Council considers settling with Alexander Landau who says he was beaten by Denver cops - The Denver Post

Council considers settling with Alexander Landau who says he was beaten by Denver cops - The Denver Post

The Denver City Council will consider paying out a $795,000 settlement to a man who claims he was beaten senseless by Denver police during a traffic stop in January 2009.

The council is expected to meet on Monday and will discuss paying that settlement to Alexander Landau, according to the council's agenda.

Landau sued three officers in U.S. District Court in Denver and claims they tried to cover up the incident.

Among the officers Landau sued is Randy Murr, who was fired in connection with the videotaped beating of Michael DeHerrera in Lower Downtown Denver in April 2009.

The lawsuit also names officers Ricky Nixon and Tiffany Middleton. Police Chief Gerald Whitman was sued in his official capacity.

Supermax inmate suing to lessen solitary confinement - The Denver Post

Supermax inmate suing to lessen solitary confinement - The Denver Post

Between 1979 and 1982, Thomas Silverstein was accused of killing three inmates, and he was convicted in two of the cases.

But what happened Oct. 22, 1983, was different. This time he killed a guard, Merle Clutts, at the maximum-security prison in Marion, Ill.

Silverstein's unprecedented record of prison violence called for an unprecedented response. With no federal death penalty in place at the time, the Bureau of Prisons placed Silverstein in indefinite solitary confinement.

Almost 28 years later, he remains there.

Now housed at the administrative maximum prison in Florence known as "Supermax," Silverstein has been held in solitary longer than any other federal prisoner in the United States.

In a declaration filed as part of a civil-rights lawsuit, Silverstein, 59, has asked a judge to lessen his isolation, noting he has spent almost half his life in solitary and has had a spotless conduct record for more than two decades.

The 64-page document — one of the most thorough public accountings to date of Silverstein's life in isolation — details conditions in each prison where he has done time and his remorse about killing Clutts. It also chronicles his repeated but futile attempts to learn what, if anything, he could do to persuade prison officials to let him out of solitary so he could interact with other inmates and win back privileges, such as a prison job.

The case, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver on Silverstein's behalf by a team of lawyers from the University of Denver, has reignited the debate over whether prolonged isolation violates the U.S. Constitution's 8th Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Federal prosecutors argue that Silverstein's confinement has been appropriate considering the danger he poses to prison officials, fellow inmates and the public.

They say Silverstein is a high-ranking member of the violent prison gang Aryan Brotherhood who has caused a prison riot, has committed other assaults on guards and continues to "call shots" for the gang — a claim Silverstein and his attorneys deny.

Read more: Supermax inmate suing to lessen solitary confinement - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17954968#ixzz1KwRfbhFT
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Solitary Confinement Bill Pared Down

Colorado Independent
Senate Bill 176, sponsored by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, underwent a significant transformation when it was amended due to concerns from the Colorado Department of Corrections that the bill might interfere with changes already planned. The bill, which would have prevented some mentally ill prisoners from being placed in solitary confinement, will now fund mental health programs in prisons, reduce sentences, and ensure prisoners are placed in solitary confinement based on conduct not associations.
During negotiations on the bill, originally intended to radically change when and why prisoners are placed in solitary confinement, the Department of Corrections raised concerns that the bill might affect their ability to control public safety within institutions and said its prescriptive clauses might interfere with implementing recommendations they expect to receive from a review being conducted by the National Institute of Corrections.
“Since we last met, the Department of Corrections has applied for a grant.” Carroll opened. “The purpose of that grant was to do a complete overhaul of the [inmate] classification system including solitary confinement. This is very encouraging news from the department.”
Carroll and the DOC came to an agreement that she said works to ensure the Department is afforded time to rectify what groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and others saw as human rights violations within the prison system before taking further legislative action.
Perhaps the greatest effect the bill will have on the DOC is a change from its current use of associations to dictate whether a prisoner should be placed in solitary confinement. The DOC agreed to change its policy to constrain the use of penalties for associations and instead begin using action-based criteria to determine whether an inmate should be placed in administrative segregation.
In addition, the bill as currently proposed should generate a 5-year savings of $3.2 million from sentences shortened through the bill’s allowance of earned time for prisoners undergoing solitary confinement. The department will then be allowed to use that money for both mental health treatment and programs as well as funding pilot programs designed to serve as alternatives to solitary confinement.
Finally, the bill will require a report to the Legislature on the statistics surrounding administrative segregation next year.
The Department of Corrections recently saw Tom Clements appointed as executive director. Carroll said that Clements appears to be adamant about assessing 15 year-old penal programs that have not been looked at seriously since implementation.

Is Colorado Ready To Fix The Revolving Door?

Westword
​Over the years, we've written frequently about the breakdowns in Colorado's parole system -- how heaping mandatory parole on top of prison sentences and making ill-prepared felons jump through multiple hoops drives up prison costs. Now there finally seems to be some serious efforts among lawmakers to do something about it.
Two bills kicking around the Colorado Senate would, if passed, have a profound effect on the way the state deals with parole. Senate Bill 257 would scrap the mandatory parole system and restore discretionary parole -- which technically still exists, but the Parole Board almost never grants someone so-called early parole. The proposed overhaul is so audacious, and so vulnerable to fear-mongering "public safety" arguments, that it probably doesn't stand a chance.
But Senate Bill 241, sponsored by Morgan Carroll and Steve King and scheduled for a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Wednesday afternoon, is a different story. It's a thoughtful, money-saving and temperate effort to address several wayward aspects of the current system without trashing it altogether, from the composition of the Parole Board to the handling of illegal immigrants taking up space in state prisons.
Current law requires that two of the seven Parole Board members have law enforcement backgrounds and that one be a former parole or probation officer; in practice, the board has always been heavily stacked with ex-cops and Department of Corrections careerists. SB 241 would require a wider array of criminal justice backgrounds, including folks who know something about offender re-entry issues and victim advocacy, and institute additional training.
Among other innovations, the bill would also make it easier to get foreign-born prisoners with an immigration detainer out of the system and into the deportation process; there are currently close to 1,500 such prisoners in Colorado, costing taxpayers millions for their bed and board. It would also provide an avenue for granting "special needs" parole to a handful of prisoners who pose little risk to the public but are racking up staggering medical costs, such as paraplegic Darrell Havens; 26 such offenders cost the state nearly $4 million in catastrophic medical coverage in a single six-month period.
Get additional details in this analysis prepared by the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.
More from our Follow That Story archive: "Throwing the book at parole."

Colorado medical-marijuana bill draws U.S. attorney's warning - The Denver Post

Colorado medical-marijuana bill draws U.S. attorney's warning - The Denver Post

The U.S. attorney for Colorado warned state lawmakers Tuesday that pending legislation adjusting rules for medical marijuana would conflict with federal law and could lead to federal prosecutions.

U.S. Attorney John Walsh's letter was sent to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers in response to his request for clarification on how federal treatment of medical marijuana use may conflict with pending legislation now under consideration in House Bill 1043.

"The Department of Justice remains firmly committed to enforcing the federal law and the Controlled Substances Act in all states," Walsh wrote. "Thus, if the provisions of H.B. 1043 are enacted and become law, the Department will continue to carefully consider all appropriate civil and criminal legal remedies to prevent manufacture and distribution of marijuana and other associated violations."

Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, a sponsor of the bill, said that in his mind the letter only further muddies the federal Department of Justice's stance on medical marijuana rather than providing clarification.

Read more: Colorado medical-marijuana bill draws U.S. attorney's warning - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_17936371#ixzz1Kj5JOwHW
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New rules for solitary confinement considered in Colorado Senate committee :: The Republic

New rules for solitary confinement considered in Colorado Senate committee :: The Republic

DENVER — A bill to limit the number of mentally ill inmates who can be put in solitary confinement in Colorado prisons faces its first vote in the Legislature.

The Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote Tuesday on the measure.

The percentage of Colorado inmates with mental health problems who were placed in solitary confinement more than doubled between 1999 and 2008. Many were released from prison without having a chance to readjust to human interaction.

The bill would require state prisons to have a physician evaluate inmates with such illnesses as bipolar mood disorders or paranoid schizophrenia before they're placed in solitary confinement. The Department of Corrections opposes the measure, which was first heard last month.

Mental Health Court Turns Around Lives

9 News
ARAPAHOE COUNTY - Barbara is a 50-year old woman who has struggled all her life just to maintain, sometimes just to survive. It hasn't gone well.
She inherited severe mental illness and suffers from severe depression with psychotic episodes. She also suffers from severe diabetes, severe arthritis, a bad heart, high blood pressure and pancreatitis.
Barbara began making poor choices early on. She married a vicious man who has terrorized her with beatings. And she's passed her problems on to the next generation. She gave birth to 10 children. Two sons were murdered inside her house by a rival gang. Two sons are in prison. One grandchild was murdered, another died of medical problems.
Unable to hold down jobs, she turned to non-violent crime to support her family, including theft, writing bad checks, forgery and dealing drugs. She's lousy at being a criminal. She has 11 felony convictions. She's spent 25 years–half her life–in the court system, 16 of them behind bars. She asked that her last name not be used to protect her medical privacy.
Colorado taxpayers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep Barbara locked up in prison. Like most mentally ill defendants, Barbara has found herself in a revolving door of serving time in prison, getting out, committing more crimes, being convicted again, and ending up back behind bars.
But now, Barbara is changing her life, thanks to a mental health court in Arapahoe County that is ensuring she gets treatment. Taxpayers could save hundreds of thousands of dollars if she keeps succeeding and never returns to prison.
Colorado Public News, a 9NEWS partner, has learned Colorado ranks 49th in funding for the treatment of the mentally ill. With little care in the community, many poor mentally ill in this state end up like Barbara, violating the law to survive and serving year after year behind bars.

Initiatives to legalize pot in the works - The Denver Post

Initiatives to legalize pot in the works - The Denver Post

An organizer of a campaign to put a marijuana-legalization initiative on the 2012 ballot said Thursday the measure would likely apply only to those over age 21 and would allow personal possession of only small amounts.

Brian Vicente, the executive director of Sensible Colorado and one of the voices behind the Colorado Legalization 2012 campaign, said the draft-initiative language would create a state-licensed system of pot shops, similar to the regulatory system for liquor stores, and would allow individuals to grow small amounts of marijuana on their own. He said marijuana sales would likely be subject to a special excise tax.

Details are still being worked out, Vicente said. The campaign has yet to file any initiative language with the state.

"We think it's got a really good shot of passing," Vicente said during a panel discussion at the annual conference of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Read more: Initiatives to legalize pot in the works - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_17905486#ixzz1KHsH2Z1z
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New Bills Introduced.

Legislative Update - New Bills Introduced

 

CCJRC is excited to announce that this week  three of our most important bills were introduced into the Legislature. They had not been included in our legislative update in the most recent CCJRC newsletter.   We thought that they were important enough that we should send out an update to you. All three bills have been assigned to Senate Judiciary. At this time only SB 241 has been added to the calendar. SB 241 will be heard on Wednesday, April 27^th at 1:30.

 

SB11-241 Concerning Changes Related to the Operation of the Parole Board

Sponsored by: Senators S. King and Carroll and by Representative B. Gardner and Kagan

CCJRC position: Support/Priority

 

What the bill does:

 

• Changes the composition, qualifications and training requirements of the Parole Board.
• Increases the qualifications and training requirements for administrative hearing officers (AHO) and release hearing officers (RHO) under contract with the Parole Board.
• Increases the responsibilities of the Board chair.
• Repeals the sunset on the annual report prepared by the Division of Criminal Justice.
• Makes modifications to the special needs parole program.
• Creates a presumption of parole for inmates that meet eligibility criteria and have an ICE detainer.
• Allows the Parole Board at it’s discretion, to conduct file reviews (in lieu of holding a hearing) when the parole application is for special needs parole or when an inmate meets the presumption of parole due to an active ICE detainer.

 

CCJRC has a detailed position paper on our website that provides a more thorough analysis of the bill, it’s history and what it does.  Please go to www.ccjrc.org and look under the “What’s New”.  To read the bill in it’s entirety CLICK HERE FOR SB-241

 

SB11-254 Concerning Statutory Changes to Improve Practices for Persons Under Community Supervision

Sponsored by: Senators Steadman and Carroll and Representative Pace

CCJRC Position: Support/Priority

 

Summary: SB-254 will increase incentives for diversion clients serving sentences in community corrections by standardizing time credit. This bill also specifies the process by which a diversion client can petition the court for an early termination of their sentence.

 

What the bill does:      

• Requires that diversion clients who meet the criteria for time credit deductions be eligible for such time deductions
• Removes the existing 25% cap on the amount of time credit deductions that can be awarded
• Specifies the eligibility criteria and procedure by which a community corrections client can be considered by the court for early termination of sentence
• Gives community corrections discretion in the forfeiting of time credits for those who abscond.

 

CCJRC will have a detailed position paper on our website that provides a more thorough analysis of the bill, it’s history and what it does.  Please go to www.ccjrc.org and look under the “What’s New” next week. For now, to read the bill in it’s entirety CLICK HERE FOR SB-254

 

SB11-257 Concerning the Imposition of Effective Parole Supervision

Sponsors: Senators Carroll, Jahn, Hodge, and Steadman

CCJRC Position: Support/priority

 

Summary: SB11-257 would repeal the statutory mandatory parole sentence that the court is required to impose in addition to a prison sentence. It would go back to the discretionary parole model that was in place prior to July 1, 1993 except in two instances.  One, if a person refuses to see the parole board because they are trying to discharge their sentence inside prison without going out on parole, the parole board will have the authority to order up to 24 months of supervised release. Secondly, if someone is within 15 months of their discharge date the parole board can only deny parole by a majority vote of the entire parole board. 

 

We know that people are going to be really excited about this bill. We don’t expect this bill to pass because it is such a substantial change and there really isn’t much time left in the legislative session. The sponsors want to raise the issue and have a public hearing as a way of advancing the discussion toward designing a more effective parole structure.

To read the bill in it's entirety CLICK HERE FOR SB11-257 

If you haven't renewed your membership or are ready to become a member of CCJRC you can do so here
Also 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 and plan strategically 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 giving throughout the year. Go to our secure membership page or give us a call at 303-825-0122. 
CCJRC, 1212 Mariposa St. #6, Denver Co 80204.  Thank you for your support!!

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Wanted Men

Bills rarely attract a stronger group of supporters. Representatives from throughout the criminal justice world have lined up behind Senate Bill 11-186, the alternative bonding bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. John Morse and Republican Rep. Mark Waller, both of Colorado Springs.
Crafted from recommendations made in 2008 by the well-respected Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, the legislation would establish an alternative bonding option, known as a deposit bond, in Colorado. It would be similar to bonds that exist in 28 other states, as well as in Washington, D.C. and the federal system.
In it, a judge sets bail. The defendant then pays a percentage of that bail, up to 15 percent, to the court. If the defendant shows for trial, he'll receive up to half of it back. (If convicted, he'll receive whatever is left over after fines, fees and restitution costs have been paid.) The rest of the money will wind up going to a county pretrial service agency, which works closely with the courts.
The bill is scheduled to be brought up in the Senate Appropriations Committee today. (It was scheduled to be heard April 15, but Morse was a no-show.) And what happens should highlight the strength of the bail bonds lobby in Colorado.
Bondsmen have been putting up a fight to defend their monopoly on a large, and profitable, industry. And the last time the state Legislature attempted to pass a similar bill, in 2008, it was withdrawn.

Pretrial option

A pretrial service agency provides two unique services for the court. First, it gathers information about the defendant's ties to the community and family, and also about any issues such as alcoholism that might make the defendant less likely to show up for trial. Agency reps present that information to a judge during the bail hearings — which 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May says is of considerable help.
The second function of pretrial services is to provide monitoring that can become a condition of a defendant's release on bond. This could mean a weekly urinalysis or drug test, curfews, even substance-abuse treatment and anger management classes, all paid for by the defendant.
Statewide, 10 jurisdictions have pretrial services programs. According to Sharon Winfree, president of Colorado Association of Pretrial Services, in those jurisdictions, fewer than 5 percent of defendants in the programs fail to appear for trial. In Larimer County, where she is located, it is fewer than 2 percent.

Obama's drug czar unveils plan to attack prescription-drug abuse - The Denver Post

Obama's drug czar unveils plan to attack prescription-drug abuse - The Denver Post

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled a plan to fight prescription-drug abuse, warning that accidental fatal overdoses now exceed the combined deadly overdoses from the crack epidemic of the 1980s and black tar heroin in the 1970s.

The initiative to combat the nation's fastest-growing drug problem includes boosting awareness of the dangers of prescription-drug abuse among patients and health care providers, cracking down on "pill mills" and "doctor shopping," and requiring drug manufacturers to develop education programs for doctors and patients.

"Too many Americans are still not aware of the misuse and abuse of prescription drugs and how dangerous they can be," said Gil Kerlikowske, the White House director of national drug-control policy.

Accidental drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in 17 states, Kerlikowske said. There are seven a day in Florida, one of the epicenters of the epidemic and the source of much of the drugs. The plan calls on every state to develop a prescription-drug- monitoring program and encourages them to share the information with other states. Thirty-five states have such programs in place, Kerlikow - ske said.

The initiative recommends convenient ways to remove and dispose of unused and expired medication from the home. Kerlikowske noted that seven out of 10 prescription- drug abusers obtained their drugs from friends or relatives. A national "take-back" effort in September netted more than 121 tons of prescription drugs in a day, he said. Another take-back day is scheduled for April 30, Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele M. Leonhart said.

The plan also calls for the drug control policy office and the DEA to step up enforcement by targeting training to states with the highest need. Law enforcement agencies and the lawmakers who represent them have long complained that clinics where pain medication often is dispensed without prescriptions, or "pill mills," contribute heavily to the prescription-drug epidemic.

Read more: Obama's drug czar unveils plan to attack prescription-drug abuse - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_17886372#ixzz1K5DoXywc
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Former death-row inmates who were cleared urge students to fight death penalty - The Denver Post

Former death-row inmates who were cleared urge students to fight death penalty - The Denver Post

Two wrongly convicted men who spent a combined 32 years in a Florida prison waiting to die recounted the horrors of their experiences Tuesday and urged college students to join efforts to abolish the death penalty.

Shabaka WaQlimi and Juan Melendez spoke of the constant aggravations of death row, such as roaches and rats that visited the 6-foot- by-9-foot cells and the buzzing noise they could hear when corrections officers tested the electric chair.

They also discussed bigger heartbreaks.

WaQlimi, released in 1987, was barred by a warden from donating his kidney to his dying brother. Melendez, released in 2003, watched a friend and fellow inmate die after receiving lackluster emergency care in the prison yard.

Read more: Former death-row inmates who were cleared urge students to fight death penalty - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_17887431?source=commented-#ixzz1K4KE1loT
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Politicians want public to pay for bail (vote on it) | bail, put, free - OUR VIEW - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Politicians want public to pay for bail (vote on it) | bail, put, free - OUR VIEW - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

We do not need another government takeover of another private industry.

In the midst of recession and general public uncertainty, SB186 would put our local courthouses in the bail-bonding business. It could easily put taxpaying bond agents, who employ thousands of taxpayers throughout Colorado, right out of business. Even worse, suspects who are free on bond would also be free from a bonding agent with a financial incentive to bring them to justice. (Read the bill, read the fiscal note)

SB186 may be the worst bill to emerge from the 2011 General Assembly, and The Gazette hopes it won’t survive the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.

“It is a government solution to a system that’s not broken,” said Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, who serves on the appropriations committee and plans to oppose the bill. “I’m concerned about conflicts of interest this would create. Judges and prosecutors should not also run the bail system.”

The bill would allow a judicial district to post the bond for a suspect, with the defendant paying interest to the courts instead of a bonding agent. At a bond rate of 15 percent, a suspect with a $10,000 bond would pay the court $1,500 in return for freedom. Half the money would pay for pretrial services, such as drug tests and monitoring services, and half could be returned to the suspect upon completion of the case. If convicted, the remaining money would pay fines, fees, costs, surcharges and restitution.

The Gazette spoke with a variety of the bill’s supporters, who each believe it would create an additional option for suspects to get out of jail. We think they are mistaken. The Gazette believes SB186 would quickly establish a state monopoly, leaving suspects at the mercy of a system that sets bail, posts bail and profits from bail.

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/bail-116477-put-free.html#ixzz1JzsAuDFq

Probation officers, victims push for tougher supervision of offenders - The Denver Post

Probation officers, victims push for tougher supervision of offenders - The Denver Post

Colorado probation officers and crime victims say the state must toughen the supervision of violent offenders and improve working conditions for officers for the sake of public safety.

Several officers say they are overwhelmed by their caseloads and don't always feel safe interacting with offenders they are charged with supervising.

Ten probationers in the past 10 months have been accused of murder or attempted murder, despite stringent requirements imposed by the courts. The crimes include the March 18 fatal shooting of college football player Tom Walker in Boulder, the killing of a Weld County sheriff's deputy and the death of a 16-year-old Denver girl who was mutilated.

Tom Quinn, director of the state's Division of Probation Services, said that despite those crimes, the percentage of intensive supervised probationers who re-offend is going down.

Since 2002, the percentage of those on intensive supervised probation who commit new crimes has ranged from 15.2 percent to 10.5 percent — the lowest point occurring in 2010.

"Victim and staff frustration is understandable," Quinn said. "While I cannot speak for all victims, many want to be made whole and they want to be assured that this crime does not happen to someone else. We can't often return victims to a pre-crime state, but we did collect over $25 million in restitution last year."

Probation officers in charge of the most high-risk offenders are supposed to be limited to 25 cases or fewer, but they often have more.

Quinn said that over the past four years, the Division of Probation Services has increased probation staff — to 90 percent of the authorized strength — which has helped the department come closer to the ratio required to supervise the state's 85,000 offenders.

Read more: Probation officers, victims push for tougher supervision of offenders - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17877543#ixzz1JyH7Ezuj
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Medical pot's potency difficult to pin down for Colorado dispensaries - The Denver Post

Medical pot's potency difficult to pin down for Colorado dispensaries - The Denver Post

When the results came back from the lab, Ean Seeb, an owner of the medical-marijuana dispensary Denver Relief, had every reason to be thrilled.

One of the store's most prized marijuana strains had tested at 29 percent THC — the psychoactive component of marijuana — a result that seemed to confirm the strain's formidable punch.

But, for Seeb, the number also seemed to confirm another hunch: There's something screwy with medical-marijuana potency testing in Colorado.

"We have one of the highest tests ever that was performed at one of these labs," Seeb said, "and we don't believe it."

That's because, a year earlier, the same lab had tested a sample of the strain — from a different plant but grown using the same methods — at a more pedestrian 15 percent THC. And tests of the strain at other medical-marijuana testing labs in the state produced results across the map.

In dispensaries around Colorado, questions have emerged about the value of the measurements the labs produce — measurements that have been hailed as key to bringing scientific precision to medical marijuana.

No one — including Seeb — is abandoning the goal of a system that provides detailed analysis of a strain's potency and chemical makeup, which medical-marijuana advocates say will help patients make better-informed decisions. But dispensary owners and patients have begun to note that the current system is less than perfect.

"We're not using the same standards from lab to lab," said Frank Quattrone, the owner of Pure Medical Dispensary in Denver and a supporter of testing.

Different techniques among the state's four labs account for only part of the variations, said Buckie Minor of Full Spectrum Labs, the state's first cannabis-testing lab. Potency can vary within marijuana crops, individual plants and even between subsections of the buds.

What shouldn't change, Minor said, is the ratio of the different chemicals in the plant, which Minor said is most important for patients picking strains.

Read more: Medical pot's potency difficult to pin down for Colorado dispensaries - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_17870142#ixzz1JsQJnbgH
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Criminal records could be made secret - The Denver Post

Criminal records could be made secret - The Denver Post

It soon will be easier for many convicted drug offenders to conceal their criminal histories, and — for the first time — dealers and illegal growers will have a shot at sealing their records too.

A law passed in March requires drug offenders to complete their sentences and wait between three and 10 years with no new crimes before asking a court to hide their convictions from public view.

Law enforcement at the state and local level as well as state-regulated employers in sensitive fields such as medicine and education will still get access to all but some of the lowest-level conviction records. But other employers, out-of-state law enforcement, landlords, professional disciplinary boards and reporters won't.

Critics of the move toward giving convicted criminals more privacy call it "deceptive" and say there are legitimate reasons members of the public would want or need access to that information.

The law is part of a movement in Colorado and elsewhere to soften the negative effects of a criminal record and help those convicted get back on their feet.

Having a job can prevent offenders from repeating their crimes, but potential employers are often scared away by a conviction record, said Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

"Having these criminal records are a significant impairment for people finding a job or a place to live. People can demonstrate they have a clean track record . . . and not be stigmatized forever," Donner said. "This serves a public safety benefit."

Judges will weigh whether hiding a conviction does more good to an offender than harm to public safety before deciding whether to seal a record.

Colorado in 2008 began allowing low-level drug convictions up to felony possession to be sealed if offenders stayed clean for a decade after their sentences ended.

Read more: Criminal records could be made secret - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17870144#ixzz1JsP4e0ui
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Freed from death row, speaker decries capital punishment - - Top Stories - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

Freed from death row, speaker decries capital punishment - - Top Stories - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO
Of all the horrors on Florida’s Death Row, one stood out: The terrifying noise of the electric chair firing up, twice a day like clockwork.

“You got to sit there and listen to that chair being tested, knowing that it was being tested in your honor,” said Shabaka WaQlimi, 62, who came within 15 hours of being executed at a state prison in Starke, Fla.

Today, WaQlimi is a free man.

After nearly 15 years on Death Row, WaQlimi’s convictions on rape and murder were set aside in 1987, after a judge determined that prosecutors blocked testimony that undercut the evidence against him.

At one point, his trip to the electric chair was postponed with less than a day to spare because a different judge found that his appeals hadn’t been exhausted in the Florida state courts, he said.

WaQlimi — or Joseph Green Brown, as he was known when he was convicted — recounted his experiences Saturday at a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People conference in Colorado Springs.

With a business suit and close-cropped, salt-and-pepper hair, he could have been confused with any other speaker at a weekend hotel convention. Instead, an audience of 30 listened in rapt attention while he spoke of the torture of knowing his death was planned “down to the second.”

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/-116380--.html#ixzz1JmbnyGW0

Denver police firings surge to six this year - The Denver Post

Denver police firings surge to six this year - The Denver Post

With the decision this week to terminate two more Denver police officers, six have now been fired this year — one more than in the previous three years combined.

Authorities said the sudden burst of terminations is largely the result of changes made to disciplinary rules in 2008.

But the firings also have occurred under the watch of a mayor who chose not to seek election to the office, pledged not to let open disciplinary cases linger during his brief term and is not worried about maintaining political support within the Police Department.

The seeds for the terminations — all of which involved officers failing to tell the truth in reports or during investigations — were sown in 2008 when the new disciplinary rules were designed, said the city's independent police monitor, Richard Rosenthal.

"The disciplinary matrix is fully in place now and is being followed by the department with respect to the commission of deceptive acts or lying to internal affairs," Rosenthal said.

On Monday, safety manager Charles Garcia terminated officers Ricky Nixon and Kevin Devine, who were accused of excessive force for an incident caught on camera outside the Denver Diner in 2009. The two were dismissed for "commission of a deceptive act." Garcia found that the reports they filed after the arrests did not match other witness accounts.

David Bruno, an attorney for the police union, said no one other than Garcia who reviewed the case made the determination that the officers had been untruthful. Police Chief Gerry Whitman had recommended suspensions for use of inappropriate force, not firing for dishonesty. Bruno said the officers would appeal the firings to the Civil Service Board.

The firings follow Garcia's termination of Officer Devin Sparks and Cpl. Randy Murr in March for "deceptive acts" days after Garcia was sworn in to the position. Sparks and Murr were caught on videotape during a 2009 beating of then-23-year-old Michael DeHerrera

Garcia "has done more in two or three weeks than has been done in some time. It has been a long time coming," said Anthony DeHerrera, the father of Michael DeHerrera.

Garcia replaced Mary Malatesta, who terminated Officers David Torrez and Jose Palomares as one of her last official acts in the safety manager's office last month. Investigators found that the two officers lied about details of their pursuit of a stolen car.

Prior to Oct. 1, 2008, when former safety manager Al LaCabe introduced a new disciplinary matrix, officers were sometimes fired for lying. But other factors were weighed, including the circumstances surrounding the falsehood, the officer's disciplinary record and how similar cases had been handled in the past.

The new rules presume that an officer who lies in connection with an investigation, even if it is a first offense, will be fired unless there are mitigating circumstances.

"That should be the accepted standard of the Police Department, that if you make a false statement or try to hide something about an investigation, you shouldn't be a police officer," LaCabe said.

All the recent firings were for incidents that took place after the new rules were in place.

During a meeting Tuesday of the City Council's Health, Safety, Education and Services Committee, Garcia said that without the new rules an effective discipline process wasn't possible. "I believe sitting in that seat that you couldn't put together the process without the matrix, it was the key," Garcia said.

Garcia, who was appointed to the position by Mayor Guillermo "Bill" Vidal, is the former head of the Denver public defender's office and the fourth person to hold the job in less than a year.

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2 Denver police officers fired for lying about details in excessive force case - The Denver Post

2 Denver police officers fired for lying about details in excessive force case - The Denver Post

Manager of Safety Charles Garcia has terminated two officers, Kevin Devine and Ricky Nixon, for lying about details in an excessive force case.

The two were accused of excessive force during an incident caught on camera outside the Denver Diner in 2009.

The videotape shows an officer with a club pushing several women to the ground. A second officer is seen spraying mace into the face of a woman who is kneeling after being brought to the pavement by the first cop.

The two officers are the third and fourth terminated by Garcia, who took office last month.

He fired Officers Devin Sparks and Randy Murr for "deceptive acts" in the case of Michael DeHerrera, who Sparks threw to the ground as he talked on a cell phone in LoDo.

In a statement, Garcia said: "The decision today to terminate Officers Devine and Nixon was reached following a very fair, thorough and complete review of the case and reliance on the discipline matrix. We continue to hold the Denver Police Department to the highest standards of professionalism and will not tolerate untruthfulness or inappropriate force It is our hope that by restoring public confidence in the disciplinary process, we will restore confidence in the department and all of our fine officers."

Colorado bill further targeting medications associated with meth manufacture - The Denver Post

Colorado bill further targeting medications associated with meth manufacture - The Denver Post

People with runny noses and congestion may find it harder to get relief if Colorado lawmakers decide some common- cold medications should be available by prescription only.

A bill pending before the state Senate would make drugs that contain pseudo ephedrine unavailable over the counter.

Proponents of the measure, including police, believe it would further restrict the ability of methamphetamine cooks to make the illegal drug using the ingredients they obtain over the counter.

Pseudoephedrine, which helps ease congestion in colds and flu, is a precursor ingredient used to cook methamphetamine, a highly addictive illegal drug. Its sale is already restricted, with purchasers required to show an ID and have it handed to them from behind the counter.

But that restriction hasn't been enough to stop meth cookers, according to police.

"Unfortunately, users and drug abusers and drug dealers always try to think of a new way to make drugs," said Ernest Martinez, president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association.

"Even moving them back behind the counter is not conducive to stopping them from doing what they are doing," Martinez said.

Opponents of the bill say they support law enforcement's efforts to eradicate methamphetamine labs but are concerned about the impact of the legislation on consumers.

They believe people without health insurance will be burdened by the cost of seeking a prescription from medical providers, and that those who have health insurance shouldn't have to shell out a co-pay to a doctor just so they can get cold medicine.

"We don't want Colorado to turn into that kind of supply haven," said Edie Sonn of the Colorado Medical Society. "It's a real problem they are trying to solve, but there are unintended consequences it creates for our health care system. We would like to help law enforcement figure out other ways."

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The Durango Herald 04/10/2011 | Solitary confinement Support effort to limit cruel punishment

The Durango Herald 04/10/2011 | Solitary confinement Support effort to limit cruel punishment
State Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, should soon vote on Senate Bill 176, a measure that would place limits on the use of solitary confinement in Colorado’s prisons. This bill is a call to our conscience, and we honor God when we courageously speak out against actions such as solitary confinement that harm the soul and safety of our communities.

Solitary confinement may sound merely like a long timeout for misbehaving prisoners. But in reality, it is far harsher than that, bordering on or even crossing the line to become cruel punishment. As religious leaders, we strongly believe that prolonged solitary confinement is immoral. It denies the innate human need for social interaction, and it works against the correctional system’s end goal of rehabilitation by undermining the mental health of the prisoners.

Take Anne Lawlor for example. She spent a year in solitary confinement while serving a five-year sentence at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility for writing bad checks. She says she was placed in solitary after reporting an incident of “guard-on-inmate rape.”

“I nearly lost my mind,” Lawlor testified before a Colorado Senate committee. “I was unable to tolerate noise, bright lights or human contact when I was released from the unit. I would shiver and panic.”

Lawlor is not mentally ill, yet she felt as though she was losing her mind. How much worse then would it be for individuals who already suffer from mental illness or developmental disabilities?

The Denver Post reported that Colorado Springs resident Gary Flakes testified that the two years he spent in solitary confinement “were two of the most desperate and defeating” of his life. “If I wasn’t totally damaged and anti-social before, I certainly was when I came out,” Flakes said.

Editorial: Overreaction to meth situation - The Denver Post

Editorial: Overreaction to meth situation - The Denver Post

Methamphetamine is a seriously destructive illegal drug that has prompted law enforcement crackdowns and public health initiatives, and rightfully so.

But is meth production such a growing problem in Colorado that it justifies making a whole swath of over-the-counter decongestants, used as ingredients for meth, prescription-only?

We're not convinced.

Senate Bill 196, pending in the state legislature, would make some 15 popular cold and allergy medications available only by prescription.

The products, now kept behind the pharmacy counter, contain pseudoephedrine, a crucial component that meth makers must have to create meth.

It's in products such as Mucinex D, Sudafed D, Zyrtec D, and Claritin D.

As it stands, you have to request these products from pharmacy staff and show identification, but a prescription is not required. The ID requirement is an effort to prevent large-scale purchases, which are used in meth production.

The process would change under SB 196. Proponents of the bill say a doctor's visit wouldn't be required to get a prescription for these medications — that patients could merely call a doctor for a prescription. However, doctors have the final say in how they'd handle such requests.

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Pace To Lead House Charge Against Budget

Pace To Lead House Charge Against Budget

DENVER — Debate of the budget in the Colorado Senate is shaping up to be a pillow fight compared to what is expected when the spending bill reaches the House this week.

House Minority Leader Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, likely will lead opposition to the fiscal year 2011-12 budget that calls for $250 million in cuts to education, closing the Fort Lyon Correctional Facility near Las Animas and eliminating the Circle Program at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo. The program treats those with a dual diagnosis of mental health and substance-abuse issues.

“We’re going to try to amend the budget in a fashion that protects our kids, our schools, our future,” Pace said.

House Democrats are outnumbered not only in their own chamber, but within the context of the budget compromise on its way from the Senate. House Republicans dug in and won key additions to the budget by withholding their approval for the compromise that House Democrats do not find palatable.

Among the Republican victories in the compromise were reinstating sales tax exemptions on agricultural products and software. The GOP also scored on its objective to reduce state withholding of sales tax from retailers (or vendor's fee) by $120 million over the next three years.

“How did we do it?” asked Rep. Spencer Swalm, R-Centennial, during a House Republican caucus on the budget last week.

He marveled that Republicans had toiled unsuccessfully for years to gain similar concessions from Democrats.

House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, answered: Persistent negotiation and reasonable foils in Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, and Gov. John Hickenlooper’s budget office made the deal possible.

He said the Joint Budget Committee also set up a framework for the budget that left compromise within reach.

Absent from those McNulty praised for cooperating was Pace.

CO bill seeking sentencing alternatives advances

CO bill seeking sentencing alternatives advances

Associated Press - April 8, 2011 5:24 PM ET

DENVER (AP) - House lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill that facilitates meetings between victims and their offenders in some cases and emphasizes sentencing options that favor restitution over imprisonment.

Colorado law already allows the sentencing alternative known as "restorative justice" for juveniles, but House Bill 1032 would expand the option to adults.

Lawmakers approved the proposal on a voice vote Friday. It faces another vote before it heads to the Senate.

Democratic Rep. Pete Lee of Colorado Springs says he wants to save the state money by making alternatives to prison available and create a process for healing between victims and their offenders.

Police Accountability Forum

Denver police chief says he would resign if new mayor wants him to - The Denver Post

Denver police chief says he would resign if new mayor wants him to - The Denver Post

A day after five candidates for mayor promised to remove Denver Police Chief Gerald Whitman from his job, the chief said he will step aside if that is what the new mayor wants.

"It's not about what's good for me; it's about what's good for the city," Whitman said Thursday.

The mayoral race has begun to focus on community concerns over the Police Department's excessive-force cases and the lengthy disciplinary process for officers.

The chief, a 29-year veteran, has identified several internal candidates who could succeed him, said his spokesman, Lt. Matt Murray.

"The selection is up to the mayor," Murray said.

Whitman declined to identify who the internal picks could be, but insiders say Deputy Chief John Lamb and Division Chief Tracie Keesee are contenders.

Lamb said he is focused solely on managing the department's budget.

"I am flattered and humbled to hear that my name would be discussed for this position," Lamb said. "At this point, I support this current administration and am doing the job that I have been appointed to do."

Keesee did not return a call for comment.

Mayoral candidates Michael Hancock, Chris Romer and James Mejia all said if elected, they would consider internal candidates as well as conduct a national search.

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Prison Reentry Giving Hope To Ex-Cons

NECN.comhttp://www.necn.com/04/02/11/Prisoner-re-entry-program-giving-hope-to/landing.html?&blockID=3&apID=955a4fa981d44eda8fc32ec1c5e48fcc

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A stint in jail may be the best thing that ever happened to Urick Phillips.

Without it, he might never have met the Colorado Springs probation officer who hooked him up with the Comprehensive Healthcare Re-Entry Program. And without CHRP, he might have missed the mental health treatment he needed to address the root cause of the crack cocaine habit that got him into trouble with the law in the first place.
"I'm a changed person, pretty much," says the soft-spoken 37-year-old. "I still have ups and downs, but I'm more able to function in society. The program just did a lot for me."
It's apparently done a lot for many other ex-offenders as well. Since SET Family Medical Clinics started CHRP in 2008, about 1,440 people released from the El Paso County jail or Department of Corrections facilities have taken part in the program, and its coordinator, Tina Gonzales, says only 7 percent have re-offended in that time. Three-year recidivism rates for those coming out of the state system have been running at slightly over 50 percent, according to the Office of State Planning and Budgeting.
"We feel like we have a really wonderful story to tell to the state: that this is a program that works," says Zelna Joseph, SET's president and CEO, and the driving force behind CHRP.
One of the key components of CHRP is, as the name implies, providing comprehensive health care for people coming out of the criminal justice system.
"We started the program on the belief that if a person is sick, if they have mental health issues and don't feel well, it's hard to get a job and provide for themselves," Joseph says.
SET provides the health care and case management; then, a network of about four dozen other community agencies works together to address other barriers facing the program participants, such as employment and housing.
Mental illness and one of its close relatives, substance abuse, are huge issues in the prison and jail populations. The Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting reported in 2007 that the Department of Corrections had seen a 583 percent increase in the number of mentally ill offenders over 13 years, and 78 percent of DOC inmates had substance abuse problems. The problem is reflected in the patients enrolled in CHRP.
"I see mental health issues in almost all of them — major depression, bipolar, schizophrenia," says Dr. Elliot Cohen, a Colorado Springs psychiatrist who has been in private practice for 30 years and started volunteering with CHRP last year. "I believe about half the people in prison are in there because they have bipolar manic attacks and an inappropriate impulsive response."

Denver police chief's job in peril - The Denver Post

Denver police chief's job in peril - The Denver Post

Five of the candidates for Denver mayor, including almost all of the front-runners, say Police Chief Gerald Whitman won't keep his job if they are elected.

The candidates say the chief has worn out his welcome with the public after years of excessive-force complaints and what they describe as an inefficient and lengthy officer-discipline process.

Doug Linkhart, James Mejia, Michael Hancock, Chris Romer and Theresa Spahn all said Whitman would not be Denver's police chief if they become the next mayor. Of the six candidates considered to be leading the pack, only Carol Boigon is leaving open the possibility that Whitman would keep his current job. But she said she would ask all city department heads, including Whitman, to reapply for their jobs and then make personnel decisions.

Whitman declined to comment Wednesday because he prefers to remain out of the political fray, said his spokesman, Lt. Matt Murray.

"He is not going to get involved in this, and he is busy doing his job," Murray said. "That is where his focus is."

Whitman, 55, is a 29-year veteran of the department. He was named interim chief in February 2000 and officially named chief in August of that year.

Under civil-service rules, Whitman can't be fired from the Police Department but would revert back to his rank of captain if the mayor decides to replace him. He already has notified the city that he intends to retire by July 18, 2015.

After years of increases, the rate of property crime in Denver has steadily fallen during the latter part of Whitman's tenure, even as the nation fell into a recession that would normally prompt crime. After peaking in 2004 and 2005, the violent-crime rate has also fallen in recent years.

Time for new energy

Denver City Council members Hancock and Linkhart did not begin voicing objections to Whitman's tenure until they began running for mayor.

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Prison Reform Adocates Press States To Shift Money Out of Corrections

Washington Post
Advocates of overhauling the U.S. criminal justice system see a bright spot in the dire financial straits that states are facing: Politicians eager to trim budgets are willing to cut spending on prisons and corrections programs.
Several liberal and conservative groups have joined together to take advantage of the moment. A coalition that includes the evangelical Prison Fellowship Ministries, the NAACP, the American Conservative Union and the American Civil Liberties Union is working to push changes that they hope will lower the U.S. prison population.
“We find ourselves with a new crop of allies,” said NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. “This is a place where we’ve found commonality.”
His organization is to release a report Thursday, endorsed by conservative activists Grover Norquist and Pat Nolan, calling on states to cut spending on corrections and to direct that money to education. The study, which bemoans the increasing amount of money spent on incarceration, notes that state spending on prisons has grown at six times the rate of spending on higher education in the past 20 years.
Some states have begun to respond to the financial pressure. This week, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a bill that shifts responsibility for jailing thousands of California inmates to local governments to help cut the state’s nearly
$27 billion deficit and alleviate overcrowding in state prisons.
Although local governments are worried about the cost, supporters of criminal justice reform lauded the move, saying it will keep lower-level offenders closer to their families and provide greater access to rehabilitation programs.
The money saved by such changes could be substantial. More than $50 billion is spent annually on state corrections programs, according to a study by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project.
“Everyone is looking for ways to cut,” said Alison Lawrence, who studies corrections policies for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Legislators are reviewing reports similar to the NAACP’s that say crime rates can be reduced while spending less on prisons, Lawrence said. Some states are experimenting with programs that allow parole violators into treatment programs instead of prisons. Others have amended drug sentencing laws to allow more drug offenders to go straight to rehabilitation programs.
“You’re not sending someone to prison, so you are not adding to the budget,” she said. “It saves on court costs and parole hearing costs.”
In 2005, Texas began implementing sentencing changes and poured money into drug treatment and probation programs. The overhaul slowed the state’s incarceration rate, led to a 12.8 percent drop in violent crime since 2003 and saved the estimated $2 billion that would have gone to building new prisons to house inmates, according to a 2010 state report and advocates. Lawmakers in Florida and Georgia are considering similar changes.
“Prisons are necessary but way overused,” said Nolan, vice president of Prison Fellowship Ministries. “As conservatives, we are suspicious of government and [also] suspicious of the cost of government. But we have turned sort of a blind eye on the spending on prison. It has skyrocketed without a parallel increase in public safety.”
Nolan and other advocates of overhauling the criminal justice system point to studies by the Pew Center on the States, which have found that one in 100 adults was in prison or jail last year and that one in 31 Americans is under some form of corrections control — jail, prison, parole or probation.
Jealous has also made the issue a top priority for the NAACP. His group brought together the coalition of conservatives and liberals and will begin posting billboards in major cities with slogans such as: “Welcome to America, home to 5 percent of the world’s people & 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.” He will also meet with state officials to ask for cuts to corrections spending and corresponding increases in spending to public higher education.
That could prove difficult. Even states that have begun to lower their prison populations have difficulty achieving substantial savings, said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, which advocates for lower imprisonment rates.

DOC Population Report March 2011

COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Keys To A Castle

NY Times
IN a nod to hue, not heft, Chris Carney christened his 600-pound Treadlok safe “the Leprechaun.” It is nearly the same color as the tattoo of a four-leaf clover on the knuckle of the middle finger of his right hand — a tattoo his mother threatened to scrub off with steel wool after he got it as a defiant ninth grader.
“Back in the day,” which is how he refers to his criminal past, Mr. Carney kept guns, drugs and money in the safe. The guns were for protection and ego, souvenirs of a misbegotten boyhood near Boston that included family hunting trips and the drill team at military school. The money was for a Stuyvesant Town apartment, a Corvette, trips to the Caribbean, top-shelf alcohol, gambling and cocaine. He supplemented his salary as a union painter by stealing from drug dealers and bookies, as a sort of low-life Robin Hood. “I guess I was another criminal’s worst nightmare,” Mr. Carney said.
After nine years in prison, he retrieved the Leprechaun from storage in 2008. Today, it hulks impressively in the corner of his tiny office at Castle Gardens, an environmentally conscious apartment building in Harlem that serves a fallen-between-the-cracks clientele. The safe holds nothing but pristine keys, hundreds of them, one for every door at the $44 million building where Mr. Carney, 41, a multiple offender and multiple substance abuser in his angry-young-man 20s, became the primary caretaker — and first tenant — last summer.
The reincarnation of the Leprechaun is fitting for Castle Gardens, a place of redemption: more than half of the building’s 114 units are reserved for the formerly incarcerated or the formerly homeless. A project of the Fortune Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping ex-convicts re-enter society, Castle Gardens is next to Fortune Academy, a 62-bed halfway house on Riverside Drive for offenders fresh from prison. It got its nickname, “the Castle,” because it resembles one.
Mr. Carney landed at the Castle within weeks of his release in 2008, and eager to stay out of jail but spurned by the painters’ union, he started mopping floors and cleaning toilets there and at the Fortune Society’s offices in Long Island City, Queens. He moved out of the halfway house, to Jackson Heights, Queens, and then to the South Bronx. He was promoted to superintendent at the Castle. He got off parole. Be it ever so humble, it was a start, and it was legal.

Priorities Clash as States Move People Out Of Prison

Washington Post
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Desperate to save money, many states are pushing to reduce the number of people in prison while also cutting the services meant to keep them from committing new crimes, including probation monitoring, mental health care and drug counseling.
Those clashing policies — more offenders out, less supervision at home — raise the possibility that states could save now but pay more in the long run, both in money and crime.
“Four years from now, I think you’ll probably see a spike in incarceration rates,” said Justin Jones, director of the Department of Corrections in Oklahoma, one of the states planning to reduce its prison population.
Oklahoma intends to lighten its inmate burden through greater use of parole, community sentencing and electronic monitoring. At the same time, the state has slashed treatment and job training for prisoners and is looking at cuts to statewide mental health programs, the same ones that deal with prisoners after their release.
Texas has spent years trying to get low-level offenders out of prison and keep them out, managing to hold the prison population flat when it was projected to rise by 17,000. Now, amid a $27 billion budget crisis, the state may cut in-prison drug treatment nearly in half and eliminate money to monitor people on probation for misdemeanors.
California, still struggling to close a massive deficit, may cut its prison population by 38,000 over the next three years, or about 23 percent. Also being cut: drug counseling, mental health care and welfare-to-work programs that handle offenders.
The measures reflect the impact of the long recession, during which states have made round after round of cuts to address falling tax revenues. The economies still available now may not always be logical, just unavoidable. Money for criminal justice balances against jobs of teachers and services for those with disabilities.
“Will there be some heartburn along the way? I’m sure there will be,” said Oklahoma state Rep. Earl Sears, a Republican. “But all state agencies are having to deal with these cuts.”
Criminal justice experts agonize about the timing. After two decades of “lock ‘em up and throw away the key” thinking, states were starting to adopt new policies. The most dangerous criminals would be kept behind bars while others would be handled in ways designed to keep them from returning to prison.
“We’re finally to the point that we know what works and we know what doesn’t work, and we hit it just about the same time a recession hit,” said Jones, the Oklahoma corrections director. The change is now in jeopardy.
Kansas is one example of a state making cuts in conflict with each other.
Kansas made a major shift in 2007 toward reducing the prison population and handling more ex-offenders in the community. The strategy seemed to pay off. The number of people successfully finishing probation or parole rose, from 46 percent in 2006 to 61 percent in 2008. The prison population, expected to rise 20 percent over the next eight years, dropped by 6 percent.
Now, as budget cuts begin, successful paroles are dropping and the number of prisoners has started climbing again.
Kansas plans to cut employees who oversee parole and re-entry programs and may close some prison camps. It is also spending less to help communities monitor high-risk offenders. And nine of the state’s 27 community mental health centers, where many offenders are treated, may have to close.
That worries Marilyn Cook, head of the Comcare mental health service in Wichita, the state’s largest city. Most of the offenders imprisoned from Wichita wind up back in Wichita. If they aren’t pushed to change, she said, they wind up falling into old ways.
To keep that from happening, authorities set up special courts to handle people with addictions and mental illness. More than 900 people went through Comcare’s programs for sobriety, mental health and other services in 2010. The number of inmates in the county jail with mental health problems dropped to 47 percent, down from 62 percent in 2005.
But she said state budget cuts endanger all of that. Comcare got over $6 million from the state to serve the poor and uninsured in 2005, Cook said. That has now dwindled to about $2 million. If the proposed budget cuts go through, it would drop to $800,000 and programs would be slashed.
“Eventually these individuals are going to be served somewhere. They’re going to go to long-term care in state hospitals, in jails and in prison,” Cook said.
John Spence says the community treatment he got for mental illness has helped him stay out of jail.
Spence, 48, threatened a police officer in Kansas during a psychotic episode. He had served an 18-month prison sentence in Texas for a similar offense. This time, however, Spence got help with his prescriptions and finding a place to live. He’s been on his own for a year now.

Parole Measure Draws Emotional Pros and Cons

chieftain

DENVER — Mothers of children in cemetery plots, others whose sons sit in cages without hope of tasting freedom before they die and sons whose elderly mothers met sadistic ends emptied their angst last week on the Colorado General Assembly.

They had been mobilized by a proposal in the Legislature that would have made 48 aging people in the bubble — juveniles sentenced to life in prison between 1991 and 2006 — eligible for parole after serving 40 years in prison.

In 1991, Colorado adopted its life-without-parole sentencing structure for first-degree murder.

In 2006, the state backed away from applying life without parole to juvenile offenders.

But for 48 people (now all adults) who received the sentence one rung on the ladder below the death penalty, parole never will be an option unless the law changes.

That’s what HB1287 would have done. It looked to grant people convicted as juveniles parole eligibility after 40 calendar years in prison. Even if paroled, they would remain under the supervision of the Colorado Department of Corrections as parolees for a lifetime.

Juvenile Lifers Afraid to Hope

Chieftain

Four-dozen men who fell through the cracks are destined to die in prison. The hopes of possible release died last week when a House committee killed HB1287, a bill that would have made a law enacted in 2006 retroactive.

The prison inmates are serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for crimes they committed when they were juveniles.

Many of the life without parole sentences were a response to the gang violence that erupted in Colorado cities in the early 1990s. More juveniles were tried as adults and given mandatory prison sentences, including life. A first-degree murder conviction mandates life without parole.

For juveniles in Colorado, the law changed in 2006 when the Legislature passed a bill capping the longest sentence that could be given a juvenile at 40 years. However, the law did not apply to juveniles sentenced to life without parole between 1991 and 2006.

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles couldn’t be sentenced to life without parole for crimes other than murder.

Of the 48 inmates serving life sentences in state prisons for crimes they committed as children, about one-third were convicted of murder.

Phillip Michael Montoya of Pueblo is one of the 48. He and David Carrillo were found guilty of first-degree murder in the gang-related slaying of Chris Romo in June 1993 and are serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. Montoya was 16 years old at the time of the crime; Carrillo was 19.

Carrillo’s appeal of his conviction was heard in District Judge David Crockenberg’s court in February. Carrillo said he received inadequate legal counsel in his defense. Crockenberg has not yet ruled in the case.

Montoya’s juvenile status gave him a slim hope for the possibility of parole when in August 2007, former Gov. Bill Ritter formed the Juvenile Clemency Board by executive order. Its mission was to review clemency and commutation requests by juveniles who were tried as adults and sentenced to state prison.