Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit

The Denver Post

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.

The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.

Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.

After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.

"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."

Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.

Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.

In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse 

 

Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


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Officials at the highest-security federal prison in America have taken steps to address mental- health issues among the prison's inmates, following a lawsuit that accuses the government of indifference.
The changes at the administrative maximum prison in Florence, known as Supermax, started last summer, shortly after attorneys filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court on behalf of several inmates who say their mental illnesses are not being treated at the prison.
Among the allegations in the lawsuit are claims that prison officials transfer inmates they know to be mentally ill to Supermax, in violation of prison policies, then stop treating the inmates' illnesses — including taking them off medication. At least six Supermax inmates have killed themselves inside the prison, according to the suit, and many others have attempted suicide or mutilated themselves.
After the lawsuit was filed in June, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels wrote a memo to all federal inmates encouraging suicidal inmates to seek help from prison psychologists. The memo is among a number of documents filed in the lawsuit Wednesday.
"If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide," Samuels wrote to inmates July 20, "it is not because solutions do not exist; it is because you are currently unable to see them. Do not lose hope."
Denver attorney Edwin Aro, who is representing the Supermax inmates in the lawsuit, said a video message from Samuels about prison mental-health services also started being played to Supermax inmates in August. And Aro said he has also learned Supermax is looking to add to its mental-health staff — which consisted of two people for 490 inmates, Samuels said in testimony in June before Congress.
Regardless of the changes, prison officials say they have not mistreated mentally ill inmates at Supermax and have asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
In a motion filed in October, government attorneys say the lawsuit does not provide enough information to show that prison officials intentionally deprived inmates of mental-health treatment. The motion also says that the named defendants — mostly high-ranking Bureau of Prisons officials — would have had no knowledge of the treatment of individual inmates.
"Most glaringly, there are no facts alleged showing the requisite subjective intent," the motion states.
In the inmates' response, Aro and other attorneys said they have more than met the burden to move the case forward.
"If this complaint ... were found insufficient to survive a motion to dismiss," the attorney's reply brief states, "then the courthouse door will be as impenetrable to prison inmates as the cell doors that secure them."
Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch has not indicated when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.


Read more: Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22064773/supermax-prison-officials-move-address-mental-health-after#ixzz2DMOSNMig
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Gratitude

On behalf of the CCJRC family, we hope you and yours are well.  This holiday brings no greater pleasure than the opportunity to express to you our gratitude for your support. 

We are deeply thankful and extend the wish that the good things of life be yours in abundance not only at Thanksgiving but throughout the coming year.
As always, thank you for your continued support of CCJRC.
Graciously,
Christie, Ellen, John, and Pam
www.ccjrc.org

Amendment 64 Opponents speak out.

The Huffington Post

Last night, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use, forever altering the course of the war on drugs. To put the passage of these groundbreaking measures into perspective, Tom Angell, spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said it best in a report by The Huffington Post's Matt Sledge:
"To put this into historical context, there is no historical context. It's the first time any state has ever voted to legalize marijuana -- and two of them did it."
Sledge reported:

The votes marked a significant shift from decades of tough-on-crime policies that burned through $1 trillion in tax dollars over 40 years, led to the arrest of 850,000 Americans for marijuana law violations in 2010 alone, and fueled the rise of deadly drug cartels abroad. But even as pot reformers celebrated their long-sought victories, the threat of a confrontation with the federal government loomed. Both ballot measures would legalize recreational marijuana use only for adults, and cannabis would remain a controlled substance under federal law.

Colorado's Amendment 64 -- which won with 54 percent of the vote in favor, 46 percent opposed -- had vocal opponents during the run up to the election and many of those are sounding off in the wake of the unprecedented passage of the marijuana legalization measure. One of those opponents is Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who reacted in a statement:

The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will. This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.

Cheetos and gold fish? LEAP's Tom Angell, for one, didn't appreciate the apparent joke the governor was making about marijuana users. "What an insult to the majority of voters who did not follow your recommendation, governor," responded Angell. "I wouldn't be surprised to see that comment bite him in the ass."
Back in September, Hickenlooper came out in opposition to the amendment saying, “Colorado is known for many great things –- marijuana should not be one of them." Hickenlooper added, "Amendment 64 has the potential to increase the number of children using drugs and would detract from efforts to make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation. It sends the wrong message to kids that drugs are OK."
Mason Tvert, co-director of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol -- the organization behind Amendment 64 -- had strong words for the governor: "Governor Hickenlooper's statement today ranks as one of the most hypocritical statements in the history of politics," Tvert said. "After building a personal fortune by selling alcohol to Coloradans, he is now basing his opposition to this measure on concerns about the health of his citizens and the message being sent to children. We certainly hope he is aware that alcohol actually kills people. Marijuana use does not. The public health costs of alcohol use overall are approximately eight times greater per person than those associated with marijuana. And alcohol use is associated with violent crime. Marijuana use is not."

Attempt fails to repeal death penalty in California

Star Tribune

Attempt fails to repeal death penalty in California despite concerns about cost

LOS ANGELES - California voters rejected the latest attempt to repeal California's death penalty, dealing a blow to activists who saw the election as their best chance in 35 years to end capital punishment in the state.
Officials were still counting ballots, but it was apparent Wednesday that voters rejected Proposition 34 by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. The defeat came even though recent polling showed concern growing over the cost of capital punishment and its paltry results in California.
The state has executed just 13 convicts, and its death row has ballooned to 726 inmates since 71 percent of the electorate voted to reinstate capital punishment in 1978. No executions have taken place since 2006 because of federal and state lawsuits filed by death row inmates.
The Legislative Analyst has said ending the death penalty would save the state $130 million annually.
Still, it appears a majority of California voters still support capital punishment in California as the best way to deal with the state's most heinous killers, but would like to see reforms.

California Votes to Reform Three Strikes Law

Huffington Post
After nearly 20 years and over $20 billion spent, California voters have voted overwhelmingly to reform our state's draconian "three strikes" law. The statewide ballot measure, Proposition 36, delivered a two-to-one mandate (68.6%-31.4%) to close a controversial loophole in the law so that life sentences can only be imposed when the new felony conviction is "serious or violent."
Three strikes laws, often known as habitual offender laws, grew out of the "tough on crime" era of the 1980s and 90s. Between 1993 and 1995, 24 states passed some kind of three strikes law, but California's 1994 three strikes ballot measure was especially harsh.
While the 1994 law required the first and second strike to be either violent or serious, any infraction could trigger a third strike and the life sentence that went with it. Therefore, petty offenses - such as stealing a piece of pizza - have led to life imprisonment for thousands of people.
Although 25 other states have passed three-strikes laws, only California punishes minor crimes with a life sentence. In fact, 3,700 prisoners (more than 40 percent of the total third-strike population of about 8,500) in the state are serving life for a third strike that was neither violent nor serious. Because of its unique stringency, California's habitual offender law has generated numerous legal challenges based on the 8^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution barring cruel and unusual punishment.
Yesterday, voters in California put an end to one of the harshest and least effective sentencing laws in the country. Proposition 36 ensures that no more people are sentenced to life in prison for minor and nonviolent drug law violations. In fact, implementation of the new law will not only bring relief to petty offenders moving forward, but inmates currently serving life sentences for non-serious, non-violent crimes can apply for a new sentence. In these retroactive cases the sentence can only be reduced if a judge determines that the individual is no longer an unreasonable threat to public safety.

"Californians finally appear to be coming to their senses on the basic question of who deserves to spend the rest of his or her life behind bars," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "Locking up people for life whose only recent offense was a minor violation of the state's drug laws never made sense in terms of public safety, finance or morality. California at last is rejoining the civilized world."
As California set the trend for the passage of 3-strikes laws across the country in the 1990s, we are optimistic that the passage of Proposition 36 will also set the trend for rethinking these reactionary and costly laws in other states. California incarcerates more people than any other state in a country that imprisons more people than in any other country, with 25% of the world's prisoners, but only 5% of the world's population. There is still a long way to go to dismantle the mass incarceration industrial complex we have built in the U.S. since Nixon declared the war on drugs in 1971.

CO Attorney General sounds off on legalizing marijuana | koaa.com | Colorado Springs | Pueblo |

CO Attorney General sounds off on legalizing marijuana | koaa.com | Colorado Springs | Pueblo |

Colorado Spending $208 million on empty prison

The Denver Post

(It has recently come to our (CCJRC's)  attention that the service we use (Feedblitz) to send out our blog

"Think Outside the Cage" has been embedding political ads in their communications.   

This was done without our knowledge or consent. CCJRC is a non-profit organization that does not oppose or support candidates for any political office.  We apologize for any misinterpretation this may have caused and we will make sure that we have solved that problem before we send out any further

blog information.)

Three days ago, Colorado shut down a brand-new prison it didn't need.
Unless the state government finds someone else who can use it, Colorado taxpayers can expect to spend $208 million for an empty building.
Finding someone else may not be easy. Colorado State Penitentiary II, also known as Centennial South, consists of 948 solitary-confinement cells. It has no dining room, no gym, no rooms where a group of prisoners could take classes or go to therapy or get vocational training. It's row after identical row of empty cells.
From the beginning, critics of this project objected, correctly, that Colorado was putting people in solitary confinement at a rate that dwarfed the national

(Click on image to enlarge)

average.Yet it was built.
It was built even though most legislators opposed the prison in 2003, according to a key player. Another bit of legislative ingenuity overcame that problem. The sponsors lumped the prison with a new University of Colorado medical campus and gained bipartisan support for two projects financed without a vote of the people.
Separately, neither project would have passed, according to Republican Norma Anderson, the Senate majority leader and bill sponsor in 2003.
"You couldn't get the votes for either one of them," said Anderson, now a former legislator living in Lakewood.
Republicans wanted the prison, Democrats the hospitals, and "that's the only reason they were put together," she said. "It's very simple."
The other key players in the project were Republican co-sponsor Lola Spradley, House speaker in 2003 and resident of Beulah — prison country; Ari Zavaras, corrections chief for two Democratic governors; and Joe Ortiz, the corrections chief for a Republican governor.
And the statisticians who predicted prison populations played a part. The Division of Criminal Justice, for one, foresaw numbers of Colorado prisoners going up and up. Instead

the prison population declined along with the crime rate, while judges sentenced fewer people to prison. Today, Colorado holds about 7,500 fewer prisoners than forecast six years ago.Opened over objectionsColorado State Penitentiary II was built without a vote of the people, a requirement for Colorado projects that increase state debt, and in spite of a warning from the state treasurer that the voters should decide.
The legislature resorted instead to a financing method called "certificates of participation." Rather than borrow money to build its own prison, the state sold certificates to investors, becoming the operator of a prison owned by a multitude of lenders.
The prison was built despite a 2005 Colorado Department of Corrections report from its own staff confirming that Colorado held three times as many people in solitary confinement as the average state prison system.
It finally opened in 2010, over renewed objections that Colorado didn't need it. The corrections department, in turn, won the fight to open it with a misleading claim that most states actually held more prisoners in what the department calls "administrative segregation."
Now it's empty.
Kent Lambert, a Republican state senator from Colorado Springs, agreed to

Ari Zavaras, corrections chief for two Democratic governors, said, "I err on the side of inmate safety and officer safety." (The Denver Post | Craig F. Walker)

open the prison in 2010 as a Joint Budget Committee member. This year, after voting to close it, he said he and other legislators feel deceived.Corrections officials lobbied vigorously to open it, citing "a growing population of violent prisoners," inadequate facilities and a trend toward more dangerous offenders, Lambert said. Now, some legislators "felt they were being lied to."
Actually, "those numbers were driven by bad policy, the excess of administrative segregation and the lack of adequate review" for inmates, Lambert said. "If you put people in administrative segregation for years, in some cases even decades without adequate review, we have some potentially serious human-rights violations."
Ari Zavaras, the department's executive director in 2010, said he never meant to deceive anyone.At the time, he said, administrative segregation beds were full, leaving no place to put offenders if there was a murder, riot or violent fight.
"I really felt we had a need," he said. If in doubt, "I err on the side of inmate safety and officer safety."
The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, a group that opposed the prison from the start, now questions whether the state will be able to sublet 948 solitary confinement cells.
"The bottom line is we never needed that prison to begin with," said the coalition's Christie Donner, "so it's lose-lose."
None of the repeated objections to building a new solitary confinement prison was heeded until last year, when Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper took office and appointed a new corrections chief, Tom Clements.
Within months, Clements brought in consultants from the National Institute of Corrections to take an independent look at Colorado's solitary confinement system.
Here's what they reported:
• About 7 percent of Colorado prisoners are kept in "administrative segregation," compared to a national average of 1 to 2 percent.
• The average length of stay in solitary cells is about two years.
• Most in solitary confinement "are not being disruptive and have not been disruptive for some time."
• The solitary confinement population in Colorado kept growing even as its overall prison population declined.
• About four of 10 offenders in the system ultimately go straight from cells where they were confined 23 hours a day to the streets.
• The proportion of prisoners with known mental health problems had grown from 22 percent to 40 percent in 11 years.
Clements said he was particularly disturbed by how often "we were taking inmates in restraints to the bus station" and removing the handcuffs there.
"That was a very compelling factor for us," he said.
This year, state legislators unanimously agreed to close the prison
Challenge to "re-purpose"As corrections department spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti walks down a barren hallway of Colorado State Penitentiary II, her heels click audibly. It's that quiet.
The last inmates were moved out in October, along with correctional officers, teachers, medical staff and counselors. Except for the kitchen and laundry, which will serve inmates elsewhere in a six-prison complex, the prison closed Nov. 1.
Sanguinetti outlined the challenges of "re-purposing" this place.
"There is no classroom space. There is no program space, no outdoor recreation, no dining hall," she said.
From one hallway to another, the prison consists of rows of empty cells, identical but for their door colors.

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