in just five years will outnumber the residents of Atlanta, Baltimore and Denver combined.
• 
  
• Unless Montana, Arizona, Alaska, Idaho and Vermont change their sentencing or release practices, they can expect to see their prison systems grow by one third or more. Similarly, barring reforms, Colorado, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and South Dakota can expect their inmate populations to grow by about 25 percent.
  

.. Connecticut may provide one of the most striking and successful examples of policy
intervention. Using data-driven analyses, Connecticut policy makers identified that parole and probation violators were driving much of the prison growth. They passed legislation in 2004 that set a goal of reducing parole and probation revocations by 20 percent, and hired 96 new probation officers, reducing caseloads from approximately 160 cases per officer in January 2004 to approximately 100 cases per officer in June 2005.

While Montana will have the greatest percentage increase, Arizona, California and Colorado will see the greatest growth in absolute numbers in the West.

As part of a “justice reinvestment” strategy, Connecticut redirected $13 million of the
expected savings from those reforms into recidivism reduction initiatives. ... Connecticut went from having one of the fastest-growing prison populations in the nation to experiencing a decline steeper than almost any other state. Crime rates in Connecticut also dropped during this period.....Another big story in the Northeast has been New York, where the prison population has declined from a peak of 72,889 in 1999 to its current level of about 63,000...

“Innovative governors and legislators across the country are exploring policies, programs and technologies they believe will save their states money and reduce recidivism,” added Gelb. “They are being joined in this pursuit by judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, corrections and law enforcement officials, faith-based organizations and community advocates, and others searching for cost-effective solutions backed by credible research and a track record of success.”

Thanks to Corrections Sentencing for alerting us to this report last week!!
Read the Report Here

The Rocky Is Against the Record Sealing Bill

Please write a letter to the editor to oppose this editorial if you feel strongly about this bill.

We wouldn't like House Bill 1107, which tries to seal off more criminal records from public view, even if it cost the taxpayer nothing. But because the annual cost to the court system is estimated at about $7 million, we like it even less.

The measure makes it easier for those involved in crimes to ask a judge to close their records. If the offense they were arrested for was not formally charged, or if it was dismissed due to a plea bargain in another case, they would have to wait only 10 years instead of the current 15 before they could file a petition with the district court to seal the record.

February Newsletter from CCJRC

The Record Sealing Bill
Ritter and His 800-pound Gorilla
The Parole Board is Hiring
Community Re-entry Project Is Hiring
CPC Is Hiring
Upcoming Events
CCJRC Membership

News From CCJRC

Record Sealing Bill Approved in House Judiciary Committee --You Did It!!

The Record Sealing Bill (HB 1107) is moving forward in the state legislature.

In a very strong 9-2 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved the measure on Wednesday.

There was powerful testimony from many people who have been discriminated against while trying to find employment due to criminal records that are 7-10-25 years old. Legislators were visibly moved by their emotional testimony. Many thanks to all the witnesses and other supporters who waited over 5 hours before HB 1107 was heard. You made the difference.

The Colorado Press Association and the District Attorney's Council opposed the bill although the DA's Council is negotiating with the bill sponsor on amendments that would ensure that law enforcement would always have access to the records for law enforcement purposes.

CCJRC has no problem with the amendment and the D.A's opposition should be taken care of.

Hats off to Maureen Cain for all of her hard lobbying work to neutralize opposition.

Representatives who voted "Yes": Terrance Carroll (D), Morgan Carroll (D), Mike Cerbo (sponsor) (D), Andy Kerr (D), Steve King (R), Claire Levy (D), Rosemary Marshall (D), Debbie Stafford (R), and Amy Stephens (R). Many thanks to the bill sponsor,

Mike Cerbo, and for all the support from these other legislators.

Representatives who voted "No": Bob Gardner (R) and Ellen Roberts (R).

Both Representative Gardner and Roberts expressed concerns about the employers right
to know about a prospective employee's criminal history and the HB 1107 didn't draw the right "balance" between an employer's right to know and person's right to privacy. Representative Roberts expressed sympathy for the struggle people face finding employment and is interested in discussing ideas on how to address her concerns.

Next, HB 1107 will be heard by the House Appropriations Committee. This has yet to be scheduled but we will keep you posted.

Your calls and emails to legislators make a huge difference . Hang in there with us!

If HB 1107 passes, people who have an adult criminal record can petition the court to have it sealed after 10 years following the completion of a sentence or release from prison. Right now there is NO way to seal an adult record in state law. Also, our deep appreciation goes out to or friends at the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar Association for their leadership on this bill.
Without CCDB, this bill would not have happened and our deep thanks goes to Guss Guarino (CCDB Executive Director), Tom Hammond (CCDB President),and Maureen Cain (CCDB's marvelous lobbyist).

Ritter Confronts The 800-pound Gorilla

In his state of the state speech on January 11th, New Governor Bill Ritter specifically
identified slowing growth in the prison population as a goal of his administration.
After years of prison reform being stymied at the the state-level, event to the point that policymakers didn't even want to talk about what reforms could be made,
this new administration wants to at least look at the reasons for the outrageous growth in our prison population.

Governor Ritter appointed Judge Pete Weir as the Head of Public Safety, and Ari Zavaras as the Executive Director of the Department of Corrections. Both have publicly stated that they have been given "marching" orders by the Governor to come up with strategies to reduce recidivism that would slow growth in the prison budget (and population) and promote public safety.

The directive from Governor Ritter included language that discussed the need to prevent crimes before they occur. He wants to look at drug courts and other intervention programs,
since over 85% of those incarcerated have self-reported that they have a drug or alcohol problem.

Colorado has a 49% recidivism rate which is one of the driving factors in our prison population.
Governor Ritter has begun the discussion about developing programs that allowed people to successfully re-integrate.

He stated that recidivism reduction would be a top-priority in order to curb the prison budget. CCJRC submitted our letter to the Governor with strategies that would slow (and even reverse) the growth in prison population.

Simply put, we would only have to improve the outcomes of people on parole by a
100 people a month statewide, that in itself would create zero and even negative population growth.

It's not about radical sentencing reform, it's a discussion about small policy changes that over time have a large impact. Eighty-four percent of the people who are returned to prison go back on a technical violation of parole, these are not new criminal actions. Technical violations are the list of conditions that someone is released with, if they fail one of these conditions they can be revoked to prison.

The Department of Corrections says that it needs $806 million for prison construction projects
over the next five years. They also need an additional $42.9 million to get started on CSP II which was originally budgeted at $102.8 million. Colorado simply can't afford to build
and operate all of those projects. Expanding reliance on the private prisons and shipping people out of state are not acceptable options.

Governor Ritter has made promise to Colorado and we look forward to having the opportunity to work with this administration to help him keep that promise.

Who is the Parole Board? ….and how does it work?

The Parole Board in Colorado holds parole hearings and considers
applications for parole. The also conduct all proceedings involving the
revocation of parole. There are 7 members, they serve a 3 year term, they
work full-time and they make $86,000 a year!!

The Board itself shall consist of two representatives from law enforcement, one
former parole or probation officer and four citizen representatives. The members are required
to have knowledge of parole, rehabilitation, correctional administration and the functioning
of the criminal justice system. Three members must have at least five years education
or experience or a combination thereof in their respective fields.

Three of the current Parole Board members' terms expire this July 1.
Two of these slots are from "citizen" representatives and 1 "law enforcement" representative.
Also, the head of the parole board, Allen Stanley is“awaiting confirmation by the Senate”.
Governor Owens reappointed him in the last days of his administration and it’s up to
Bill Ritter to decide to to go forward with that appointment.

We have over a hundred boards and commissions in this state. Of those, only two have full-time positions, the Public Utilities Commission and the Colorado State Parole Board.

The 2007 version of the Colorado Boards and Commissions was just recently released, you can download it at http://www.colorado.gov/governor/press/pdf/BOOK2007.pdf

This booklet lists every board and it contains an application that you can use to apply for a position as well. If you have any opinions on the current parole board or suggestions, you should write to Governor Ritter.

The Ritter Recidivism Reduction Package

Governor Ritter released his Budget Amendment package today the link for the entire list
of proposed budget amendments is here .

He also released a separate memo called governor Ritter's Recidivism Reduction
and Offender Diversion package. Pursuant to the Colorado Promise, the goal is to invest in programs which protect public safety while allowing for diversion and successful transition from the Dept. of Corrections.

CCJRC has always advocated for funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment. It looks as though the Governor understands that making an investment may be the best way to help people from going to prison in the first place and perhaps stopping them from going back when they have a difficult time re-integrating.

Two things that are happening are that CUSP would be implemented, which creates a model that incorporates several agencies to provide real services to people and the STIRRT program will be implemented statewide.

Governor Ritter has asked for over 8 million dollars to start and looks for a return on his investment of 3.2 million dollars in 2007-2008 and over $11 million in out year savings.

Read the Recidivism Reduction and Offender Diversion package here

---

New for 2007

Changes at CCJRC

CCJRC BLOG "Think Outside the Cage"

CCJRC has launched our new blog. The new website is nearly complete, there are just a few minor technical things that have to be ironed out.

The purpose of the blog is to inform you of local, state and national
news that is related to the issues we battle. We also periodically post reports and Op-Ed columns that we believe you may find interesting. I hope you enjoy the new feature and if you want to have Think Outside The Cage delivered to your email daily, you can just enter your information on the front page of the blog and subscribe.

The Community Re-Entry Project

We are pleased an excited to announce that the Matthew's Center Community Re-Entry Project (formerly known as the One-Stop) is getting ready to open its' doors. The Executive Director, Jenifer Reynolds and two case managers have been hired and they are looking to open in the next few weeks. They are still looking for an office manager. This is a new project that has been developed in order to help reduce recidivism rates in Denver .

The One Stop will be housed at the Matthews Center, located in the Five Points-Whittier neighborhoods. This project offers a multi-level community based approach to helping people access services at a single location.

The One-Stop is based on an intensive case management model that affords significant one-on-one time with clients. Case Managers will prioritize helping people meet basic needs to ensure that they are obtaining identification, employment, housing, mental health and substance abuse assessments and treatment.

Please send me an email if you would like the job description and application email me at pam@ccjrc.org. You can also contact

The Community Reentry Project

3030 Downing Street

Denver, Colorado 80205

Jenifer Reynolds

Project Coordinator

(303) 949-4450

godlvsu@comcast.net

Also, note that these jobs ARE felon-friendly, and experience can definitely be substituted for the minimum education requirements.

COLORADO PROGRESSIVE COALITION IS HIRING
Vision ~ Action ~ Results
Building a Progressive Future for Colorado since 1996…

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY! Great Employment Opportunity:
CPC Campaign for Economic Justice: Director Position (full-time)

Help CPC find a great Director for our Campaign for Economic Justice!
CPC's Tax Fairness Project Director, John Kefalas, did a tremendous job since 2004 building up our work to rollback Colorado's terrible TABOR law; spotlight immoral, Bush pushed tax breaks for the wealthy; confront the racial wealth divide; and build grassroots activism for economic justice across Colorado.

John is now a new, progressive State Representative for Fort Collins House District 52 and CPC is seeking to find someone to fill his senior staff position. We've given the program a bold, new name - the Campaign for Economic Justice - and hope that you will help us circulate this announcement broadly to help us recruit a pool of experienced, diverse, talented, and inspiring candidates!

DEADLINE TO APPLY: March 2, 2007 We’re seeking to hire and start the position in late March 2007. Salaried position in the high $30’s with good benefits, including health, vision, dental, vacation, and a dynamic, diverse, high energy office. Send resume, cover letter, and brief (one to three pages max) writing sample that is relevant to this position by mail or email to coprogressive@aol.com. No phone calls please. Deadline: close of business Friday, March 2, 2007.

GOODSEARCH is here!!!

You can support CCJRC every time you use the internet by making "Good Search" your homepage and using Colorado Criminal Justice
Reform Coalition as your non-profit charity, we get one penny every time you search the internet. Go to http://www.goodsearch.com/ to understand more. Also, you have to type in the whole name of the organization (Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition) and not just CCJRC. If you want to make GoodSearch your home page you can click here and go to http://www.goodsearch.com/MakeHomepage.aspx which
is the link that will explain how to do that. Thank you for your support.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center

JAZZ FOR PEACE BENEFIT CONCERT

Saturday, February 17th at 6:00 PM at
Montview Presbyterian Church in Denver

Questions? Please call Betty Betty at RMPJC 303-444-6981.

JAZZ FOR PEACE BENEFIT CONCERT. We strongly encourage you to go to their website at
www.jazzforpeace.org ... they are really excellent -- and highly acclaimed.
They only do 4 benefits a year, and we are honored to have been chosen for
one of them !

Colorado CURE

The 6th annual DOC/CURE Parole Board Forum

Thursday, March 29, from 6:45PM- 9:30PM

Denver Police District 3 Building(Community Room)

1625 S. University Blvd., at I-25 and S. University Blvd.

The DOC Div. of Adult Parole will be first on the agenda to answer questions.

CURE/DOC MEETING

Tuesday, February 27th at DWCF
Behind THE DENVER COUNTY JAIL on Smith Road and Havana

DWCF is just south of the Denver County Jail.

1:00PM-3:30 PM

The training room is reserved starting at 12:30 p.m.

If you have any questions on either of these events

Please contact, Dianne Tramutola-Lawson at 303-758-3390

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YOU can be a CCJRC

FREEDOM FIGHTER

CCJRC has started our "Freedom Fighters" program. Instead of giving larger donations once or twice a year, members are making generous monthly donations of $5, $10, $15 or more by credit or debit card or by check. This allows CCJRC a real opportunity to budget throughout the year so that we can spend more of our time on fighting the battles we all care about and less time on fundraising. Our members really like it because they can budget their non-profit charitable giving. Go to our secure membershippage or give us a call at 303-825-0122. Thank you for your support.

CCJRC, 1212 Mariposa St. #6, Denver Co 80204

To join right now, online (with a credit card), visit our secure membership page (your credit card information will be encrypted and protected).

Annual Membership Dues:

Low income/student/senior: $15

Individual: $35
Household: $50
Sustainer: $100
Prisoner: $3

Thank you all so much for your involvement!! Remember, your support does make a difference!!

Treatment Over Incarceration

Sometimes it helps to put a face to the story:

The following is a story of young woman who has successfully completed treatment as part of the program created as a result of Proposition 36. There are dozens of similar stories throughout the county.

Tammy (not her real name), age 25, grew up with abuse and neglect. As an adult, she was frequently homeless and getting into fights with her partner.

When she was convicted of possession of methamphetamine in June 2005, Tammy was sentenced to the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (SACPA) program. It is the program created in 2000 with the passage of Proposition 36. Tammy was referred through SACPA to the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy Moms Program while pregnant with her daughter.

Times-Standard Article

Ritter Says Save Money by Investing in Programs

In proposals submitted to the Joint Budget Committee, Ritter asked for $8 million for the year starting July 1, which is projected to save $3.2 million immediately by reducing the number of inmates sent to private prisons. Ritter's plan is expected to save an additional $11 million in the long term.

"We're very excited to see the governor move in this direction," said Christie Donner, of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. "We think he's right on to look at reducing recidivism and revocations in probation and parole." Ritter must cut Colorado's explosive growth in inmates or spend $800 million on new prisons in the next five years.

It also meets a request from the legislative budget committee's Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, for measurable goals. For example, a $1 million investment in more community corrections capacity is expected to save $2 million over two years because graduates of community corrections return to prison half as often.

Rocky Mountain News

Lisa Calderon -- Urban Spectrum-he 2007 African Americans Who Make a Difference

Our Hats Off to Lisa!! Long time CCJRC member Lisa is a vibrant part of our community and it's nice to see her get the recognition she deserves.

Lisa M. Calderon
Legal and Social Policy Director
Lisa M. Calderon is a very active member of the Denver community. She holds two degrees, is the legal and social policy director for the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (SPAN), is a part-time faculty member for CU Boulder’s Women and Gender Studies Department, and is active on several local boards and committees.
A Denver native and life-long community activist, Calderon speaks to the need for increased visibility of African American women and youth issues related to violence against them. She is also a vocal critic of laws and public policy initiatives that disproportionately impact and target young people of color (“Broken Windows Police Policing,” Denver Urban Spectrum December 2006).

Calderon is best known in the community as an antiracism trainer and educator and for her activism for safer and healthier communities by addressing issues of domestic violence. She would like to be remembered as a woman who wasn’t afraid to challenge white supremacy or patriarchy in order to provide children with a safer world and healthier homes to grow up in.

Third Annual Women's Conference Feb. 17

Join us for the Third Annual Women's Conference - Reflecting on Her Story to Illuminate Our Future. Lisa Calderon of the National INCITE Women of Color Against Violence Collective will provide the keynote address. Registration deadline Monday, Feb. 12.

www.wps.colostate.edu

Abolition of Death Penalty -- Rocky Mtn News Editorial

The Rocky posted this editorial this morning:

State lawmakers held a phony debate at the Capitol last week over whether to abolish Colorado's death penalty. Some lawmakers and witnesses spoke in favor of House Bill 1094, others spoke against Some contended that abolishing the death penalty would be such a big deal that voters should have the last word by way of a referendum.

But the debate was surreal, for the following reason: For all practical purposes, the death penalty already has been abolished here. In the past 40 years, since 1967, there has been exactly one execution, and that was 10 years ago.

In other words, it would hardly be a big deal to abolish the death penalty in statute. It would merely recognize that for all practical purposes the penalty no longer exists in any meaningful sense at all.

It's time to abolish the death penalty in statute since its unofficial demise occurred many years ago.............lawmakers should end the waste, frustration and pretense of the present law and give the death penalty its permanent burial.

Rocky Editorial here

The Needle and The Damage Done - NY TIMES OP_ED

On a warm spring day last June in Kansas City, a doctor identified only as John Doe No. 1 sat behind a screen to testify in the case of Michael Anthony Taylor v. Larry Crawford on his practice of executing prisoners by lethal injection for the State of Missouri. To protect the doctor’s identity, only five people were in the room — the judge, one lawyer for each side, the court reporter and John Doe No. 1. The Taylor case, which is still going on, pits a murderer against the director of the Missouri Department of Corrections.........On trial was the legality of the way lethal injection is being carried out, on the grounds that it violates the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. According to Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, legal challenges to lethal-injection procedures are taking place in virtually every state with an active death penalty. As a result of those cases, about 12 of the 38 states that have the death penalty have issued temporary bans on executions, and in one, New Jersey, a legislative commission recently recommended abolishing its death penalty altogether.

NY TIMES OP ED

Closing Prisons in New York....A New Battle

We have always fought the battle of building prisons in Colorado, be it state-run or private. We know that alternatives are available. On the flip side of the coin, Governor Spitzer in NY is trying to close prisons in his state due to a decrease in population and is running into some opposition.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York took on one of the state’s most powerful special-interest groups when he proposed a commission to determine which of the state’s expensive and underused prisons should be closed. He is in for a tough battle, but it is well worth fighting. According to the "Real Cost of Prisons" Gov Spitzer is also proposing a serious budget for the mentally ill to get them into a setting that would be more responsive to their needs.

NY TIMES OP_ED

Zavaras Wants to Cut Recidivism

CANON CITY - The state's new executive director of the Department of Corrections is hoping for a decline in business, he said.

Ari Zavaras, who took over DOC last month, said corrections could cost the state $5 million less in three to five years as programs help prevent inmates from returning to prison but, for the time being, proposed new prisons will have to be built.

"We will not quit building prisons," Zavaras said. "We are planning on moving ahead with Colorado State Penitentiary II and (two proposed private prisons) are still a go.

"We can slow the growth, but there still will be some growth," Zavaras said.

Gov. Bill Ritter has said he would like to see a control on prison costs be developing programs that allow inmates to successfully re-enter society and make recidivism reduction a top priority.

"We will invest in getting programs back that can slow (inmate population) growth down. In corrections, it's insanity to think that without addressing anger control or substance abuse issues that we can put inmates back on the street and they will act any differently than they did before," Zavaras said.

"We are down some people and we need help," said Warden James Abbott, who oversees both Territorial prison and Colorado Women's prison in Canon City.

In a neighboring building, Librarian Linda Hyatt talked about the library's books, some as old as 12 years, that have been repaired with tape and glue. During state budget cuts, prison libraries also took a hit and have not been able to reorder new books for three years.

Delta Meth Task Force

I think that this is truly the first step in how we stop people from going to prison for addiction. It's all about wrap-around services from the entire community. Working together to solve the problems that lead to addiction. It's a deeper analysis of what is going on in people's lives and what the community can do to create solutions, it's a lot of extra steps, but it will certainly be worth it in the long run.

DELTA — Like other many other counties in Colorado, Delta has a problem with methamphetamine abuse and the newly formed Delta Meth Task Force believes the solution is to get the whole community involved.

The Delta task force is following Mesa County’s lead in creating community-based meth treatment, task force member and clinical psychologist Nick Taylor said, but it will be tailored more to a small town because Delta can’t afford to build a treatment facility such as the one Mesa County is planning.

Montrose County also is following Mesa County’s lead with a community-based approach to fighting the meth menace, said Sgt. Paul Eller of the Montrose Police Department.

The Montrose Meth Coalition formally announced its existence Friday and will hold its first news conference Monday at 9 a.m. at Centennial Plaza next to Montrose City Hall in the 400 block of First Street.

“We’ve met a couple of times, and our first goal is to collect data,” he said, adding he learned about the “wonderful work” of the Mesa County Meth Free Coalition at a conference.

Delta County has recruited more volunteers than Montrose because it got started earlier. But the goal is the same, Eller said, to get community members involved in a solution.

Delta County has recruited more volunteers than Montrose because it got started earlier. But the goal is the same, Eller said, to get community members involved in a solution.

Several have already signed on, including City Council members, medical professionals, schools, public health officials, business people and law enforcement.

Grand Junction Sentinel article here

The Tagging War

A war underway between Denver graffiti tagging crews has sparked the type of murders, knife fights and drive-by shootings usually associated with more established violent gangs.

Police say a clash between competing tagging crews has caused at least two homicides, one of them in Jefferson County. An innocent bystander also was shot in the leg. Members of one southwest Denver family targeted in a drive-by shooting say they are so fed up they've put their home on the market.

Denver Post article here

The Tipping Point (Left meets Right)

I am thrilled to have the Independence Institute on the drug sentencing reform bandwagon. Here's an article from the Denver Post that shows how we have reached a long awaited bipartisan tipping point on this issue.

After a decade of conservative dominance in Colorado, that's a lot of defeat. So why did the institute's chief, Jon Caldara, look so happy at the Capitol last week?

At first, I figured Caldara, whose bald head and spiked beard give him a passing resemblance to Vladimir Lenin, was just trying to pass for a leftie among all the new Democratic legislators and staffers.

Then I remembered the most powerful lawmaker under the gold dome, the speaker of the House, just hates Lenin. (The speaker is, after all, a Romanoff.)

It turned out that Caldara was meeting with members of Families Against Mandatory Minimums to advance the one aspect of his crusade for smaller government - reforming our drug laws - likely to appeal to liberal legislators.

Denver Post article

Let's Just Build a Fence Around the Whole Country

It is unconscionable that we have children in prison. Not bad kids. Children. In prison greens. It's a bad bad testament to this country that we are jailing these children with their families. It's unfathomable that CCA is actually making money off of this.

NY TIMES article

Getting Motivated

Here's Alan's second part in the series on Casey's trek through parole, the first part of the series was called Coming Home . This piece is called Getting Motivated. We thank Alan at Westword once again for his excellent work.

Holden has been locked up most of the past decade, from juvie to the Youthful Offender System to adult prison; a charge of assaulting a corrections officer kept him in solitary confinement from 2003 until his mandatory release date this year. Now he’s joined the growing ranks of parolees — and he’s determined to defy the odds, which dictate that most of those parolees will fail. Hoping to give readers some idea of what he’s up against, he’s agreed to let Westword blog along with him.

The Ritter Recidivism Reduction Package

Governor Ritter released his Budget Amendment package today the link for the entire list of proposed budget amendments is here .

He also released a separate memo called governor Ritter's Recidivism Reduction and Offender Diversion package. Pursuant to the Colorado Promise, the goal is to invest in programs which protect public safety while allowing for diversion and successful transition from the Dept. of Corrections.

CCJRC has always advocated for funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment. It looks as though the Governor understands that making an investment may be the best way to help people from going to prison in the first place and perhaps stopping them from going back when they have a difficult time re-integrating.

Two things that are happening are that CUSP would be implemented, which creates a model that incorporates several agencies to provide real services to people and the STIRRT program
will be implemented statewide.

This program would target offenders on the verge of incarceration or re-incarceration; create individualized supervision and treatment options for offenders with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. The program would build community-based options for methamphetamine abuse supervision failure and would apply evidence-based or best practice supervision/treatment.

The STIRRT program incorporates a 2 week residential stay with an outpatient, after-care treatment component and is designed to reduced recidivism among adult offenders (18 and over) who have been unsuccessful in community treatment for drug and alcohol abuse and continue to commit offenses. STIRRT will be implemented in Ft. Collins, Rifle, Denver and Pueblo and from the looks of the program will be serving close to 1,000 people.

Governor Ritter has asked for over 8 million dollars to start and looks for a return on his investment of 3.2 million dollars in 2007-2008 and over $11 million in out year savings.

Read the Recidivism Reduction and Offender Diversion package here

CCA Continues to Post Profits

Corrections Corp. of America, which operates prisons and detention facilities, said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit climbed 37 percent, as inmate populations rose and new contracts went into effect. They profit at the expense of the human beings that are being held under their care. The allegations that follow CCA's misdeeds and malfunctions are too numerous to list but read how they make money here and still they continue to make money off the imprisonment of people.

In 1995, there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are at least 100, with some 62,000 inmates. That number is expected to hit 360,000 within a decade.

The two largest private prison corporations in the US, Wackenhut and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), are transnationals, managing prisons and detention centers in at least 13 states, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. A top performer on the New York Stock Exchange, CCA called California its “new frontier,” and boasts of investors such as Wal-Mart, Exxon, General Motors, Ford, Chevrolet, Texaco, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon, and UPS.

Employers don’t have to pay health or unemployment insurance, vacation time, sick leave or overtime. They can hire, fire or reassign inmates as they so desire, and can pay the workers as little as 21 cents an hour. The inmates cannot respond with a strike, file a grievance, or threaten to leave and get a better job.

Mass roundups of immigrants and non-citizens, currently about half of all federal prisoners, and dragnets in low-income ‘hoods have increased the prison population to unprecedented levels. Andrea Hornbein points out in Profit Motive: “The majority of these arrests are for low level offenses or outstanding warrants, and impact the taxpayer far more than the offense. For example, a $300 robbery resulting in a 5 year sentence, at the Massachusetts average of $43,000 per year, will cost $215,000. That doesn’t even include law enforcement and court costs.”

Nearly 75% of all prisoners are drug war captives. A criminal record today practically forces an ex-con into illegal employment since they don’t qualify for legitimate jobs or subsidized housing. Minor parole violations, unaffordable bail, parole denials, longer mandatory sentencing and three strikes laws, slashing of welfare rolls, overburdened court systems, shortage of public defenders, massive closings of mental hospitals, and high unemployment (about 50% for Black men) -- all contribute to the high rates of incarceration and recidivism. Thus, the slave labor pool continues to expand.

“In order to please shareholders, corporations must achieve growth. Empty cells do not generate profits.”

At the state level, revenue increased 9 percent to $168.5 million in the quarter, as inmate populations rose in Colorado, Minnesota, Hawaii, Wyoming and Washington.

Read the article here

Colorado Ranks Last in Re-entry Report

The Legal Action Center (LAC) released this report in 2004. It was a two year study of the legal obstacles that people with criminal records face when they attempt to re-enter society. Their research found that people with criminal records face a daunting array of counterproductive, debilitating and unreasonable roadblocks in almost every important aspect of life. They have a report card that grades each state on whether it’s laws and policies help or hurt those seeking re-entry. How did Colorado rate?

Dead Last.

They also offer a series of recommendations on how policymakers can help people to reintegrate into society without compromising public safety. Maybe we should look at those states with better grades than we have and start to mimic what they are doing to be successful.

Read the Report here

Ritter's New Budget Request Amendments Call For Recidivism Programs

NEWS RELEASE
OFFICE OF GOV. BILL RITTER, JR. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THURSDAY, FEB. 8, 2007

RITTER BUDGET AMENDMENTS CALL FOR

RECIDIVISM PROGRAMS, COLLEGE FUNDING

Governor to submit FY 07-08 requests to JBC on Friday;
also includes efficiency review and driver’s license offices

Gov. Bill Ritter will submit budget amendments to the Joint Budget Committee on Friday calling for programs to fight prison recidivism, increased financial aid for college students and a comprehensive government efficiency review. The package also includes plans to open two driver’s license offices and two civil rights offices.

The budget amendments reflect changes to Gov. Owens’ FY07-08 spending plan. “Despite the short amount of time we had to review the budget, these amendments highlight some of my top priorities,” Ritter said. “Next year’s budget will provide a more complete sense of those priorities. We will always strive to provide services that people want and expect, and we’ll do it as efficiently as possible.”

Highlights from the governor’s proposals:

Invest in programs to reduce the state’s nearly 50 percent prison recidivism rate and save $3.2 million as a result. As the number of repeat offenders returning to prison declines, Ritter estimates the state could save as much as $12.5 million annually in future years. Programs to be funded in 2007-08 would provide mental health, substance abuse, job placement, at-risk youth, community corrections and transitional housing services.
“Reducing the number of inmates who return to prison as repeat offenders not only saves money, it means fewer victims of crime and it keeps people safer,” Ritter said.

Fund $25 million in capital construction projects on college campuses and other state buildings around Colorado, and provide an additional $5.7 million in financial aid for students.

Construction projects include $7 million to cover inflationary costs for a new science and engineering building at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; $3.2 million in technology and telecommunications upgrades at Front Range, Lamar and Morgan community colleges; $1.5 million to begin upgrading Berndt Hall at Fort Lewis College; and $13.4 million in maintenance projects on campuses and other state buildings.

These are all new projects being recommended by Ritter except for the UCCS science and engineering building, which was the only continuation funding project recommended by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education but omitted by former Gov. Owens. The funds would come from redirecting inflation savings from other capital projects and from general fund savings.

The financial aid proposals would provide $5.3 million for need-based assistance through the Department of Higher Education’s new “Colorado’s College Responsibility Grant” program, as well as $430,000 for the state’s American Indian tuition program.
“I worked my way through college and law school, but I also received financial aid,” Ritter said. “My commitment to today’s young people and to future generations is that we’ll do everything we can to keep college affordable and within reach. College is the lifeline to a brighter tomorrow.”

Open two driver’s license offices in Jefferson and Adams counties to help reduce long lines and wait times. Owens closed two dozen driver’s license offices around the state several years ago because of budget constraints.

An increase in the driver’s license fee (from $15 to $19.40) and specialty license plate fees (from $25 to $50) would provide $1.3 million to open the offices. It also would provide non-general-fund revenue to restore 25 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions.

The new fee would be well below the national average of $27.05, and less than the $25.75 regional average (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming). Coloradans must renew their driver’s licenses every five years, so the new fee averages out to $4 per year. The driver’s license fee was last increased in 1991, from $6.50 to $15.

“This is about helping people,” Ritter said. “We’ve all heard or personally experienced the frustrations with long lines at driver’s license offices. Let’s do something about it.”

Re-open two civil rights offices overseen by the state Division of Civil Rights. The state eliminated its regional civil rights offices in 2001-02. Funding for two FTEs would come from federal grants, and the offices would be opened in Pueblo and Grand Junction.

Provide $750,000 for Ritter’s Government Efficiency and Management (G.E.M.) performance review, which he announced during his State of the State speech last month. The review will identify ways to improve customer service; eliminate unnecessary or redundant services; and implement new, innovative and smarter ways to deliver essential services. The year-long review is expected to identify significant long-term savings. The state is currently soliciting requests for proposals from qualified consulting firms.

The Left and The Right

OH MY GOD! STOP THE PRESSES! JON CALDARA JUST SAID . . .

"On this we agree with the left . "

Caldara president of the conservative Independence Institute, on the need for sentencing reform and reducing prison populations. The group gave a presentation Wednesday at the Capitol.

(CCJRC and the Independence Institute partnered in a legislative briefing yesterday on the need for sentencing reform)

The Punisher

Censured but defiant, Carol Chambers goes after habitual criminals
By Alan Prendergast

As the moment of his sentencing approaches, Tristan Gilmour sits petulantly in an Arapahoe County courtroom. His put-upon attorney, deputy public defender Justin Bogan, wants him to read a pre-sentencing report, but Gilmour is having none of it.

Cuffed and clad in jailhouse orange, Gilmour is a baby-faced 21-year-old with thinning hair and a pile of theft and check-fraud charges collected over the past three years. In the past he's wound up with probation and short sentences in community corrections, but now his situation is complicated by his unexcused absence from a halfway house. Just walking away from community corrections can result in a new felony charge for 'escape,' but Gilmour doesn't seem to grasp the full gravity of his situation. He sprawls in his chair, staring blankly ahead, detached.

'Please read this,' Bogan insists, waving the pre-sentencing report at him.

In another jurisdiction, Gilmour's walkaway might result in a year in prison, then another crack at a halfway house. But this is Arapahoe County. The escape charge, on top of his prior felonies, means he's eligible for habitual-criminal status -- the 'bitch,' as convicts call it. Habitual charges can triple or quadruple the maximum sentence for a felon's latest offense. And Carol Chambers, the district attorney of the 18th Judicial District -- which includes Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties -- has been bitching walkaways like they were serial rapists.

Read the Westword article here

Record Sealing Bill -- You Did It!!

The Record Sealing Bill is moving forward in the state legislature.
In a 9-2 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved the measure Wednesday.

Mike Cerbo's bill to seal the criminal record for people with non-violent convictions has moved forward to Appropriations. Testimony in favor was offered by politicians, professionals, service providers, criminal justice reform advocates and people who are directly affected by the collateral consequences of a felony record.

Our deepest thanks goes out to everyone who attended and waited for hours to have the
opportunity to testify and to all of those who called, emailed and wrote their legislators in
support of this bill. We will keep you updated as it progresses.

Abolishing the Death Penalty -- Moving Forward

DENVER - The bill to abolish the death penalty in Colorado and create a cold case unit is moving forward in the state legislature.

In a 7-4 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved the measure Wednesday.
State Representative Paul Weissman, a Democrat from Louisville, says abolishing the death penalty could save millions of dollars which could go elsewhere.

Weissman says the money should be used to create a cold case unit within the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to help investigate unsolved homicides.

"By eliminating the death penalty the state itself saves about $800,000," said Weissman. "If you count local governments, it saves $4.5 million. Take about $600,000 of that, you can create a cold case unit in the state and also beef up forensics and chemical labs."

9 News

Ortiz Got a Bonus?

A bouquet would have been nice. Maybe a sheet cake.

But former Gov. Bill Owens, for whom "eliminating wasteful government spending" was practically a religion, instead gave his 12 Cabinet members $64,000 in going-away gifts on his way out the door last month.

As if it were his money to spend.

So exactly who got these tokens of appreciation on top of $309,000 in legitimate payments for unused sick leave and vacation time? Let's see ...

Joe Ortiz, director of the Department of Corrections, is one.

You remember Joe. In 2005, the state auditor's office found that he had provided such lax oversight of privately owned prisons that inmates were dying for lack of basic medical care. In another spectacular stumble, a small inmate disturbance at the Crowley County Correctional Facility in 2004 erupted into a riot that left 13 people hospitalized and the prison in shambles after the DOC waited two hours before dispatching a response team to the facility - 7 miles away.

Ortiz got a $5,249.54 goodbye bonus.

Denver Post article

From Prison With Love

Here's a Valentine's Day story, Correctional Industries has a greenhouse in Canon City at the Arrowhead facility that is providing a wide range of bouquets for the public.

James Stoneking worked in finance in Douglas County.

Now he's doing floral arrangements for the Valentine's Day rush.

From behind bars.

The flower shop is part work, part therapy for about 100 of the people housed at Arrowhead Correctional Center in Canon City.

This isn't a discount house; flowers are sold at market rate.


The Gazette Article here

Record Sealing Bill --TODAY

Record Sealing Bill Coming Before House Judicial Committee
Wednesday Febuary 7 House Judiciary Room 0122 at 1:30

HELP US PACK THE HOUSE!!
Contact the Judiciary Committee

It only takes a moment to make your voice heard!! Send an email or make a phone call
that simply states that you support HB07-1107!! The links and phone numbers are provided
within this message. If you can show up on Wednesday at 1:30, please send a quick RSVP.
In Colorado, state law currently does not allow an adult to seal a criminal record.
This ensures that people convicted of a crime, no matter how long ago and no matter
how successful they are in life, will forever be stigmatized and possibly discriminated
against in housing and employment due to their criminal record. This bill can make a very
real difference in thousands of lives across the state.

Representative Mike Cerbo (D-Denver) introduced HB 07-1107 on January 15th that
would allow people to petition the court to seal a criminal record after 10 years following
the completion of a sentence or release from supervision. This bill is coming before the
House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday February 7 at 1:30.

In an effort to show support for this legislation please call the committee members and
attend the committee hearing so that they realize how serious this issue is.

For a list of Legislators to contact click here

Grits for Breakfast Post

This is a wonderful post from a judge who admits that jurists are ill-equipped to handle the intricacies of addiction from the bench with normal punitive measures.

I have ... learned that, as a rule, we Judges have little or no training in the realities of addiction or alcoholism, and yet we are called upon to deal with persons who suffer from such maladies and to decide whether to punish these abusers with prison or try to rehabilitate them through probation. We have little or no background to know the answers to the real issues of addiction but we are empowered to sentence addicts and alcoholics who violate the law. We are robed, no doubt, because others saw in us something special, something that generated hope in the justice system, but we are not educated for the task of handling alcohol and drug abuse.

Go to Grits here

Meth Use is Down

A report issued by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that Methamphetamine use is on the decline.

Read the report here

Metro's Haynes New Drug Commissioner

Sandra Haynes, dean of the School of Professional Studies at Metropolitan State College of Denver has been appointed to the Denver Drug Strategy Commission by Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Haynes, a doctor in psychology, has trained drug and alcohol counselors in Metro State’s Human Services Department.

The drug strategy commission studies substance abuse in Denver and looks for networks for prevention, intervention and treatment programs.

Shareef Aleem Cleared by Jury

Long time CCJRC member Shareef Aleem was cleared by a jury for an incident that happened last year.

Aleem, 38, was arrested on Feb. 3, 2005, after he got into a shoving match with University of Colorado police officer Greg Barthlome, who tried to quiet him during a noisy CU Board of Regents meeting. The regents were discussing the future of outspoken CU professor Ward Churchill, of whom Aleem is a supporter.

He was charged with second-degree assault on a peace officer for allegedly ripping off Bartholme's badge and grabbing his neck.

Aleem's first trial in March of last year ended in a hung jury.

"I'm glad this whole ordeal is over," Aleem said. "This past two years has taken a tremendous toll on my family. We sacrificed a lot to defend our freedom of speech."

Asked what he thought made the difference between his first and second trials, he said, "My first trial had an all-white jury. Only one white person opened her heart up and held out for me.

Denver Post

Federal Expungement Bill Introduced

H.R. 623

Sec. 3632. Requirements for expungement for certain Non-violent offenses

`No individual shall be eligible for expungement under this subchapter unless, before filing a petition under this subchapter, such individual--

`(1) has never been convicted of a violent offense (including an offense under State law that would be a violent offense if it were Federal) and has never been convicted of a nonviolent offense other than the one for which expungement is sought;

`(2) has fulfilled all requirements of the sentence of the court in which conviction was obtained, including completion of any term of imprisonment or period of probation, meeting all conditions of a supervised release, and paying all fines;

`(3) has remained free from dependency on or abuse of alcohol or a controlled substance a minimum of 1 year and has been rehabilitated, to the satisfaction of the court referred to in section 3633(b), if so required by the terms of a supervised release;

`(4) has obtained a high school diploma or completed a high school equivalency program; and

`(5) has completed at least one year of community service, as determined by the court referred to in section 3633(b).
Track Bill here

NPR Interview on Colorado Matters (click here to listen)

Ari Zavaras Takes the Reins at the Department of Corrections

Colorado Matters interviewed Ari Zavaras this morning. What does he think of CCJRC?

Colorado's new chief of corrections is back for more. Ari Zavaras ran the department from 1993 to 1999. He was Denver's police chief before that and even ran for mayor. Now, as he takes the reins for a second time at the Department of Corrections, Zavaras faces a daunting task. Colorado's prison population has doubled in the last decade. Programs aimed at reducing recidivism have been slashed, and there aren't enough prisons to keep up with the number of inmates. As part of our series of conversations with members of Ritter's cabinet, Ari Zavaras talks to Ryan Warner

Link to their site here

Corrections Sentencing

Michael Connelly at Corrections Sentencing posted this today:

Interesting Possibilities

The Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts has done state-by-state and national prison pop projections that it will present in DC on Wednesday.

This could serve each state well by having an independent source of numbers that it could point to without having to take the local political heat for any bad consequences. And having the comparisons at one time for the first time I've ever heard of will help us set priorities and precedents for further comparisons of state data. (This site is full of great information on all aspects of criminal justice, and if you have a chance, take a few minutes to look it over.)
Corrections Sentencing.

On Wednesday, February 14, at 9:30 am, the Public Safety Performance Project of The Pew Charitable Trusts will release a new national and state-by-state forecast of America's prison population over the next five years, identify the critical challenges facing states, and highlight innovative approaches some states are taking to protect public safety and control corrections spending.

Pew Charitable Trust Press Release for this event

Cradle to Prison Pipeline

I found this in a Salida newspaper today, it is written by Marian Wright Edelman who is the president of the Children's Defense Fund.

Suppose during the next decade, a quarter of all the children born in New York, North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania were infected by a virulent new strain of polio or tuberculosis sometime during their youth.

Clearly, our response to a health crisis affecting a combined population of 80 million people would be to mobilize the nation's vast public health resources. Medical labs would operate around the clock to develop new vaccines.

Unfortunately, an infection akin to this hypothetical tragedy is actually coursing through Black and Latino communities across the nation. I'm not referring to a virus such as HIV-AIDS or a hazardous bacterium. I'm talking about the criminalization of poor and minority children who enter America's "Cradle to Prison Pipeline."

Together, African Americans and Latinos comprise a segment of the U.S. population equal to the six above states. Like the victims of a crippling or wasting disease, once drawn into the prison pipeline, tens of thousands of young people have the opportunity to live happy, productive lives stolen from them, not by festering microbes, but by years spent behind bars.

Read the Op-Ed here

Read the Report: The State of America's Children

Stop the War on Education

Students for Sensible Drug Policy have put together a sign-on letter for people that are interested in trying repeal the ban on financial aid for college students with drug convictions. Since the aid elimination penalty was added as an amendment to the Higher Education Act in 1998, nearly 200,000 aspiring students have been blocked access to aid, often for relatively minor offenses such as possession of small amounts of marijuana.

While the penalty is supposed to keep young people away from drugs, it actually does the opposite by kicking at-risk students out of school.

But blocking access to education doesn't just hurt the students directly impacted – it has harmful implications for society as a whole. College graduates are much more likely to become successful taxpaying citizens, while those who are kicked out of school are more likely to abuse drugs, become costly drains on the criminal justice system, and rely on expensive government assistance programs.

Numerous addiction recovery, criminal justice, religious, and other leaders have insisted that education is one of the best means to reduce crime and drug abuse. Even Congress's own Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance recommended removing the drug conviction question from the aid application, calling it "irrelevant" to eligibility.

Click on the link below to help
Students for Sensible Drug Policy

CCA Under Investigation in Florida

A Corrections Corporation of America official said Thursday that the company will cooperate with a preliminary investigation of contracts with it and another company that run Florida's private prisons.

Gov. Charlie Crist ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to look into alleged overpayments of more than $4.5 million to Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA and GEO Group of Boca Raton under contracts with the now-defunct Correctional Privatization Commission.

Read the article here

Zavaras Says More Cells Are Not The Answer

For new DOC chief, more cells not the answer
Sentencing reform, reducing recidivism, more efficient parole are goals

Population Crisis

“We have to be very strategic in how we look at the prison population,” Zavaras said in an interview last week.

A crisis or urgent problem, Zavaras says it can be fixed — not by building cells, but by working harder to keep them empty. He and his boss, Ritter, think the looming shortage can be averted by reduced recidivism, more efficient parole, and sentencing reform.

Advocates of criminal-justice reform, long stymied by the administration of former Gov. Bill Owens, are optimistic.

“It’s not only realistic, it’s plausible. It’s very plausible,” said Christie Donner, director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

“Mr. Zavaras has inherited a situation where they have a significantly growing crisis, they’re out of beds, they have prisoners backed up in jails and the sheriffs are threatening to sue them again,” Donner said.

How did it happen?

The roots of the space shortage date to 1999, the year Zavaras left the DOC. He headed the agency from 1993 to 1999 under former Gov. Roy Romer, and saw the inmate population increase from 9,065 to 14,135. The state spent $465 million on new prisons in the same period.

But Owens’ administration canceled new projects, and in the ensuing years of the recession-fueled budget crisis, no prisons were built. At the same time, population growth in the state and tough sentencing laws drastically increased the prison population.

The DOC also cut $12.4 million in inmate programs, such as substance abuse treatment and prevention and education, and reduced the number of case managers for inmates by 39, Zavaras said.

He sees restoring these positions and programs as essential to cutting recidivism. Nearly half — 49.7 percent — of released inmates are back in prison within three years. Part of the blame falls on the DOC, which releases inmates with $100 in their pockets but little in terms of education or rehabilitation, Zavaras said.

“When you cut programs, you don’t do things to change behavior, and they’re going to repeat the behavior,” Zavaras said.

Zavaras, who was a longtime police officer and police chief in Denver before running the prisons, supports some sentencing reform, such as alternatives to prison for some nonviolent offenders.

He also wants to give parole officers more flexibility in dealing with offenders, including the option of releasing some from parole early if they are toeing the line

Private Prisons

Last year, the DOC contracted with private prison companies to build 3,776 new prison beds.
But the largest of the new prisons, a 1,500-bed facility planned for Ault in northeastern Colorado by Florida-based The GEO Group, is still in question. Voters there must approve any new prison, and the company is demanding a guarantee from the DOC that it will always be full.

“That’s something I would have a lot of problems ever granting,” Zavaras said. “If you give it to one, you’ve got to do it across the board. We conceivably could be sitting with empty space in state prisons while the privates are full.”

The same company recently defaulted on a contract to build a 500-bed prerelease prison in Pueblo. The DOC is preparing to issue another request for proposals for such a prison. Zavaras expects it will be the last new private prison built in Colorado while he is DOC chief.

“I think we are getting to just about the number of inmates I would feel comfortable having in privates,” he said.

“I think they’ve been very good partners here, but I also think you have to continue watching what goes on there very closely to make sure corners aren’t getting cut,” he said.

Zavaras has close ties to the privateprison industry. Since leaving the DOC, he worked as director of western operations for Community Education Centers, the company that runs the Cheyenne Mountain Re-Entry Center prison in Colorado Springs.

Private-prison opponents have questioned if this prior relationship will affect his objectivity.

Said Donner, “During his confirmation hearings, these questions weren’t asked relating to his consulting and employment in the private-prison industry.”

Zavaras, though, said he will not be involved in decisions relating to CEC, and has no plans to take part in the awarding of the contract for the new pre-release prison.

“I don’t see it as a problem. Regardless, I will not have any involvement with them or any business they do with the department,” he said.

Gazette article here

Street Kids

Pulling troubled kids out of the hopelessness of their lives and giving them a new direction has a far better return rate than putting them in prison. Nearly 1,000 homeless youth between ages 14 and 24 walked greater Denver's streets last year. That's almost five times as many as eight years ago. Urban Peak Denver, near Broadway and 21st Street, provided shelter, case management, education, employment and health services to 800 of those homeless and runaway youth last year.

Read the Article here

A Change in The Weather

On the National level, Mark Souder is out and Dennis Kucinich is in. What does that mean for the national failure of the War on Drugs. Read the LA Times article here.

The Democratic sweep in the 2006 mid-term elections has done more than finally install a woman as speaker of the House. It has also put one of the most vocal critics of the ill-starred “War on Drugs” in a position to affect federal drug policy. On January 18, Ohio Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, one of the most progressive Democratic voices in the House, was appointed as chair of the new House Government Reform and Oversight subcommittee on domestic policy, causing drug reform organizations coast-to-coast to rejoice in hopes that a moment for significant change may have finally come.....

....That can make a difference, says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the nation’s biggest drug policy reform organizations. His group plans to push for incremental slices of legislation that can move a progressive agenda while not upsetting Democratic unity, adding that Kucinich can “hold hearings on some of the subjects that haven’t been addressed in, you know, decades. Like a hearing on America having the highest incarceration rate in the world. Or maybe a hearing on why the DEA has jurisdiction over medical issues.

“One can obviously empathize with the democratic leadership’s desire to be cautious when it comes to supporting drug policy reforms and other sentencing reforms,” he adds. “But when you have a growing number of Republicans supporting sentencing reform, this might be a good time for the Democrats to show a little leadership.”

We Have to Figure Out Something New

The road to prison is one that starts in the community. We have to prioritize our funding in such a way that we are connecting with people who's lives are in a shambles, which of course can often be measured by their arrest record. Dedicating funds to community-based programs is the most long-term cost effective way to find out what people need in order to be successful, or we will continue to allocate funds to jails and prisons that do nothing but warehouse and recycle.

We are starting on the right direction with the new One-Stop Re-Entry Center that will begin operations within the next 30 days or so. The sub-committee on re-entry met last week and we are now gearing up for a start date. The focus for the Re-Entry Center is to help people who are Denver County Jail on misdemeanor crimes, and may need some assistance getting back on their feet. The One-Stop will be located at the Bo Matthews Center at 3030 Downing St. We will keep you updated on when the actual start date will be.

Colorado Springs Gazette

No Matter How You Dress It Up....

You can't just build a prison and call it a "re-entry prison" and it suddenly is what it isn't. The new plan in California is try and save money by building smaller prisons, decreasing service and visitation and make them easy to manage by putting the lowest level of security risks in them. There are volumes of studies available that show what does and doesn't work to help people get back on their feet, and to ignore all that and try to dress up new prisons by giving them a new name is ludicrous.

Like my mom always said, "If it looks like a pig, and smells like a pig, it's probably a pig."

During this time of transistion in Colorado, we need to be confident that we aren't getting pigs.

California's prison system is in total crisis; the prison health care system is in federal receivership; the Little Hoover Commission has issued a scathing report on the Legislature for promoting punitive incarceration. The state's prison population has grown to more than 172,000 and the overcrowded conditions are scandalous. There is little doubt that the core problem can be attributed to our "tough-on-crime" sentencing laws, which too often target nonviolent drug offenders.

Given this obvious disastrous state of affairs, it is inconceivable that the governor is proposing building 78,000 new prison, jail and juvenile detention beds at a cost of $10.9 billion. At the same time, he has recommended slashing funding for Proposition 36, the landmark treatment-instead-of-incarceration prison reform law that has successfully helped more than 140,000 Californians to enter treatment and has saved the state an estimated $1.3 billion in the past five years.

A part of the plan is to build so-called "re-entry" prisons. In December, Assemblywoman Sally Lieber introduced legislation (Assembly Bill 76) for 15 new 200-bed women's prisons, including at least one in San Diego. Although "re-entry" is a nice word, so is "rehabilitation," and so far, by adding the word "rehabilitation" to the California Department of Corrections (and Rehabilitation), the only change we have witnessed is a change of letterhead. The idea is that these facilities would house "nonviolent, non-serious female offenders" who, according to the Department of Corrections, don't need to be incarcerated. OK, that sounds therapeutic, so what is the problem with the plan?

read the article here

Swarzenegger Orders Transfers

After moving less than 400 California inmates to out-of-state prisons, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered thousands more involuntarily transfered to states with room in their lockups. The governor wants to move 5,000 inmates to relieve dangerous overcrowding in the state's prison system, the largest in the country. Despite the conditions, few inmates have volunteered to leave California.

Now they will be forced. The Republican governor said in a statement released this afternoon: "Our state has a prison overcrowding crisis. The safety of our correctional officers is threatened, we have the highest recidivism rate in the country because there is no room for rehabilitation, and we face the possibility of court ordered early release of felons. I am asking the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to begin the involuntary transfer of prisoners because it is in the interest of all Californians and our public safety.....The transfers could begin within two weeks, but appeals could delay cases for up to 10 weeks. Prison guards said some inmates would turn violent if forced to transfer. "This is lighting a match to an already tense powder keg," Lance Corcoran, spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association"

State of Emergency by California

Jails Bursting At The Seams.....

We know that the jails are full here and in Colorado Springs but they are building a new wing at the Weld County Jail, and it just isn't enough. Too many people are filling Weld County's jail, and there is nowhere to put them.

The jail commander believes the crowding is related more to the length inmates are staying in jail, not the volume of inmates who come through the doors. That is due to many factors, including the severity of the crimes they are accused of committing; the length of sentences they could face if they plead guilty or are convicted; whether they have multiple charges; and so on.

Then there are the many meth addicts, mentally ill inmates and other repeat offenders.
District attorney Ken Buck says that they need to start a program to get meth users on treatment instead of stuck in jail, and get mental health treatment for inmates who need it.

The Weld County Jail's $17 million new wing is set to open next year, which will expand the jail to 779 beds. It will be full the day it opens, county officials say.

The jail's capacity is 405, but the population hasn't dipped below 500 since July 18, 2006, said Rick Dill, the jail commander.

The Article here

H.R. 555: Family Telephone Connection Protection Act of 2007

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe rules regulating inmate telephone service rates.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Family Telephone Connection Protection Act of 2007'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds that:

(1) The telephone is the primary method by which individuals correspond and maintain contact with family members who are incarcerated in correctional institutions.

(2) Except for emergency purposes, family members are not allowed to call people incarcerated in correctional institutions; incarcerated persons are typically allowed to call family members and other pre-approved individuals only through payphones physically located on the premises of correctional institutions.

(3) Inmate telephone service in correctional institutions often is limited to collect calling.

(4) Regardless of whether the prisoners' calls are placed collect or through a debit account, the prisoners' family members typically pay for the calls, either through their telephone bills, in the case of collect calls received from prisoners, or by making deposits directly into prisoners' debit accounts.

(5) Innocent citizens are paying excessive telephone charges simply due to having a family member or loved one who is incarcerated.

(6) The rates for calls from correctional institutions are some of the highest rates in the United States, with some per-minute charges reaching $1 and service or connection charges of $3.95 per call.

(7) Information compiled by the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission shows that the high rates are due in part to the lack of competition between telephone companies that provide long distance inmate telephone service to correctional institutions.

Read the whole Bill and information about sponsor and co-sponsors here

Coming Home

Alan Prendergast has done it again, he has the ongoing story of Casey Holden on Westword's Blog. We'll be able to follow Casey has he tries to navigate the system and make a life for himself. He's been locked up for nearly 10 years, since he was only 16. The last four years of that time has been in a 23-hour a day Maximum Security prison cell. He's never had a job, or paid bills or done anything that adults have learned to do during their formative years. He was released to a parking lot with a check for a $100. So much for re-entry services. Our deepest thanks go out to Alan and this excellent story.
READ IT HERE

Caught In The Net -- The Impact of Drug Policy On Women and Families

In late 2005 the ACLU, Break the Chains and the Brennan Center for Justice issued this report that illustrates the impact on what drug policies have done to women and children and how the family is impacted. They advocate for fair drug laws and policies that adequately take into account the needs of women and their families, and address the root causes of women's involvement with illegal drugs.

Download the report here

Research Shows Prisons Ineffective in Reducing Crime

NEW YORK, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Although crime is up in many American cities, lawmakers should think twice before raising penalties and extending prison sentences, advises a study released today by the Vera Institute of Justice, a 45-year-old nonprofit organization that works on safety and justice issues and is headed by Michael Jacobson, who ran New York City's jails and probation system for Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

FBI reports of a 3.7 percent nationwide increase in violent crime in the first half of 2006 -- the largest annual increase in 15 years -- may soon have lawmakers calling for tougher measures to protect public safety. However, after surveying the most recent research on the effectiveness of increasing incarceration to reduce crime, Don Stemen, director of research in Vera's Center on Sentencing and Corrections, argues in Reconsidering
Incarceration: New Directions for Reducing Crime that putting more people in prison may not be the most effective solution.

"Thirty years ago, prevailing wisdom was that sending people to prison was the best and only response to rising crime," says Stemen. "But crime is a complex phenomenon, influenced by many factors. Incarceration is just one potential influence, and research shows that increasing incarceration isn't the best or only way to reduce crime."

Instead, Stemen's research review suggests that policymakers consider investing in areas such as policing or education, which show equal or better correlation with lower rates of crime...

Highlights of the report include:

* Over the past 35 years a 10 percent higher incarceration rate was
associated with a 2 to 4 percent lower crime rate, according to the most
reliable research.

* Ever greater rates of incarceration have been subject to diminishing
returns in effectiveness. In some neighborhoods with already high rates
of incarceration, additional increases have correlated with even more
crime than before.

* Government investment in things such as more police, reducing
unemployment, or raising education levels may be more cost effective in
reducing crime. One national study found, for example, that a 10 percent
increase in wages corresponded with a 12 percent drop in property crime
and a 25 percent drop in violent crime.

Read Reconsidering Incarceration