TAMPA - Mark O'Hara left jail without handcuffs Wednesday, two years after he went to prison and one week since an appeals court ordered him a new trial.
He was serving a 25-year sentence for having 58 Vicodin pills in his bread truck. Jurors weren't told that it is legal to possess the drug with a prescription, which he had.
The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office has not decided whether it will seek a retrial in the Dunedin man's drug trafficking case.
O'Hara, 45, said he made the 168-mile trip back from a Dixie County prison without knowing exactly why. His attorneys had alerted him of their successful appeal but cautioned that it wouldn't become final for 30 days.
Still, he figured something positive was afoot.
"They been treating me like a human," he said of authorities.
Events leading up to his release also seem to point in his favor.
Col. David Parrish, who runs the county's jails, said State Attorney Mark Ober called him late Monday afternoon with an urgent request. He wanted O'Hara brought back to Hillsborough from the Cross City Correctional Institution as soon as possible.
Prison transfers usually take a week. O'Hara's took a day.
On Wednesday morning, he appeared before Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta, the same jurist who heard his trial and sentenced him to the mandatory 25 years in prison on the trafficking charge.
The hearing was scheduled so quickly that O'Hara's attorneys didn't even know about it.
Prosecutor Darrell Dirks acknowledged that the state erred in leaving out a jury instruction regarding prescriptions. He suggested O'Hara be returned to the status he had before his August 2005 trial.
O'Hara piped up, saying he had been released from jail on his own recognizance after his arrest.Article Here
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
When The Drug War Is Unbelievable
Missouri Has It Right
Here's an article about how Missouri is building re-entry centers and using their sentencing commission to really look at how they are sentencing people based on a risk assessment tool.
They have reduced their prison population dramatically in the first year.
FARMINGTON — The supervision center is across a narrow road from the double
fence and looping razor wire of a state prison. Out the back door, a garden
sprouts with cantaloupe, zucchini and watermelon.
All of the center's residents are on probation or parole, and most have
violated the terms that gave them freedom. They could have been ordered behind
the razor wire, but the state is giving them a supervised second chance and in
the process reducing the state's inmate population. One thing they do is tend
the garden.
"I enjoy helping the plants grow," said Michael Goesmann. "It gives me peace."
He could use it. Goesmann, 54, served 15 months for a drug offense and said
he'd been an addict for years. He was released from the prison in St. Joseph,
Mo., in March and wasn't ready for the outside world.
On Tuesday, he was one of 23 men and five women assigned to the Farmington
Community Supervision Center, which opened in January 2006 — the first of two
such centers in Missouri. The state plans to open five more in hopes of keeping
stumbling offenders away from prison's revolving door.
Such stumbles have fed a decade of explosive inmate growth that required the
state to double its number of prison beds. But thanks to alternatives,
officials say, Missouri is leading the nation in reducing its inmate population.
In the year that ended June 30, 2006, the number of people behind bars in
Missouri declined by nearly 3 percent, the largest percentage in any state.
Only eight states reported a decline, according to the Department of Justice.
Illinois reported an increase of 1.7 percent.
When Gov. Matt Blunt took office in January 2005, Missouri's prison population
was growing by about two a day, said Commissioner of Administration Mike
Keathley. At that rate, the state would have had to build a new prison every
two years.
Missouri officials point to the community supervision centers as one key factor
in the state's decline in inmates.
St. Louis Article
NY Times - States Exporting Prisoners As Prisons Fill
ELOY, Ariz. — For Bob Weier, a Hawaiian convicted of armed robbery, incarceration at the Red Rock Correctional Center on the outskirts of this dusty town is the latest stop in a far-flung and nomadic exile.
Skip to next paragraphMultimedia
Daniel Snyder for The New York TimesStates handle overcrowding by sending inmates to private prisons like Red Rock Correctional Facility. More Photos »
Since his imprisonment 12 years ago on Maui, Mr. Weier, 53, has served his sentence in prisons in Minnesota, Oklahoma and Arizona. He last saw his daughter 11 years ago and has five grandchildren he has never met.
“To them, I’m just a voice who talks to them on the phone for a while,” said Mr. Weier, a heavyset man who expects to be released next year.
Chronic prison overcrowding has corrections officials in Hawaii and at least seven other states looking increasingly across state lines for scarce prison beds, usually in prisons run by private companies. Facing a court mandate, California last week transferred 40 inmates to Mississippi and has plans for at least 8,000 to be sent out of state.
The long-distance arrangements account for a small fraction of the country’s total prison population — about 10,000 inmates, federal officials estimate — but corrections officials in states with the most crowded prisons say the numbers are growing.
One private prison company that houses inmates both in-state and out of state, the Corrections Corporation of America, announced last year that it would spend $213 million on construction and renovation projects for 5,000 prisoners by next year.
“They find that their prison populations are at or beyond capacity and they have to relieve that capacity,” Tony Grande, the company’s president for state relations, said of states turning to private prisons. “They quickly turn to us and we have open prison capacity where we can accommodate growth.”
About one-third of Hawaii’s 6,000 state inmates are held in private in Arizona, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Kentucky. Alabama has 1,300 prisoners in Louisiana. About 360 inmates from California, which has one of the nation’s most crowded prison systems, are in Arizona and Tennessee.
But while the out-of-state transfers are helping states that have been unwilling, or too slow, to build enough prisons of their own, they have also raised concerns among some corrections officials about excessive prisoner churn, consistency among the private vendors and safety in some prisons.
Moving inmates from prison to prison disrupts training and rehabilitation programs and puts stress on tenuous family bonds, corrections officials say, making it more difficult to break the cycle of inmates committing new crimes after their release.
Several recidivism studies have found that convicts who keep in touch with family members through visits and phone privileges are less likely to violate their parole or commit new offenses. There have been no studies that focused specifically on out-of-state placements.
NY TIMES
Prosecutors Snap Back On DNA Handling
Last week, The Denver Post published a series of articles revealing serious problems with the protection of DNA evidence in the United States. Unfortunately, the tone of the articles left the impression that Colorado prosecutors deliberately discard DNA evidence and seek convictions without regard for truth or justice. This simply is not true.
If there are criticisms of our justice system, they should be based on facts in Colorado, not misinformation and innuendo. It is unfair to crime victims, jurors and the general public to create a false impression of their criminal justice system. It is, therefore, important to correct the record.
"The duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict." So states the American Bar Association's Standards for Criminal Justice. That's precisely what prosecutors in Colorado do every day: protect the community, care for victims, prosecute criminals, and, above all, seek justice and the truth.
DNA evidence is one of the best ways to do that. DNA evidence helps expose the guilty and exonerate the innocent. For that reason, we strongly support the protection of DNA evidence. Indeed, we insist upon it. When DNA evidence is lost or destroyed, victims and their families are deprived of the justice they deserve. It also eliminates one of the best methods of determining the guilt or innocence of the accused. That is why protecting DNA is so important to us.
Thankfully, Colorado prosecutors have a strong record of protecting evidence. To begin with, we have a first-rate state crime lab that performs our DNA analysis and comparisons. Of the 45,000 felony cases we prosecuted in 2006, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation analyzed more than 5,000 pieces of evidence for DNA. The CBI has protocols governing the collection and storage of DNA evidence that can be found at cbi.state.co.us.
The Post detailed numerous examples nationwide where DNA evidence was lost or mishandled. Out of all of these examples, however, only two were from Colorado. The police department did accidentally purge DNA evidence in Colorado Springs, which is regrettable. DNA evidence was also inadvertently discarded in the 1987 Moses-EL case in Denver after the defense attorney failed to pick it up for several weeks. These examples are the rare exception, not the rule. The Post series seems to imply otherwise.
The Denver Post
Broomfield Assessor Resigns For Cocaine
Their decision to do some sleuthing led to Brown's admission that she brought cocaine to work and to her resignation from the $83,054-a-year job she's held since 2004.
Despite her admission, law enforcement officials said Monday they don't have grounds to charge her with a crime.
Rocky Mountain News
Monday, July 30, 2007
Fighting Gangs With Faith
Kevin Mickens once trolled the streets of Denver's Five Points area plying crack cocaine as a member of the Rolling 30's gang.
Back then, they knew him as Big Duji, the Devil's Helper.
Now he carries a Bible and talks of God. He's Pastor Kevin.
As the city of Denver grapples with a growing perception that gang violence is killing too many, city officials increasingly are turning to those like Mickens and their churches for help.
In mid-July, a private meeting was held between key city officials and up to 60 church leaders in an attempt to craft a coordinated strategy. That meeting, attended by Denver City Council President Michael Hancock and Safety Manager Al LaCabe, the top city official overseeing the city's police department, produced a renewed emphasis on street intervention.
"I think it's time for all the churches to get together and do some big things," said Butch Montoya, the city's former safety manager, who is helping coordinate the initiative. "The need is greater for the churches to step up than it's ever been."
As former gang members have aligned themselves with inner city churches, those like Mickens are now considered the city's secret weapon in its fight against gangs. City officials hope they can help stop incidents like the New Year's Day slaying of Denver Broncos player Darrent Williams, killed in a flurry of bullets that came from a sport utility vehicle registered to a known gang leader.
New ideas are proliferating as pastors start to speak out against gangs from their pulpits.
The Denver Post
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Judges Consider Prison Cap
Federal panel could free 35,000 inmates early as decisions cast doubt on $7.9 billion state plan.
By Kevin Yamamura and Andy Furillo - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Two federal judges Monday ordered the creation of a rare three-judge panel to consider a cap on California's inmate population, rejecting assertions that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers have done enough to resolve the state's prison overcrowding crisis.
A prison cap could lead to the early release of thousands of inmates, a move legislative Republicans and the GOP governor vow to fight.
In an attempt to avoid Monday's impaneling of judges, Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers from both parties approved a $7.9 billion bond in April for 53,000 new prison and jail beds. The plan, Assembly Bill 900, also requires the state to enhance its prison rehabilitation programs and allows an out-of-state transfer of up to 8,000 inmates.
But U.S. District Judges Thelton Henderson of San Francisco and Lawrence Karlton of Sacramento in twin decisions expressed skepticism that the state plan would prove sufficient.
"Given the almost twelve years that this case has been in its remedial phase, and given the constitutional considerations at stake, the direction in which the State has at present chosen to go by enacting AB 900 simply fails to address in any timely way relief from the overcrowding crisis and its attendant impact," Karlton wrote in his decision.
The judges' decisions involved cases in which the state had failed to bring its prison medical and mental health systems into constitutional compliance. Schwarzenegger plans to appeal.
"I'm confident that the steps the state has taken and will continue taking to reduce overcrowding will meet the court's concerns," Schwarzenegger said Monday in a statement. "At the same time, we intend to appeal these orders to ensure that dangerous criminals are not released into our communities."
Michael Bien, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said the judges' ruling moved California closer to resolving its prison overcrowding problems.
"I think it's a very historic step in an effort to bring California's prison system back to constitutional levels," Bien said. "It's out of control. It's plummeting over the precipice."
Members of the judicial panels are appointed by the chief judge of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. One member must be a judge who called for the creation of the panel and one more must come from the same circuit.
The three-judge courts were created as part of the Prison Litigation Reform Act signed in 1996 that was designed to restrict the power of a single federal judge to order early inmate releases from jails and prisons.
Once impaneled, the judicial panels can order early inmate releases only if there had been an earlier finding of a constitutional violation, the defendants failed to fix it in a reasonable amount of time, and overcrowding is the main cause.
Before ordering early releases, three-judge courts must first hold hearings in which intervenors -- including legislators, prosecutors and county jailers -- are allowed to file written arguments and testify. The timeline was unclear Monday.
Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in October, as California faced an overcrowding situation that stuffed 173,000 inmates in prison space designed for about half that number. Henderson noted the governor's declaration as a unique example of how even the state has acknowledged the seriousness of its overcrowding problem.
Sacramento Bee
NY Times - New State Law Suspends Benefits
The only problem with this is that if you weren't on Medicaid prior to incarceration you won't be on it when you get out. Colorado recently passed a law that mandates that case managers have to get the Medicaid and SSI paper work started for folks months in advance of their release. It was mandated once before and a state audit last was released last January showed that only one out of 30 prisons in the state were following the law. So we'll see if it's one of those "it looks good on paper, but....."
When Rufus Dantzler was released from a New York State prison in 2004 after serving 14 years for murder, he was ordered by the state’s parole office to get treatment for alcoholism and marijuana abuse.
But when he arrived at the program, which was run by Greenwich House, a nonprofit group in Manhattan, he was told that he would have to pay for treatment because his Medicaid coverage had not yet started.
Without a job, that was simply not an option, said Mr. Dantzler, who was convicted of killing a family friend in Harlem in 1989. “I just walked right out,” he said.
Because Medicaid, which provides health care to people of limited means, does not cover anyone in jail or prison, inmates like Mr. Dantzler who were enrolled before their incarceration had to reapply after their release, a process that took as long as three months.
That gap left many former prisoners with no choice but to forgo medical care, even in cases of serious illnesses or addiction. Officials are concerned that without help, former inmates addicted to drugs or alcohol could return to behavior that could land them back in jail.
But after months of lobbying by the Bloomberg administration and criminal justice advocates, the State Legislature passed a bill signed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer last week that eliminates the wait. It allows prisoners in New York to suspend their Medicaid coverage while incarcerated, then have it immediately reinstated once they are released.
“A person who is receiving Medicaid on the day they get arrested is no less in need of Medicaid the day they get out,” said Martin F. Horn, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Correction.
NY TimesCarol Chambers Unethical?
Arapahoe County - A lawyer is accusing District Attorney Carol Chambers of hiding potential evidence in a sex case, a claim the lawyer hopes will lead to his client's freedom.In court documents filed this month, attorney Tom Carberry is arguing the case of his client, Brent Wayne Sharpe, who was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2000 for sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend's daughter.
In a motion filed in Arapahoe County District Court, Carberry says that Chambers and former DA Jim Peters hid the fact that forensic investigator Carole Abbott, who conducted the key interview with the victim in the case, had been charged with being an accessory in the sexual abuse of her own daughter.
Abbott's husband, Paul, installed a video camera in a heating grate in his stepdaughter's room to videotape her in the nude. The court documents also say that he touched the girl inappropriately. Paul Abbott received probation in a plea deal, but that was revoked and he was sentenced to six years in prison.
Carole Abbott, a forensic investigator at Sungate Children's Advocacy and Family Resource Center in Arapahoe County, was charged as an accessory because her daughter complained to her about it, but Abbott didn't do anything, records say. Abbott was fired, and the charge was later dismissed. She could not be located for comment.
Carberry said then-District Attorney Peters and Chambers, who was the chief prosecutor on child sex crimes, sat on the board of directors of Sungate, a children's advocacy center that assists law enforcement in investigating abuse claims. While on the board, they were told of the charges against Carole Abbott but did not tell defense attorneys.
The Denver Post
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Did The Crime and Too Much Time
James McKay says he was a crack addict in the late 90s when he tried to rob a convenience store eight years ago.
"Broad daylight, two o'clock in the afternoon, gas station filled with people," he said. "That's how the addiction had me."
McKay knocked the clerk to the floor but failed to get any money from the cash register.
He was caught and pled guilty to second-degree burglary and third-degree assault. Judge Gerald Rafferty sentenced him to concurrent terms of four years for burglary and six years for the assault.
Apparently, the judge, public defender and prosecutor all failed to notice that the assault was a class six felony, for which the maximum sentence is three years.
"Sentencing mistakes do happen," said 9NEWS Legal Analyst Scott Robinson. "Generally, they're picked up pretty quickly. It's pretty rare that any inmate has to do more time than he really is supposed to do."
9News
War Protester Gets Jail
A war protester who occupied U.S. Rep. Mark Udall's Colorado office and refused to leave was sentenced Friday to a month in jail.
A jury found Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center activist Carolyn Bninski, 57, guilty of trespassing but not-guilty of unlawful assembly.
Bninski, 57, had rejected a plea deal of 60 days in jail to stand trial in Westminster municipal court.
"I don't regret that I participated in this action. It's a small thing to do, compared to the suffering of Iraqis," said Bninski, who also must pay a $500 fine.
Bninski and four other protesters conducted a three-week in-office protest against Udall's votes for continued Iraq war funding. When Udall staffers asked them to leave, they refused and were arrested March 8 by Westminster police for trespassing and unlawful assembly.
The others got $100 fines or community service, but prosecutors sought jail time for Bninski because she had been arrested several times before for civil disobedience.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Colorado Confidential - Today's Discussion
| Atty Andrew Oh-Willeke was in attendance today and covered the CLE beautifully for Colorado Confidential. Click below to read the entire article. Andrew Oh-Willeke :: Opening Salvos On Crime Reform Earlier this year, House Bill 1358, introduced by Judiciary Committee Chairman Terrance Carroll (D-Denver) established a 26 member Colorado Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission. Why? The corrections budget in Colorado has grown to 9% of the general fund, and will grow to 15% in five years at the rate we're going. But, this money isn't producing the desired results. At a well attended meeting at the University of Denver Law School today, sponsored by the Colorado Bar Association, the opening arguments in the debate were offered by representatives of many of the parties interested in criminal justice reform in Colorado. Early indications are that the commission's first priority will be improving the transition inmates make from prison to the community at the end of their sentences. |
Denver Post Editorial - Prison Population Unacceptable
Colorado's prison population is exploding along with the state's corrections budget.
In 1997, the average daily population for the Colorado Department of Corrections was 12,205 inmates. In 2007, the daily population is averaging 22,424 - an 84 percent increase. In the last five years alone, the prison budget has grown 35 percent.
It's time for a change.
More taxpayer dollars have been pumped into building and expanding prisons in this state under the guise of public safety, even while state policies seem geared to keeping offenders behind bars longer. Far less money has been devoted to figuring out ways to prevent people from committing crimes in the first place, to providing mental health, drug and other treatment for offenders who need it and to keep criminals from returning to prison once they're set free.
We have high hopes for a new crime commission whose mission will be to conduct an in-depth review of the state's criminal justice system and to find ways to make it better and more cost-effective without building more prisons. The commission, created by the state legislature earlier this year, will hold its first meeting in late August or early September.
One of its top priorities should be to find a way to slow the growth of the Department of Corrections, which grew by 9 percent this fiscal year from last.
"That means other important projects are being shortchanged for DOC construction," said Peter Weir, executive director of the Department of Public Safety. The commission's work is not meant to sacrifice public safety or victims rights but to find ways to be smarter with the state's overall criminal justice resources, Weir said.
It sounds like a worthy goal.
Included in the commission's work will be a comprehensive review of the state's sentencing structures. The last such review was conducted in the 1970s. One of the things we have learned in recent years is that the state's high recidivism rate is due in part to parolees committing technical offenses, such as failing to report to their parole officer on time. That should not be a reason to clog a prison cell with an inmate who costs taxpayers nearly $28,000 a year.
The population of mentally ill inmates also has grown immensely while community-based programs for the mentally ill have lost funding. The commission needs to figure out a way to increase treatment programs for mentally ill offenders in prison while expanding community-based programs that could very well serve a crime-prevention role.
And to prevent ex-convicts from ending up back behind bars, the state should embrace education and other programs that help prisoners re-enter society, train for jobs and continue treatment.
The commission's recommendations will be debated by the legislature. Then lawmakers will have to figure out a way to pay for the programs.
Slowing the growth of the prison population and making offenders productive members of society when they get out will cost far less than building more prisons. But there needs to be some political leadership to make it happen.
The Denver Post
Michael Moore Subpoened By The Bush Administration
United Press International
Thursday 26 July 2007
Burbank, California - Michael Moore said Thursday that the Bush administration has served him with a subpoena regarding his trip to Cuba during the making of his new film, "Sicko."
The Oscar-winning filmmaker, who appeared Thursday on NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," said he was notified about the subpoena at the network's studios in Burbank, Calif.
"I haven't even told my own family yet," Moore said. "I was just informed when I was back there with Jay that the Bush administration has now issued a subpoena for me."
Moore filmed the trip as part of his film comparing the U.S. healthcare system with government healthcare systems in other countries.
He took three Sept. 11, 2001, emergency rescue workers to Guantanamo Bay "because I heard the al-Qaida terrorists we have in the camps there, detained, are receiving free dental, medical, eye care, the whole deal, and our own (Sept. 11) rescue workers can't get that in New York City."
Moore said the film's distributor, the Weinstein Co., will donate 11 percent of "Sicko's" box-office receipts Aug. 11 to "help these workers and the other workers who need help."
Thursday, July 26, 2007
We Don't Need a New Maximum Security Prison
July 26, 2007
Colorado's first new maximum security prison in 14 years will be built this year following years of legal wrangling.But even before ground is broken on the 948-bed prison near Cañon City, a public policy debate is raging on the wisdom of spending $102.8 million more to lock up the state's worst offenders in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement.
Colorado State Penitentiary II will be built across the street from the original Colorado State Penitentiary, which was the last maximum security prison built by Colorado when it opened its doors in August 1993.
Corrections officials have argued that building the facility is a matter of public safety because it will house the most dangerous prisoners. There is a waiting list for inmates who are now housed in less secure facilities, DOC spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said.
But prison reform advocates such as Christine Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, contend that Colorado - which confines about 6 percent of its male prisoners in "administrative segregation" - is housing nearly twice as many inmates in that category as the national average. Plus, the state's inmate population has soared 400 percent between 1985 and 2005, taxing the DOC's budget of $534 million in 2005-06.
"It isn't that we have so many bad prisoners," Donner said. "It's that the people who are sent to administrative segregation never leave."
(the average is nearly three years to keep people locked up for behavior problems while they are in prison. 23 hours a day, 7 days a week. They will be released, but they will far more traumatized then when they went it. How does that possible serve public safety? And we know that may are released homeless from CSP)
Dubbed CSP 2, the new prison was approved by state lawmakers in February 2003. However, construction was stalled by litigation over the way the project was to be financed.
The prison is to be built through certificates of participation, a lease-purchase agreement.
That means the cost of the new construction will be paid by investors through a type of bonding arrangement. The state will enter into a lease, and at the end of the lease, it will own the structure.
The coalition filed a lawsuit in 2003 challenging the constitutionality of the financing. The group lost at the district level and before the Colorado Court of Appeals.
Snapshot of system
Colorado's male inmate population
19,559
Security classification
• Administrative segregation 1,152, or 5.9 percent*
• Close security 3,099, or 15.8 percent
• Medium security 4,795, or 24.5 percent
• Minimum-restricted 4,962, or 25.4 percent
• Minimum security 5,394, or 27.6 percent
• Unclassified 157, or 0.8 percent
Rocky Mountain News
Smart On Crime
Panel to take closer look
The Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice plans to examine sentencing, recidivism and other factors.
Similar commissions in other states have made recommendations to adopt sentencing guidelines, modify parole policies and impose punishment, other than prison, for some drug crimes.
In 1980, 300 people were incarcerated in Colorado on drug offenses. Now 3,000 are serving time for drug offenses, Scarboro said.
Denver, in early 2007, reinstated its drug court in hopes of getting addicts the help they need to kick their habits, change their criminal ways and stay out of the state's prison system.
"It's one effort to keep drug abusers in treatment rather than prison," said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney's Office.
The 26 members of the commission should be selected by the end of the month, said Peter Weir, executive director of the Department of Public Safety and a commission member.
"Instead of simply building prison cells, we will try to divert those dollars to fund other programs," Weir said.
But the commission is unlikely to abandon Colorado's track record completely.
"Incarceration works," Weir said. "There is a correlation between incarceration and crime rates."
Weir, a former prosecutor and judge, said it doesn't have to be an either-or scenario.
"We will do nothing to jeopardize public safety. We can be tough on crime, and we also can be smart on crime."
Key findings of 2006 Division of Criminal Justice report
400 percent increase in the state's prison population was seen - from 4,000 in 1985 to 20,000 in 2005.
$702 million is the current state Department of Corrections budget. It climbed from $57 million in 1985 to $533.1 million in 2005.
• If the state stays on its current course, the prison population will increase by nearly 25 percent between now and 2013.
• The number of men in prison is expected to increase to 23,892 from 20,178.
• The number of female inmates will soar to 4,072 from 2,341.
• Colorado's inmate population grew by 6.8 percent between 1995 and 2005. The national increase was 2.6 percent during the same period.Sources: Division Of Criminal Justice And Colorado Lawyers Committee Task Force On Sentencing
Rocky Mountain News
Call for Change In Evidence Handling
The Denver Post
Colorado lawmakers and criminal-justice advocates called Wednesday for law enforcement officials statewide to halt destruction of biological evidence in major felony cases while legislative leaders pursue new laws to protect crime-scene specimens.
"We've got to make sure we've got the right people in prison and that victims can get justice," said state Rep. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, who is crafting a bill to preserve DNA and other forensic samples in murders and rapes for decades and provide penalties for trashing it.
Added state Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver: "We just can't tolerate negligence in this area." Meanwhile, support for change is building in criminal- justice advocacy circles, including with medical providers who often assist in prosecutions. They favor strong protections for evidence, such as rape kits, that drifts into hospitals' hands.
"I think it's wise to develop a mechanism for saving it," said Valerie Sievers, the state's coordinator for training nurses in rape exams. "It's just another way to create a better opportunity for victims" to prosecute.
Said Christie Donner, head of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition: "It's shocking that something as vital to the administration of justice as evidence can be treated with such frivolity in some evidence rooms. It's not like it's an option not to preserve - like the decision to put cheese on a burger."
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Ground Breaking On CSP II
We could reduce recidivism and reduce reliance on control unit prisons to manage the population growth.
Colorado corrections officials today said construction will begin on a 948-bed maximum-security prison in Cañon City this fall.The prison, called Colorado State Penitentiary II, will be built adjacent to the Centennial correctional facility and across the road from the existing Colorado State Penitentiary, state Department of Corrections officials said this morning.
Construction had been delayed after funding for the prison, originally approved in 2003, was questioned by a citizens group. A recent court ruling, however, said the funding method — certificates of participation — was legal, ending a two-year legal battle.
A formal groundbreaking will occur soon, said a release from corrections executive director Ari Zavaras.
The DOC will manage the project, assisted by a program management firm, Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. The original penitentiary was built under a similar management structure in an effort to save taxpayer money, Zavaras said.
The project is expected to be completed in early 2010 after construction begins this November.
Contractors are urged to contact the DOC if they're interested in participating in any portion of the project.
"The approach will open the project to any and all contractors who would like to participate," Zavaras said. "One of the most appealing outcomes of this construction approach is local Colorado contractors can participate right along with larger, national contractors."
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Broomfield Cop Tasers Girl
A 16-year veteran of the Broomfield Police Department was arrested over the weekend on charges of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury.
William A. "Skip" Van Arsdale, 42, of Broomfield was booked and released Sunday on charges related to a Nov. 20 incident in which a girl in his home was injured with a Taser.
The case stems from a claim that while Van Arsdale was demonstrating the weapon it “struck the girl at or near her right eye and caused her serious injury,” said Assistant 17th Judicial District Attorney Michael Goodbee. “Based on that, he’s been charged with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury through criminal negligence.”
Tasers deliver a low-amperage jolt of about 50,000 volts of electricity, according to the Taser International Web site.
If found guilty of the Class 4 felony, Van Arsdale could face two to eight years in prison and a fine of $2,000 to $500,000.
Broomfield Police Chief Tom Deland said Van Arsdale will be put on modified duty until the outcome of the court proceedings, which are scheduled to start Feb. 20.
“He’ll be in some type of administrative capacity and will not be authorized to carry a firearm or Taser,” Deland said.
Van Arsdale, a motorcycle officer assigned to the traffic unit, is better known in Broomfield for the role he plays in organizing the Broomfield Santa Cops program, which collects and distributes holiday gifts to area children in need.
Prosecutors filed the charges in district court Friday after weighing a number of circumstances, Goodbee said, but emphasized that the justice process is still in its early stages.
“The fact that he’s been charged with a crime is merely an accusation,” he's innocent till proven guilty
The Daily Camera
Reform Tables Should Include Those Who've Been There
Elizabeth Gaynes has worked with people involved in the criminal justice system for more than 30 years: as a young law student in the early 1970s, she was galvanized by the uprising at Attica, and helped to defend some of the incarcerated people who were involved. Later, she took the reins as executive director of the nonprofit Osborne Association, which provides services to incarcerated people and their communities.But until her daughter turned 16 and started speaking up about prison issues, Gaynes kept a rather relevant piece of personal information close to her chest: her kids' own father was incarcerated, and had been for a decade. "We really didn't volunteer that information very much in the world," she says. "Even people like me who worked in this business felt pretty restrained."
All of that's changed now. Part of it, Gaynes says, was her daughter's outspokenness. Part of it, however, was a larger cultural shift that is now reaching a tipping point. People affected by incarceration are raising their voices and telling their stories in ever-larger numbers. And, for the first time, politicians, policymakers, correctional officials, and foundations are listening.
"There are more formerly incarcerated people speaking up, organizing to fight for civil and human rights," says Dorsey Nunn of the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization Legal Services for Prisoners With Children.
There is now more funding than ever before available for organizations doing work around issues of incarceration -- some $40 million in federal and foundation dollars, up from almost nothing in 1999. More organizations working in the field are employing people affected by incarceration, and graduating those employees to leadership positions. And politicians and correctional officials are recognizing that, in conversations about correctional policy, they must reserve a seat at the table for those who have lived it.
Read the Article Here
Trashing the Truth - Part 4
The Denver Post
Pot Initiative Would Cause Problems For Police
Thousands of people in Denver sent a literal message to the city this week, saying they want a vote on whether cops and prosecutors should ignore some of the state's marijuana laws.
On Tuesday, police and city officials were left asking: Is ignoring a law even possible?
"This is an entirely new beast, and I don't know what it means," said assistant city attorney David Broadwell.
Almost 13,000 people recently signed a petition for a law to make marijuana Denver's "lowest law-enforcement priority."
On Monday, city election officials determined about 6,000 of those were valid - enough to bring the issue closer to the November ballot.
"There's not a single law on the books like this" in Colorado, Broadwell said.
Among the problems he and others raised is the fact that Denver police officers swear an oath to uphold state laws, some of which say marijuana possession is illegal.
"We as police officers, sworn police officers, are obligated to enforce the law," said police spokesman Detective John White.
That same theory came into play after Denver voters decided to make possessing small amounts of marijuana legal.
Yet police in the city continue to arrest offenders for breaking state drug laws.
But Mason Tvert, the leader of the group who organized the petition drive, said police and prosecutors decide every day to ignore certain minor offenses.
One example he gave: Drivers who are caught speeding sometimes get off with a warning.
"We're not here to tell police exactly how to do their job on the streets," said Tvert, executive director of Citizens for a Safer Denver. "We are here to tell them what the priorities of the people of Denver are."
Tvert pointed to a similar law passed several years ago in Seattle, which he called a success.
There, marijuana cases taken on by prosecutors dropped by almost half within two years after voters passed the law, according to a 2005 news report.
Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr, who originally opposed the measure, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "It hasn't been a problem. You can tell by the numbers."
In Denver, though, the same law may not be applied the same way because each state is different, Broadwell said. "It's hard to say what it means."
The Denver Post
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Denver Pot Initiative Okayed
Denver voters could see another marijuana initiative when they head to the polls this November.
Citizens for a Safer Denver, a campaign spin-off of the marijuana advocacy group Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), announced today that Denver election officials approved their petition to place an issue on the ballot.
SAFER is the group that pushed a successful campaign in Denver to make it legal for adults over 21 to possess less than an ounce of marijuana. The group pushed a similar initiative state-wide last year that was soundly defeated.
The group's latest initiative seeks to make marijuana Denver's "lowest law enforcement priority."
Denver police officials have repeatedly said they will enforce state law forbidding possession of marijuana.
With the petition approved, the initiative will now go to City Council.
Denver PostBroomfield Cop Guilty of Tasering Girl
Broomfield police officer pleaded guilty last week to child abuse and prohibited use of a weapon for shooting a girl in the face with a Taser while off duty.
William Van Arsdale, a 16-year veteran, was arrested in January and placed on "modified duty" by the department. He continued to work but was not allowed to carry a weapon or wear a uniform.
Van Arsdale could not be reached for comment Monday evening. A department spokesperson did not return a call.
Van Arsdale will be sentenced Sept. 28 and faces up to three years in jail and $6,000 in fines for the two misdemeanors, said Adams County chief deputy district attorney Tom Quammen.
Prosecutors also dismissed a felony child abuse charge against him, Quammen said.
Van Arsdale was a motorcycle officer and also ran the department's Santa Cops program giving holiday gifts to the needy.
The Denver Post
OHIO- Treatment Instead of Incarceration
A bill crafted by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction appears headed for passage this fall. It has bipartisan support from top legislative leaders as well as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Among its many provisions, the bill would give judges far more latitude in sentencing nonviolent offenders to drug and alcohol treatment or to community programs instead of prison.
For example, current law prevents offenders who are drug-dependent or "in danger of becoming drug-dependent" from qualifying for pre-trial diversion to treatment. The proposal would remove that exclusion.
Prisons chief Terry Collins hopes that section and other parts of the bill will relieve growing pressure on a system 32 percent over capacity.
"In this department, I don't get to put up a 'No vacancy' sign," Collins said.
"We can handle 50,000 or 51,000, but it's what you do with the bodies after you receive them that matters."
In 2002, Ohioans voted by a 2-1 ratio against State Issue 1, which would have substituted drug treatment for incarceration. The issue was supported by a trio of billionaires, including George Soros, but was vigorously opposed by former Gov. Bob Taft and all other senior statewide officials.
The week starting June 4 shows the urgency of the population problem. During that week, a record 308 inmates were added to the prison system.
Last week, there were 49,513 inmates in state institutions, slightly less than the all-time record set last month but 12.3 percent higher than just two years ago. The system is built to accommodate about 37,000.
Collins has opened unused wings and buildings in existing institutions, but short of reopening closed prisons -- which he does not intend to do -- he has few options, other than diverting new prisoners from coming in or sending more home.
The crime rate is somewhat higher, Collins said, and more prisoners are coming in on drug charges. The percentage increase for women is twice that of men.
On the other end of the prison process, the bill would make it easier for the state to request and for judges to grant early "judicial release" for prisoners for medical and other reasons.
The legislation also attempts to keep ex-offenders from returning to prison by removing obstacles to obtaining professional and vocational licenses and certificates.
State Rep. Sandra Williams, D-Cleveland, sponsored similar legislation that would prevent state boards and commissions from rejecting licenses for ex-offenders unless the crime is "substantially" related to the occupation.
Betsy Houchen, executive director of the Ohio Board of Nursing, said her agency "wants to maintain authority to review cases based on criminal history and the facts of the case."
"That's how we protect the public," she said.
Article Here
Trashing the Truth - Part 3
Socorro, N.M. - Bruised and shaking, Joanna watched the doctor prepare the instruments that could cull traces of a gang rape from her body.
At a party the night before, three fellow New Mexico Tech students had drugged her, overpowered her and raped her, she told the hospital staff.
Now, she was lying unclothed on a cold table splashed with bright light, allowing another set of prying hands - a female physician's - to probe her body.
"Just please get it over with," the 19-year- old recalls saying to herself last November....
Read Part Three at The Denver PostNY Times Review of PBS "Prison Town"
NY TIMES: The “before” debates tend to get plenty of news coverage: some town in New England or the Midwest or wherever is torn apart over whether to allow a dump or power plant or mega-whatever to come in. Rarely, though, does the “after” get much attention. Once the project in question went forward, did the promised economic benefits accrue? Was the social fabric shredded?
“Prison Town, USA,” a smartly constructed documentary tonight on the PBS series “P.O.V.,” explores the “after” in Susanville, a small city in Northern California that a decade ago underwent a substantial makeover with the construction of three huge prisons. The hopes were that the complex would take the place of lumber and other major businesses that were fading. The fears were — well, myriad.
The film, made by Katie Galloway and Po Kutchins over two years, looks at the big-picture issues Susanville now confronts through a collage of small stories. There are no documentary-style talking heads or charts here, just some very ordinary-looking people trying to find their places in a changed community.
A man who has lost a good lumber job tries to make it through correctional-officer training. A recently discharged prisoner struggles to find work and support his wife and children. The owner of a local dairy tries to fight a state decision to cancel his prison contract, which he contends would violate a pledge that the prisons would buy locally whenever possible.
The film is light on specifics, beyond the intriguing factoids interspersed in stark white-on-black lettering between scenes. (“Nearly half the adults in Susanville, California, work at one of the area’s three prisons.”) But the impact of the prisons is more subtle than numbers can capture. It’s in how neighborhood dynamics change when the population includes many women and children who have moved to Susanville while Dad does time. (Can the children of prison guards play with the children of inmates?) It’s in how domestic life is affected by the militarylike training a corrections officer goes throughNY TIMES
Running Out of Prison Space
The silence that greeted the Idaho Department of Correction's recent call for 1,100 private prison beds was further proof of what its director already knew."It's a seller's market. There just aren't any beds across the nation," said Brent Reinke, whose request netted one offer of 240 beds at a lockup near Dallas. He accepted.
Private facilities, either owned by for-profit companies or governments that contract out their management, for years have become an increasingly important relief valve for public systems at or near capacity.
Now the private system itself is bulging at the bars, creating a market in which beggars can't be choosers and governments in some cases are sending inmates to facilities with shaky reputations.
"There are maybe a handful of (U.S. private) facilities currently going unused right now, and they're marketing those to federal agencies and other states," said Kevin Campbell, a prison industry analyst for Avondale Partners. "There's just a lot of demand for only a few beds left."
Campbell said companies are more apt to seek big fish, such as the U.S. government or large states like California — which is 70,000 inmates over capacity — than those like Idaho or Harris County seeking far fewer beds.
With nationwide inmate populations expected to grow by 40,000 a year in the near-term, Campbell said there's no sign the system won't continue to be strained.
"Essentially, the supply side is not keeping up with demand," he said.
The reasons are many, from more stringent immigration enforcement nationally to Texas laws forcing county lockups to house state jail felons and parolees who commit technical violations of their release terms.
Girl Gives Birth In Cell - PA
Through a prison phone from the other side of impenetrable glass, Ms. Staten met with The Times-Tribune on Saturday, recounting — in graphic detail — her version of the events which culminated in her giving birth July 10 in her jail cell.
The story told by Ms. Staten, 22, differs significantly from what county and prison officials have said in recent days.
Other than to say Ms. Staten was checked frequently, county officials won’t discuss her care during the four hours she was in the hospital’s medical unit and the camera cell, citing a federal medical privacy law.
“I was in excruciating pain,” Ms. Staten said during an interview at the prison. “It was terrible. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, what I went through.
“I thought I was going to die.”
As the mother of a 2-year-old boy, she knew what contractions were; she knew she was in labor. She knew it at midnight when she first told a guard to take her to the medical unit, she said.
She did not want her little girl born in prison.
Ms. Staten said she begged time after time to go to the hospital.
Dressed only in a T-shirt, flip-flops and prison-issued pants, she pounded on the door, she screamed for help, she pleaded for guards to take her to the hospital.
No one was with her when the baby was born, she said emphatically. No one.
“I can’t believe this happened to me,” she said.
Read the article here
Monday, July 23, 2007
USA Today - Release Doesn't Mean the Sentence Ends
Ex-cons' sentences don't always end with release
As record numbers of people leave prison, thousands of ex-criminals are pouring into communities. They've served their time, but their conviction bars them from many jobs, state and federal aid and some types of housing.
Policymakers are beginning to consider whether the hodgepodge of state laws and regulations are protecting the public or creating an underclass of ex-cons who, after serving their sentence, cannot return to society. Congress will consider the issue later this year. And a nationwide legal conference will vote on a model state law this month.
"What we're seeing around the country is prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges all coming to an understanding that just because someone has committed a crime and had to pay a price for it, doesn't mean they should be relegated forever to second-class citizenship," says Stephen Saltzburg, a law professor at George Washington University and chairman-elect of the American Bar Association's criminal justice section.
The number of people released from prisons and jails has increased 16% since 2000, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in June.
"We've created a class of people who essentially don't fit in," says Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice think tank in Washington.
'Trying to do the right thing'
Stosh Klos, 23, admits he ran with the wrong crowd in his teens and in college. He's been arrested once for marijuana possession, another time for sharing his pain pills with friends after he got his wisdom teeth pulled. When he was 19, he was convicted of driving while intoxicated.
"I wasn't going after my goals or caring about how it would hurt me going down the road," Klos says. "I had no idea of the severity of it."
Klos graduated from the University of South Florida last year with a degree in business and marketing, but he's had a tough time finding a job in his field and obtaining the professional licenses he would need to be a stockbroker, financial manager or real estate agent. Now, he's working two construction jobs and refurbishing a house as an investment property.
Trail of Two Test Tubes
Prison Town, USA
Prison Town USA
What happens when a struggling rural community tries to revive its economy by inviting prisons in? The story of four families living in a modern-day prison town, as told in "Prison Town, USA," is a riveting look at one of the most striking phenomena of our times: a prison-building and incarceration boom unprecedented in American history.
The Tyler family was just passing through Susanville, California, when father Lonnie was arrested for shoplifting $40 worth of groceries and diapers. Lonnie got a 16-month sentence, leaving his wife Jen and their kids stranded in "prison town." Dawayne Brasher worked in Susanville's lumber mills for nearly 20 years until the last one closed in 2004. His only choices were to leave his hometown or seek work at the huge prison complexes that have sprung up in the area. Gabe Jones liked his job at Mike O'Kelly's Morning Glory Dairy, but the prospect of earning much more money as a prison guard finally proved irresistible — sending him off to guard academy. O'Kelly, a third-generation dairyman, finds his business endangered when the prisons threaten to abrogate their "good neighbor" buy-local policy.
Stories like these are increasingly common in rural America where, during the 1990s, a prison opened every 15 days. The United States now has the dubious distinction of incarcerating more people per capita than any other country in the world. Yet this astonishing jailing of America has been little noted because many of the prisons have opened in remote areas like Susanville. "Prison Town, USA" examines one of the country's biggest prison towns, a place where a new correctional economy encompasses not only prisoners, guards and their families, but the whole community.
States Seek Alternatives to More Prisons
| | |
| Though the construction of prisons continues as states struggle to provide enough beds for those behind bars, legislators increasingly are looking at other ways to free up space and save money, including expanded programs to help prevent offenders from being incarcerated again, earlier release dates for low-risk inmates and sentencing revisions. State spending on prisons surged 10 percent nationally last fiscal year (see graphic) and growing inmate populations played a lead role in those costs, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Corrections trails only education and health care in swallowing state dollars, and experts say lawmakers are responding to the budgetary pressures by trying more cost-effective approaches. “We’re seeing more and more states in different regions and with different political leadership tackling this issue and recognizing that the more they spend on prisons, the less they have to spend on health, education and other priorities,” said Adam Gelb, project director of the Public Safety Performance Project. The project – which, like Stateline.org, is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts – in February forecast steep increases in incarceration rates and state spending in the next five years unless legislatures enact policy changes. | |
Interview With Buffie McFadyen
Watch the Video Here
Sex Offender Residency Problems
are thoughtful about the rules that we make...
DENVER -It all began in 1999 when five men dutifully went to the Lakewood Police Department to register as sex offenders.sEach gave the same address, which grabbed the attention of city officials, who quickly took action to close the house. Soon the City Council passed an ordinance permitting only one sex offender to live in a house in a residential area.
Lakewood's approach spread like wildfire, with 16 other metro- area cities promptly passing similar regulations.
But governments that passed laws over the past few years to keep sex offenders from living in group homes in their jurisdictions may have done so at the cost of public safety.
A number of studies, including one released last month by the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, conclude that restricting where offenders may live does not prevent repeat sex crimes.
Instead, the restrictions encourage sex offenders to "disappear," blending into communities where they live in the privacy essential to committing new sex crimes, the studies say.
"Frankly, sex offenders like being told they can't be around other sex offenders," said Greig Veeder, executive director of Teaching Humane Existence, a sex offender treatment program. "It ruins their privacy. They can't commit their crimes unless they have privacy."
Colorado has more than 10,500 registered sex offenders. More than 3,000 live in the metro area. As of last week, Denver had 1,337 registered sex offenders.
Sex offenders generally have a high rate of recidivism - 18.9 percent for rapists and 12.7 percent for child molesters over a period of five years, the Colorado study reported.
"But recidivism only reflects crimes that are reported," said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, an arm of the state Department of Public Safety.
"We know that most victims of sex crimes never report the crime," English said. "What we do know is that known sex offenders are more likely than other criminals to commit another sex crime."
'Snakes in a basket'
What keeps that from happening is having sex offenders living in a structured environment with close supervision by professionals and observation by their peers, English said.
"Residency restrictions prevent us from having sex offenders living together," Veeder said, "but 25 years of my experience and significant research all support that the more you can make them live together, the easier it is to control them.
The Colorado research, based on a 2004 survey of sex offenders, found that high-risk sex offenders living in shared living arrangements had significantly fewer probation and criminal violations than those living in other living arrangements.
Violations also were more quickly reported because of the heightened peer and professional oversight. Quick reporting is essential for speedy action to protect potential victims, the study noted.
"Offenders hold each other accountable for their actions and responsibilities and notify the appropriate authorities when a roommate commits certain behavior, such as returning home late or having contact with children," the 2004 Colorado report said.
The study found that sex offenders living with their families re-offend or violate probation at twice the rate of high-risk sex offenders living with other offenders.
Residency restrictions often force sex offenders to "go underground," registering their residence at a shelter or motel where they stay only temporarily.
Rocky Mountain New
Trashing the Truth -- Part 2
Authorities across the country have lost, mishandled or destroyed tens of thousands of DNA samples since genetic fingerprinting revolutionized crime solving 20 years ago.
Evidence from cold cases goes misplaced across Colorado.
Delicate traces of human biology sit stuffed into pizza and fried-chicken boxes in rat-infested New Orleans evidence vaults.
And specimens are dumped by the truckload in Los Angeles, Houston and New York - sometimes soon after high-profile exonerations.
In a country whose prime-time TV lineup glorifies DNA forensics, many real-life evidence vaults are underfunded and mismanaged, struggling to keep up with technological advances and lagging behind most corner groceries
in the way they track valuable crime-scene items.Trashing the Truth
LISTEN AND VIEW video as the "Trashing the Truth" project unfolds.
Facing real-world training and space challenges, even the best-intentioned clerks commonly toss DNA samples, especially from old cases, in what one expert calls the "sledge-o-matic approach to clearing out evidence rooms."
"You can't keep everything," said Arthur Morrell, Orleans Parish clerk of Criminal Court.
The Denver Post examined purges in 10 states and found that authorities destroyed biological evidence in nearly 6,000 rape and murder cases during the past decade, rendering them virtually unsolvable. Over the past three decades, the loss or destruction of DNA evidence in 28 states has undermined efforts by at least 141 prisoners to prove their innocence, The Post has found.
Given that federal and state governments don't track evidence destruction and law enforcers often cloak purges in secrecy, the toll certainly is much higher.
The truth is being trashed.
"It's like that, I guess. One man's garbage could be another man's salvation," said Shirley Clemons, whose fiancé, Willie Grimes, is unable to appeal his North Carolina rape conviction because a court clerk tossed his evidence.
The Denver Post
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Emily Rice Relatives March In Protest
By Nick Martin Denver Post Staff Writer
Relatives of Emily Rae Rice, who died last year in Denver's jail, had a message for city officials today: "We're not going away."
The woman's parents and siblings were attending an evening protest led by Denver CopWatch in front of the jail and Denver Health Medical Center.
"They just can't stall and wait for us to leave," said her sister, Ginny Rice.
About 15 protestors, including the family, called for the firing of a nurse at Denver Health, where the 24-year-old woman was taken following a car crash.
She was later sent to the jail on suspicion of drunken driving, where she bled to death from internal injuries in February 2006.
Denver CopWatch and members of Emily Rae Rice's family marched from Denver Health Medical Center to the Denver city jail Sunday to protest the handling of the investigation into Rice's death and call for changes including:
• The immediate firing of the nurse on duty when Rice died.
• Regular, unannounced inspections, by an outside party, of all police holding facilities.
• An independent review of all policies and procedures by the Denver Sheriff's Department and treatment of prisoners by Denver Health Medical Center.
Protestors also called for an independent audit of the jail, which they likened to Iraq's infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Rice's relatives have filed a lawsuit against the city and hospital, seeking damages.
In the past, city and hospital officials have declined to comment, citing the lawsuit.
The Denver PostCrazy In America: The Criminalized Mentally Ill
The stories are moving and tragic as Ms. Pfeiffer puts a face to the horrific problem that we are facing.
- The psychiatric odyssey of a 39-year-old Iowa woman with a history of 25 hospitalizations who blinded herself while locked in solitary confinement.
-- The suicides of an 18-year-old youth who was abandoned for eight weeks in a tiny cell in a California juvenile prison and a 21-year-old New York woman who had been repeatedly punished with confinement to the prison "box".
-- The deaths of two Florida men at the hands of untrained police who panicked in the face of psychosis.
-- The path that led to a jail cell and breakdown for a 24-year-old Texan whose only crimes were to be mentally ill and drug-addicted.
Pfeiffer's book is an indictment of a society that fails to provide decent mental health care to its most vulnerable citizens and then incarcerates them for often petty crimes, leaving them sicker and more damaged by the experience.
Crazy In America WebsiteJena 6: Take Action
Perhaps you heard the mothers, fathers and others talking about the Jena 6 on democracy now!. Here is another outrageous but true example of segregation-era oppression happening today in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaign for justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same.
Color of Change
Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students sat beneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from the tree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," more Black students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demanded that the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your best friend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a stroke of my pen."
A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DA did nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyard fight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges, lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in "their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press. Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governor of Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It starts now. Please join me:
http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2131-200043
Real Cost of Prisons
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Trashing the Truth
The proof of Clarence Moses-EL's guilt or innocence may well have been written in DNA code on two bedsheets, a sexual-assault kit and a pink and black outfit worn by a Denver rape victim.
From prison, he won a judge's permission to test the evidence and persuaded fellow inmates to pitch in $1,000 for the lab work.
Denver police packaged the items and labeled the box "DO NOT DESTROY."
Then, they threw it in a dumpster.
The move violated a court order and the Denver Police Department's own evidence policies.
More than 19 years after his conviction, Moses-EL remains behind bars, with no way to free himself from a 48-year sentence for a rape he says he didn't commit.
He
is one of 141 prisoners The Denver Post has found whose bids for freedom have stalled because officials lost or destroyed DNA. Whether guilty or innocent, they are victims of a U.S. Supreme Court decision justifying negligence in evidence handling. The ruling allows destruction unless inmates can meet the nearly impossible task of proving authorities acted out of malice, or "bad faith."Trashing the Truth
LISTEN AND VIEW video as the "Trashing the Truth" project unfolds.
Nearly two decades after the 1988 decision, DNA analysis has evolved into criminal justice's most reliable tool for uncovering the truth. Yet the system continues trashing samples like the ones that so far have exposed more than 200 wrongful convictions.
"They broke their own rules and threw out the only key to my freedom," Moses-EL said from Kit Carson Correctional Facility in Burlington. "If that ain't bad faith, man, I don't know what is."
Nationwide, the specter of bad faith looms over scores of criminal cases, from unsolved murders to innocence bids such as that of Tim Masters, another Colorado inmate featured last week in The Denver Post.
For four days, the paper will detail how the system routinely mishandles biological evidence, undermining justice for victims and prisoners and allowing criminals
The law on whether authorities have a constitutional duty to preserve evidence predates the 1990s, when use of DNA became widespread in criminal justice.
Critics liken the 1988 Arizona vs. Youngblood ruling to one of the U.S. Supreme Court's most notorious.
"It's the Dred Scott decision of modern times," said forensic scientist Ed Blake, referring to the 1857 opinion holding that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery.The Denver Post
NY TIMES - Case For the Juvenile Sex Offender
In the early 1980s, a therapist named Robert Longo was treating adolescent boys who had committed sex offenses. Their offenses ranged from fondling girls a few years younger than they were to outright rape of young children. As part of their treatment, the boys had to keep journals — which Longo read — in which they detailed their sexual fantasies and logged how frequently they masturbated to those fantasies. They created “relapse-prevention plans,” based on the idea that sex-offending is like an addiction and that teenagers need to be watchful of any “triggers” (pornography, anger) that might initiate their “cycle” of reoffending. And at the beginning of each group session, the boys introduced themselves much as an alcoholic begins an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: “I’m Brian, and I’m a sex offender. I sexually offended against a 10-year-old boy; I made him lick my penis three times.”
Sex-offender therapy for juveniles was a new field in the 1980s, and Longo, like other therapists, was basing his practices on what he knew: the adult sex-offender-treatment models. “It’s where the literature was,” Longo, a founder of the international Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, told me not long ago. “It’s what we’d been doing.”
As it turns out, he went on to say, “much of it was wrong.” There is no proof that what Longo calls the “trickle-down phenomenon” of using adult sex-offender treatments on juveniles is effective. Adult models, he notes, don’t account for adolescent development and how family and environment affect children’s behavior. Also, research over the past decade has shown that juveniles who commit sex offenses are in several ways very different from adult sex offenders. As one expert put it, “Kids are not short adults.”
That’s not to say that juvenile sexual offenses aren’t a serious problem. Juveniles account for about one-quarter of the sex offenses in the U.S. Though forcible rapes, the most serious of juvenile sex offenses, have declined since 1997, court cases for other juvenile sex offenses have risen. David Finkelhor, the director of Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, and others argue, however, that those statistics largely reflect increased reporting of juvenile sex offenses and adjudications of less serious offenses. “We are paying attention to inappropriate sexual behavior that juveniles have engaged in for generations,” he said.
New York Times Magazine
Ny Bans Solitary For The Seriously Mentally Ill
ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer and lawmakers announced yesterday that they have agreed on a compromise bill to ban solitary confinement for seriously mentally ill prison inmates because legislation passed this session faced a certain veto by the executive.
The Senate passed the bill unanimously during a special session yesterday, and the Assembly is scheduled to vote on the measure when it returns to Albany later this year.
About 12 percent of the prison population in New York, or some 8,000
inmates, has serious psychiatric disabilities, according to the bill's
sponsors, Nozzolio and Assembly Correction Committee Chairman Jeffrion
Aubry, D-Queens.
The bill would not ban solitary confinement entirely for this population. This is how it would work:
- Inmates with severe mental illness (such as schizophrenia or bipolar
disorder) would be diverted or removed from solitary confinement if the isolation term could potentially be for more than 30 days. They would be assessed by a mental-health clinician within one business day of being placed in the solitary unit.
- Inmates with minor mental disorders, or who required limited intervention, would be assessed by a professional within 14 days. If the prisoner were found to have a serious mental illness, the prison system would have 14 days to decide whether the inmate should be removed from solitary confinement.
- Prison officials could decide not to remove someone from the box if doing so would place in jeopardy the safety and security of the inmate, another person or the facility.
- Prisoners with serious psychiatric disabilities who were not removed from solitary confinement would receive a heightened level of treatment consisting of at least two hours a day, five days a week, of out-of-cell therapeutic care.
Senators gave final passage to the original bill at the end of their regular session last month, but negotiations had not concluded with Spitzer's office about how to hold down costs, provide special services only to the sickest of the sick, and ensure inmates without severe mental illnesses could not take advantage of the system.
Real Cost of Prisons
Friday, July 20, 2007
Mentally Ill Pose Problems For Cops
When a delusional Aaron Snyder continued to advance after revealing the gun beneath his jacket, the State Patrol officer did what he was trained to do.
"You can't think, 'Hey, this guy is mentally ill, so he probably won't shoot.' ... You are looking at the gun, and is the guy going to use the gun?" said Edward Connors, president of the Institute for Law and Justice, a nonprofit organization in Virginia that works with police agencies to improve training.
Gov. Bill Ritter and Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman have praised the actions of Colorado state Trooper Jay Hemphill, who shot and killed Snyder on Monday at the Capitol after Snyder claimed he was "the emperor" and motioned toward his fully loaded .357 revolver. Hemphill twice ordered Snyder to stop advancing.
But the case again raises issues of what happens when law enforcement officers encounter mentally ill people exhibiting violent behavior, as did Snyder, whose mother told people he had been diagnosed as delusional and was under the care of a psychiatrist.
Mentally ill people pose a difficult problem for police, who try to protect themselves and the public without hurting someone who is deranged, said Connors. Since 2002, more than 70 Colorado law enforcement agencies have sent more than 1,800 officers to Crisis Intervention Team training to learn how to defuse potentially violent interactions with disturbed people.
The Denver Post