Amnesty Bring Guantanamo To Denver

DENVER, Aug 24, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Human Rights Organization Will Tour Cell Across the Nation Urging the Bush Administration to Close Detention Facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Today, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) brought its national tour of a life-size Guantanamo prison cell replica to Denver, Colorado. This tour is designed to increase public awareness and mount pressure on the Bush administration and Congress to close down the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

AIUSA members and other activists visited the City of Cuernavaca Park, at the intersection of 20th and Little Raven Streets in downtown Denver, to experience the cell replica and show their support for the immediate closure of this prison facility. Previous tour stops include Miami, Philadelphia, Portland (Maine) and Washington, D.C. After Denver, the cell replica will also visit St. Paul (MN) and Los Angeles.

"In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the detainees' right to challenge their detention in court, and as Congress scrutinizes the authorization of harsh interrogation techniques, activists are joining the mounting chorus to urge the Bush administration to shut down Guantanamo," said Amnesty International USA's executive director Larry Cox. "It is time to counter terror with justice -- on American soil and abroad."

Market Watch

Police and Protestors Prepare For Each Other

Washington Post .....What, exactly, can Denver expect this week? That's difficult to predict, experts said. Conventions have transpired without major unrest since riots broke out at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Four major protest groups -- one called Recreate '68 -- plan to demonstrate in Denver, mostly to demand more rights for immigrants and an end to the Iraq war. Organizers said they expect more than 25,000 protesters to participate, with the stated goal of derailing convention proceedings.

Denver already has experienced a few security scares. Sen. John McCain's area headquarters here received an envelope containing white powder last week, and four employees went to the hospital for examination before officials determined the powder was not lethal. Earlier in the summer, a marijuana advocacy group gathered downtown and started beating people with bats. Police rushed to the scene -- only to realize the protest was staged and the bats were inflatables.

In the local newspapers, Denver officials have outlined several worst-case scenarios: Protesters might chain themselves together with chicken wire, use quick-setting cement to block streets or threaten delegates with violence. One city councilman said anarchists had rented a house in Denver and stocked it with urine, which would be sprayed on crowds as they entered the Pepsi Center.

Protesters denied all of the above.

Washington Post

Homelessness Study Launched In Ft. Collins

Hopefully, they will be mindful of all the people who are leaving jail and prisons homeless. There is a woeful lack of services in Larimer County for this population.

BY KEVIN DUGGAN
KevinDuggan @coloradoan.com

A report on homelessness in Fort Collins issued Thursday could open the door to efforts to end the homelessness problem, officials said.

The study commissioned by the Homeless Initiative Task Force of the UniverCity Connections program details the number of homeless in Fort Collins and the services available to them. It also looks at the gaps in services, such as transitional housing, day-time shelters and a detox center.

The report is expected to serve as a blueprint for the task force in developing a 10-year plan to end homelessness in the city, officials said.

Government and nonprofit agencies that deal with homelessness will work on the plan.

During a morning announcement of the report held in Old Town Square, Sister Mary Alice Murphy, a longtime local advocate for the homeless, said political will and goodwill are needed to solve the homelessness problem.

Any plan that is developed should not "sit on a shelf and gather dust," she said.

"We don't want to see that happen. We want to see that we looked at the objectives and we looked at the recommendations and as a group we do something about this issue," she said.

The report by Jamie Van Leeuwen, director of the Denver's Road Home project, which is aimed at ending homelessness, looks at successes communities around the country have had at addressing homelessness issues.

The report offers recommendations for the task force as it works on the 10-year plan, including identifying the number of housing units that are needed for the homeless and developing a plan for tapping into federal and private funds that could help bridge the gap in services.

The Coloradoan

Police to Be Friendly But Firm With Crowds

As opposed to the standard of "just firm". Just make sure there is plenty of video footage for future court cases. I think if would be important to exactly what is on the list of "paraphernalia for violence" ....

If Denver police see the potential for violence or destruction brewing during the Democratic National Convention, they have been trained and instructed to swarm in and take down troublemakers with immediate and direct force, Mayor John Hickenlooper said.

In an interview with The Denver Post, the mayor was asked how police would respond if "bad actors"try to become a disruption during an event such as an otherwise peaceful parade.

"So if they're actually pulling out — let's call it the paraphernalia of violence — police are going to move right in and take them out of that group," Hickenlooper said.

The mayor also said his office has communicated with protest groups considered peaceful and law-abiding and been told most demonstrators would not prevent police from such action.

"They don't want violence," Hickenlooper said. "The people who are in that protest march . . . would just as soon have them removed."

Not so fast, some war protesters said. "We don't believe in pre-emptive arrests, just like we don't believe in pre-emptive strikes with other nations," CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin said. "What might seem to police as, quote, 'bad actors' might be some young people wearing black that they have been profiling."

The Denver Post

Pot Panel Urges Chill During DNC

A panel convened to implement a voter-approved Denver ordinance making possession of small amounts of marijuana the "lowest law enforcement priority" voted Wednesday to approve a resolution urging police to refrain from making arrests or issuing citations during the Democratic National Convention.

Mason Tvert, leader of the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, said city police and prosecutors are ignoring the will of the voters. He said the city still requires violators to show up in court, which he warned could clog the court system "After the Democratic National Convention ends, there will be hundreds of marijuana cases all showing up at the same time," Tvert said.

He told a community-based panel on marijuana enforcement charged with implementing the new law that preliminary figures show arrests are rising, not declining.

Panel members said that's proof police are ignoring the new law.

"The numbers speak for themselves," public defender Frank Moya told Vince DiCroce, the city attorney's director of enforcement.

Last year, the city prosecuted 1,600 cases. Tvert said based on current numbers, the city is on track to increase that to 1,900 this year, not counting any surge of arrests that might take place during the convention.

Rocky Mountain News

Tent At The County Jail?

Reporting
Rick Sallinger
E-mail DENVER (CBS4) ― Tents are going up across the city in preparation for the Democratic National Convention. That includes one at the Denver County Jail. As part of the preparations the Denver Sheriff's Department is making more room in the jail should there be mass arrests.

An additional 50 inmates can be housed in the tent. It's air conditioned and the one time it was used before, inmates practically begged to be moved there.

"This is nothing more than a contingency plan," Ron Foos with the Denver Sheriff's Department said. "We'll determine whether we house people here depending on the population inside the jail."

The gym was also being prepared. It can house 50 to 75 beds called "boats."

Around 100 inmates are being shipped out to other jail facilities in different counties.

Wednesday, the rest of the media was allowed in to see what CBS4 revealed last week -- a warehouse converted into a processing center for those arrested during the convention.

"If people become aggressive, violent and hostile, these are people we would remove from the cell and move to the city jail," said Bill Lovingier, Undersheriff.

Signs warn that electric stun devices are used in the facility, but the barbed wire at the facility a week ago is now gone. The cage-like cells will have roofs made of chain link wire.

"Actually I think this will much more comfortable than the downtown city jail if anyone has to end up there," community member Joe Mauro said.
CBS 7

CSP II Continues To Grow

By TRACY HARMON
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

August 20, 2008 03:10 am

CANON CITY - Colorado State Penitentiary II will not be the red brick beauty on the outside like its predecessor, but the state's newest prison will have an enviable foundation and some state-of-the-art amenities no other prison has on the inside.

Construction of the $162 million administrative-maximum security prison is well under way at the East Canon Prison Complex with 60 percent of the foundation work already complete. Motorists traveling on U.S. 50 east of Canon City will begin to see quite a bit of activity starting Thursday.

"We will have a 250-ton, 220-foot-tall crane, arrive here Wednesday on eight trucks. Once it's pieced together, it will lift Twin-Ts up to 15 feet wide and add them onto the foundation, then the wall panels will go up," said Mark Crisman of Jacobs, who is working as project manager. "Right now we are putting forms up with some smaller cranes, then we pump cement into them to form the foundation." The foundation will be 22 feet deep and is anchored into bedrock by 480 pillars that are drilled at least 24 feet into the ground, Crisman said.

CSPII will be a plain gray structure and won't have the attractive red brick exterior of its older sister prison, mainly due to fiscal cuts that will keep the prison project on budget, Crisman said.

After the foundation is complete in October, 967 steel cells, all made by inmates working for Colorado Correctional Industries in the nearby Fremont prison metal shop, will start to be placed inside the prison in November.

Each cell is constructed with a box designed to hold a computer screen. Via that state-of-the-art terminal, inmates will get educational programming, possibly be able to order canteen items and the computer terminals could also be used to facilitate visits.

CSPII will be connected by an underground tunnel to its neighboring prison, the high-security Centennial prison, so the two facilities can share laundry and food services.
The Pueblo Chieftain

No Razor Wire For DNC Jail

Work crews are covering the makeshift holding pens that could house protesters who run afoul of the law at next week's Democratic National Convention with chain-link fence today.

City officials had topped the holding areas with razor wire to keep those arrested from climbing out but reconsidered because of community concerns, said Denver County Undersheriff Bill Lovinger.

The temporary arrestee-processing center, which is housed in a low-slung warehouse on Steele Street and East 38th Avenue, will be open for a week starting Sunday.

The building was once used to store the city's voting machines.

Leaders of groups that plan to demonstrate during the convention have decried the use of the building, calling it "Gitmo on the

Sixty people an hour can be processed at the building, where cameras are set up to take mug shots alongside computerized fingerprinting stations.

A table holds six telephones, and two portable air-conditioning units each the size of a small truck pump cool air into the building.

Each cell will contain 20 chairs. A sign posted on a steel column warns: "Electric stun devices used in this facility."

"This is just a processing center; nobody will sleep here," Lovinger said during a media tour of the facility.

Demonstrators won't be the only ones held in the makeshift cells. Anyone arrested during the convention on the east side of the city will be processed there.

Four hundred people can be held at the warehouse. Those who post bail will be taken to the Denver jail and released

The Denver Post

Time For More People to Receive Pardons? VA

Official forgiveness? In many cases it will be the only way that people who make mistakes can get on with their lives. It may be time to start putting pressure on Governors to step up a little more often and help folks out with these types of opportunities.
amara Dietrich

August 20, 2008

When the governor pardoned a British expatriate/Newport News resident last week for an old crime in the commonwealth, he helped her dodge a deportation bullet in the 11th hour.

Not everyone is happy about this — least of all a fellow Newport News woman, American born and bred, with an old rap of her own who's been trying to get the governor's attention for a while.

I wrote about "Mary" back in May. In 1987, she was convicted of two armed bank robberies. She did her time, made her restitution, finished her parole.

Since her release 12 years ago, she's been rebuilding her life and trying in vain to get back some basic civil rights, which in Virginia isn't easy.
National Ledger

Gitmo On The Platte

By Cyndi James Aug 19, 2008

Is it Guantanamo Bay in Denver at the Democratic National Convention? Officials had constructed a secret jail to house those that would misbehave in the Mile High City next week when the Democrats crash the Colorado town for their convention. Is this a smart move by the city and how much trouble can we expect out of the Democrats and the protesters when they all finally show up?

Many are now mocking the democrats as they have led the charge to have Guantanamo Bay closed in Cuba and many in the party have been highly critical of the Bush Administration for not shutting down the high security prison that houses what the Administration believes are enemies of the state.

***

You won't have to do anything to serious to get shoved into "Guantanamo Bay on the Platte" or local Denver media is dubbing "Gitmo on the Platte" as the warehouse that has been made into a jail complete with razor wire and chain link is just feet from the South Platte River. Once the "secret site' was discovered officials made their denials.

According to 9 News in Denver (photos and video here) Undersheriff Bill Lovingier, the city's director of corrections, said the idea it was secret is ridiculous. "This was never a secret site," he said. Few are buying that.
The National Ledger

The Dilution Of A Sex Offender

Making the term apply to non-sex-offenders a scary proposition

By Erika Stutzman
Sunday, August 17, 2008

The term "sex offender" has the tendency to, quite rightfully, strike fear in parents' hearts, cause countless Web sites to track registries (complete with searchable maps), and inspire the citizenry to distribute fliers and call public meetings. And we're not making light of any of it -- the Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute estimates that two of every 10 girls and one of every 10 boys will be abused by the end of their 13th year.

It is terrifying, and often has a lifetime of repercussions for the victims.

That's why diluting the term by adding a whole host of criminals to the database is a scary proposition indeed.

And that includes naked priests.

This week, a court declined to downgrade the conviction of Rev. Robert Whipkey, 53, to a petty offense of public indecency. Whipkey, a Catholic priest who has been on administrative leave from the archdiocese since his arrest, was charged with indecent exposure after being caught running naked around the Frederick High School track last June.

It was 4:30 a.m. The witness was an off-duty police officer, who followed the man home, and confronted him there.

This week, a judge ruled that the conviction was constitutional.

"Given the nature of sex offenders and the risk they pose to the community, the court finds that, for those who knowingly expose themselves to the public, it is reasonable that they are given a higher level of sanctions and registrations," Weld County Judge Timothy Kerns said.

Whipkey will be sentenced in October. He faces possible jail time and registering as a sex offender.

Years ago, he had been investigated by the archdiocese for inappropriate behavior. But not charged. And a woman testified this summer that she saw him naked 20 years ago at a camp site. Again: Not charged.

There are problems with sex offender registries going on in Colorado and nationwide right now.

When our courts add, say, a 18-year-old student who has consensual sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend in Georgia, or a man running naked around a Weld County school track at 4:30 a.m., they risk making the term obsolete, or at least weaker than it should be.

Daily Camera Editorial

Will Obama Embrace Funding?

By Jim ToweyS
The Denver Post

When Barack Obama recently promised that if elected, he would embrace President George W. Bush's faith-based initiative and build upon it. As a Democrat who directed this initiative for over four years in the Bush White House, I applaud his good intentions.

Indeed, the beneficiaries of Bush's policy extend across the country and continents. More than 200,000 addicts have been helped through the innovative "Access to Recovery" treatment program, and ex-prisoners participating in Bush's novel re-entry program return to prison at rates less than half the national average. The widely acclaimed global AIDS relief program has transformed the lives of millions.

Here at home, thousands of religious charities have received grants to help the hurting — from the Empowerment Program in Denver that helps ex-offenders successfully re-enter society to the Community Kitchen in Loveland, which provides free, hot meals each day to individuals in need.

While Obama's faith-based platform promises more federal spending, it bears bad news for groups ranging from the Salvation Army to Orthodox Jewish social service organizations.

This is because Obama wants to abandon President Bush's — and President Clinton's — efforts to protect the right to hire on a religious basis of faith-based charities that provide taxpayer-funded social services.

Obama visited Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California last weekend, a Southern Baptist organization on the front lines of helping individuals in need at home and around the globe. Saddleback would rather disband than submit to governmental approval on hiring.

In Colorado, faith-based organizations like Denver Rescue Mission receive federal funds through city and state grants to help the homeless. Prior to the Faith-Based and Community Initiative, federal regulations barred many of these organizations from receiving government dollars to serve Colorado communities. But my guess is that the proposed Obama policy would be a deal-breaker for them and other religious groups, not to mention many African-American churches. Telling church and synagogue groups that they cannot hire people who share their vision and mission risks sapping their life-saving programs of their effectiveness.

The Denver Post

States Getting Serious About Families On The Edge

Nice report done by the Seattle Times. How do we as a nation crack down on poverty? What is the criminal justice role?

By Neal Peirce

Syndicated Columnist

In a rare burst of positive news for America's hard-put poor families, 15 states have set up bipartisan commissions to see how to narrow the yawning income gaps that leave so many Americans in destitution.

The advent of the commissions and serious studies — ordered up in states from Maine to Washington, Alabama to Colorado — is good news. It's true, legislatures have struggled with welfare and Medicaid issues for years. But not gladly.

In the meantime, the nationwide poverty rate has stalled around 11 percent or 12 percent for years — and that's for a family of four with income under the federally set line, now $21,200 a year. (Try living on that — a reasonable minimum for food, shelter and clothing needs would be closer to $30,000.)

Poverty places a huge drag on the economic output and productivity of states and communities. Poor health, substandard housing, mental stress, employment crises, teenage pregnancy, low literacy and the added likelihood of arrest and imprisonment all appear to be part of a misery package that hits poor populations far more heavily than the rest of us.

The results for children are especially alarming. A recent study shows that those who spend their first five years in poverty will (compared to a middle-class child) face daunting odds — first lagging school performance and then, as adults, less income, poorer health and higher psychological stress. Girls growing up poor are five times more likely to be a teen parent; boys are more than twice as likely, after reaching adulthood, to be arrested.

Small wonder that by some estimates, childhood poverty is draining a massive $500 billion a year out of the U.S. economy. State and local governments can hardly not care: They're then saddled with vastly increased welfare, health, social services, criminal-justice costs — plus incredible amounts of lost income.

So what's to be done? What should the 15 state commissions (and how about the other 35) recommend?

First and most obvious, get more money into the pockets of the poor. Even with full-time, minimum-wage employment, many of our poor subsist "on the edge." Often, rent costs more than half their income. A single illness, an unexpected car repair or rent increase can throw them into full-scale crisis.

Seattle Times

Couple Arrested For Pot ... Again

How much time and money are we going to continue to waste on this type of prosecution..

Couple arrested for pot, again

BY TREVOR HUGHES
TrevorHughes@coloradoan.com

A Larimer County couple already being prosecuted for marijuana cultivation was re-arrested Thursday after investigators in two counties seized 25 pounds of pot and more than 200 live plants.

Christopher and Tiffany Crumbliss were arrested by Larimer County sheriff's deputies after raids at four locations in Larimer County and one in Breckenridge, the Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

The exact locations where the marijuana was seized were not released, and the Sheriff's Office said it would release no further information about the case, pending the court process.

The couple has had multiple run-ins with Colorado law enforcement over their marijuana cultivation.

The two say they grow the pot for their and others' medical use and say they have the paperwork to prove it. They are due to stand trial later this year for a 2007 arrest in which similar amounts of marijuana and plants were seized.

"It's totally ridiculous," said Chris Crumbliss' lawyer, Sean McAllister. "They're caregivers for legitimate patients, and they're being picked on. If they're legal and providing for patients, why are they being arrested?"

McAllister said law enforcement in Larimer County seems uninterested in finding out whether the Crumblisses really are legitimate caregivers.

He said they have dozens of patients who depend on them for medical marijuana, as permitted by Colorado's Amendment 20.

He said the couple's two young children were placed with foster parents following the Thursday arrests.

"I think it's egregious, a total travesty," McAllister said.

A spokeswoman for the Larimer County District Attorney's Office was unavailable at 4 p.m. Friday, and a receptionist said no one else there could answer a reporter's questions.

The Crumblisses face charges of marijuana cultivation and possession with intent to distribute.

Colorado voters in 2000 approved Amendment 20, which permits patients or their approved caregivers to possess no more than 2 ounces of a usable form of marijuana, and no more than six marijuana plants, with three or fewer being mature, flowering plants that are producing a usable form of marijuana.

the Coloradoan

The Case For Juvenile Courts

Thanks to Doc Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy for this...

This country made a terrible mistake when it began routinely trying youthful offenders as adults. This get-tough approach was supposed to deter crime. But a growing number of government-financed studies have shown that minors prosecuted as adults commit more crimes — and are more likely to become career criminals — than ones processed through juvenile courts.

The value of specialized courts for young people is underscored in a new report from the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. After evaluating the available research, it concludes that transferring juveniles for trial and sentencing to an adult criminal court has increased recidivism, especially among violent offenders, and has led many young people to a permanent life of crime.

The juvenile justice system was one of the great reforms of the Progressive Era. The push to go back to trying children as adults began in the mid-1990s, when state lawmakers fixated on a few, high-profile crimes by young people and — convinced there was a youth crime wave — came up with a politically convenient solution.

Young people who commit serious, violent crimes deserve severe punishment. But reflexively transferring juvenile offenders — many of whom are accused of nonviolent crimes — into the adult system is not making anyone safer. When they are locked up with adults, young people learn criminal behaviors. They are also deprived of the counseling and family support that they would likely get in the juvenile system, which is more focused on rehabilitation. And once they are released, their felony convictions make it hard for them to find a job and rebuild their lives.

Nearly every state now has laws that encourage prosecutors to try minors as adults. The recent studies of this approach should lead legislatures to abandon these counterproductive policies.

New York Times

Civic Center Blues: A Cash Crop In Denver

The Rocky Mountain News focuses on the business of the park:
Dealer adapts, uses street smarts to survive the hazards of selling pot
James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News
Thursday, August 14, 2008

Semi John is watching the cops bust some guys for weed as he rolls a joint. Figures if they're busy arresting other marijuana dealers they're not watching him, right? Which makes sense. Which you could say about a lot of Semi John's philosophy.

Like don't be stupid about who you sell to and don't be drinking and getting all wasted because then you lose your edge and maybe your freedom, which is something Semi John knows about because he says he's spent 22 of his 39 years in prison. Like don't be greedy. When Semi John makes what he needs, he's usually gone.

Semi John - call him that because a semi rammed him while he was riding his bicycle - is a dealer. Which doesn't exactly make him an endangered species in The Park. Saying drugs are here isn't like saying there's salt in the ocean, but it's close.

Walk around with your head down and you'll see syringes. You'll see torn bits of plastic baggies used for small amounts of crack cocaine and heroin. Walk around and look in a portable toilet and you might find a piece of aluminum foil used to cook heroin down. Hell, you might even find a couple inside the toilet getting high before emerging glassy-eyed and wobbly, and, in the case of the woman, temporarily bare breasted.

Rocky Mountain News

Ex-Felon Works To Stop Judicial Appointment

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Had this been like most nominations for federal judgeships, the chief lawyer with Corrections Corporation of America might have been packing up his office and heading for the courthouse by now.

But a determined opponent—a former prisoner at a Corrections Corporation of America facility in Clifton, Tenn.—has worked tirelessly to see that would not happen.

And he may have succeeded.

More than a year after President Bush nominated Gustavus A. Puryear IV to become a U.S. district judge in Nashville, the 40-year-old's appointment appears to be in serious trouble, thanks in no small part to Alex Friedmann, a convicted armed robber turned inmate advocate.

Friedmann, 39, contends Puryear is unqualified because he lacks experience in federal courts—he's been involved in only two federal trials—and might have a potential conflict of interest in hearing cases that involve CCA.

On his Web site, http://www.againstpuryear.org, Friedmann also has detailed Puryear's ties to powerful Republicans like Dick Cheney, whom he helped prep for a 2000 debate, and portrayed Puryear as someone who got the nomination because of his connections rather than his qualifications.

The Denver Post

Warehouse Prison

Some protesters arrested at the Democratic National Convention could be jailed in a city- owned warehouse, complete with metal cages and barbed wire, CBS4 News has learned.

Investigative reporter Rick Sallinger discovered the location and managed to get inside Tuesday for a look. The newly created lockup, in a warehouse northeast of Denver, contains dozens of metal cages made of chain-link fence material, topped by rolls of barbed wire.

Each of these fenced-in areas is about 15 feet by 15 feet, with a lock on the door.

A sign on the wall reads "Warning, electric stun devices used in this facility."

Sallinger showed video of the warehouse to Adam Jung of Tent State University and Zoe Williams of Code Pink, leaders of groups that plan to demonstrate during the convention. "This is very bare-bones and very reminiscent of a political prisoner camp or a concentration camp," Williams said.

"That's how you treat cattle," Jung siad. "You showed the sign where it said stun gun in use. And you just change the word gun for bolt, and it's a meat-processing plant."

The Denver Sheriff's Department would not discuss the facility. Instead, the sheriff's department said late Tuesday the mayor's office would be releasing a statement about it early next week.

"We're going to tell you about it," said Capt. Frank Gale, of the sheriff's department. "We're going to have the community and the media come out and view the place ."

John White, spokesman for Denver police, said Tuesday he could not comment until after he has a chance to consult with convention officials. The American Civil Liberties Union said it will ask the city of Denver how prisoners will get access to food and water, bathrooms, telephones and medical care, and if there will be a place to meet with attorneys.

Rocky Mountain News

Video Of Police Beating Surfaces

Let's see..arresting the wrong people...and police beatings....falsifying arrest reports.

John Heaney was handcuffed face down on the ground when a Denver police officer pulled his head up by the hair and then slammed his face into the pavement.

A videotape of the incident shows Heaney barely moving just before it happened.

But in police records and at court hearings, a handful of officers told a different story of a wildly combative Heaney, who they say started a brawl and then allegedly continued to physically assault officers before he was subdued.

Heaney, 57, had his two front teeth broken in the melee and was charged with second-degree assault on a police officer. He faced three years in prison, until the videotape shot by a witness changed everything.

Now, prosecutors have dismissed all charges against Heaney, and Denver police have launched an internal investigation into the officers' conduct and whether they subsequently lied under oath.

"That tape was new evidence that had not been available to us before last week, and it provides a rather compelling reason to dismiss the charges," said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney's Office.

In Ohio, Mothers Care for Infant Children

Politics & Society

In Ohio, Inmate Mothers Care For Babies In Prison

by Steve Inskeep

Listen Now [8 min 56 sec] add to playlist

Who's Behind Bars?

This three-part series examines who makes up the quickly expanding U.S. prison population. The chart below offers a sampling of incarceration rates.

Expand For More Statistics

Courtesy of The Pew Center on the States' Public Safety Performance Project, "One in 100: Behind Bars in America, 2008."

Ohio Reformatory inmate Kristin Kennedy keeps photographs of her children in her cell. Her youngest child, an infant, lives with her at the prison.

Morning Edition, August 13, 2008 · First in a three-part series.

At the Ohio Reformatory for Women, a dozen babies are spending time behind bars. Too young to say the word "crime," they are participants in a program that enables inmate mothers to raise their children in their cells.

The program is one of many across the country designed to meet the unique needs of mothers who are locked up. Women are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. prison population. At the Ohio Reformatory, the warden estimates that 75 percent of the 2,300 inmates housed there are mothers.

Only a handful of U.S. prisons offer an in-house nursery program like the one at the quickly expanding Ohio complex, located about 30 miles from Columbus. Only nonviolent offenders who arrive at the prison pregnant or with infants and are serving relatively short sentences can qualify.

The Achieving Baby Care Success program began in June 2001. The 12 mothers currently participating live in a special wing of the prison. The babies sleep in identical cribs in their mothers' cells. Between prison roll calls, mothers take their children to the in-house nursery for scheduled activities.

The ultimate goal, says warden Sheri Duffey, is to reduce recidivism and keep the next generation out of prison.

The program "maintains that bond that the mother and child has," Duffey says. Although research is limited, a small study in Nebraska several years ago suggested that prison nurseries may make mothers less likely to commit another crime and end up back behind bars.

At the colorful prison nursery, Kristin Kennedy, a 28-year-old inmate from Zanesville, Ohio, awaits the public librarian's arrival for story-time. Kennedy was pregnant with her third child on the day she reported to prison.

NPR

ACLU Files Suit For Bad Arrests

Rocky -- Dennis Michael Smith was shackled and thrown in jail for the actions of a man who has haunted him since 1989.

Jose Ernesto Ibarra spent 26 days in jail, missing his son's first birthday, on an arrest warrant for someone else.

Both men share similar names as the suspects wanted by police.

On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado sued the city and county of Denver on behalf of these two men and three other Coloradans - Christina Ann FourHorn, Samuel Powell Moore and Muse Jama.

The lawsuit alleges its clients were innocent victims of mistaken-identity arrests.

The suit also names seven law enforcement officers.

The ACLU and its lawyers argue that "recklessly sloppy police work" put their clients behind bars in cases in which they had no connection.

Officers knowingly ignored facts and information that showed they were arresting the wrong person, said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU.

The Rocky Mountain News

Soros Justice Fellowships

I have recently been approached about a great opportunity so I am spreading the word about the Soros Justice Fellowships, an Open Society Institute (OSI) program that funds outstanding individuals seeking to reform the U.S. criminal justice system. Since its inception in 1997, Soros Justice Fellowships – which fund individuals through two fellowship categories, Advocacy Fellowships and Media Fellowships – have supported over 230 dynamic individuals working at the local, state, and national levels on a wide range of issues.

Each year, OSI funds 15 – 18 fellows through the two fellowship categories. Advocacy Fellowships are 18 months in duration and come with a stipend ranging from $69,750 to $79,500. Media Fellowships are 12 months in duration and come with a stipend of $45,000. Fellows are also eligible to receive payments for health insurance, professional development, and educational loan repayment. In addition to this financial support, fellows have access to a range of technical assistance, including leadership development, communications and fundraising consultations, and supplemental grants.

This year, the application deadline is September 24, 2008. More information on the program, along with the program guidelines and a link to our online application, can be found at: http://www.soros.org/initiatives/usprograms/focus/justice/programs/justice_fellows.

They seek innovative and exciting projects that fit broadly within our criminal justice reform priorities. But just as critically, the program looks for both emerging and seasoned leaders who possess vision, drive, and passion; and who will lend a distinctive and important voice to the struggle for change.

Also, since a majority of Soros Justice Fellowships historically have gone to individuals on the east and west coasts (New York City and California, primarily), they are keenly interested in receiving applications from individuals proposing to work in other parts of the country – places that experience all of the same negative effects associated with the criminal justice system’s over-reliance on incarceration and harsh punishment, and unequal treatment; yet whose advocates and activists have probably not received their fair share of resources to take on these problems.

Whether you forward information about the Soros Justice Fellowships to particular individuals whom you think would be promising candidates or circulate the information more generally, we trust that within your networks there are advocates, activists, and others with distinctive and important voices who would benefit from this opportunity – and who would, in turn, help to strengthen the larger movement for progressive social change.

CCJRC has made significant progress, but none of our accomplishments would have been possible without the support and engagement of our members. You give us a stronger voice to advocate for real change. Your membership donation of any amount helps so much to further the impact and success of CCJRC. Please join us with your membership donation today. Thank you for supporting CCJRC. Together we will continue to do the work that truly makes a difference.

Prison's Children

Prison’s Children: Kids and families swept up in the wake of a mother’s incarceration

by Tim Covi

photographs by Ross Evertson

FEATURESTOR Y

July/August 2008 Denver VOICE 13

In a span of three months,

Pamela Clifton lost her husband, her children, and almost nine years of her life to a 90-day drug problem. She was 34 years old when she was arrested and sentenced to a 9 year term, 6 years in prison with 3 years of probation, for possession of 1.5 grams of meth-amphetamine.

That was the winter of 1997. Looking back at that time, Clifton openly says she needed help, but believes prison wasn’t the answer. “Oh! I had a big problem. My husband had just died and I had lost my mind. I needed to go to treatment really, really bad.”

But she said there weren’t many options for a person of her means. “I tried. I looked for treatment. Problem was I had a house. I couldn’t afford treatment. If I would have had the

money to hire someone to watch my kids, take care of my house and put myself on a sabbatical for 60 days at Betty Ford, none of this would have happened.”

Clifton said her options were a $30,000 residential treatment program, or an outpatient program available in Fort Collins. She took the outpatient program, but after missing 3 hours of classes when she had the flu that winter, was removed from the class.

She continued in a downward spiral between October 1996 and February 1997. Recounting her husband Greg’s death and the events that led up to her arrest, Clifton

said: “Greg was in Lutheran Hospital after being taken there from the Arapahoe House Detox center. I went and picked him up to take him to treatment in Greeley but we were short the $78 needed to go in. We went home so that he could make a court appearance and so I could get the money we needed to get him into treatment. All of his things were actually at Island Grove when he died at home.

Drug War Madness: Strip Searched Girl Wins Appeal

Federal courts took far too long to rule that it's wrong to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of carrying ibuprofen.

By Vera Leone
August 11, 2008

» Discuss Article

She was a 13-year-old honor student. She may or may not have given her friend prescription-strength ibuprofen, though the girl certainly didn't have any on her. An assistant principal, acting on the word of a scared fellow student, brought the eighth-grade girl into his office and subjected her to a strip search. In the presence of the school nurse and the assistant principal's administrative assistant, this young woman was forced to strip off her clothes including her underwear, exposing first her breasts and then her pubic area, on the erroneous suspicion that she was hiding . . . ibuprofen. At this Arizona middle school, students are prohibited from carrying drugs -- even over-the-counter medication -- into school.

Last month, The Times reported that a panel of judges on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned (in a 6-5 decision) previous rulings that condoned the actions of the assistant principal, who is now finally considered liable for damages.

The student was searched by women, the nurse and the administrative assistant. It's still abuse. I've been through these searches. Regardless of your gender or that of the people searching you, it's a violation of your rights.

LA TIMES

July Population Report

Fascinating ... we have over 1800 empty beds --- the highest number of releases in one month and a growth of 6 people a month. And we just signed a contract with Cornell for a new prison?
DOC Monthly Population Report

Know Your Rights! Broken Windows Policing

KNOW YOUR
RIGHTS!
BROKEN WINDOWS POLICING
means
MORE YOUTH OF COLOR STOPPED
AND HARRASSED BY THE POLICE
IF YOU, YOUR CHILDREN, OR OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS HAVE BEEN
HARRASSED BY THE POLICE, CONTACT US!
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence incite.dnvr@gmail.com
Colorado Progressive Coalition Police Brutality Hotline: 303‐654‐4109
or toll‐free 1‐866‐329‐0908

What is Broken Windows Policing?

Broken Windows Policing is an aggressive policing strategy that is being implemented
in this neighborhood. It means that police stop and ticket residents here for crimes like
jaywalking, overgrown weeds, and loitering, which would usually not be heavily
pursued. Youth of color are particularly singled out for tickets, stops, or arrests.

Because Broken Windows Policing is not enacted in wealthy, white areas, this is
essentially racial profiling by neighborhood!

If an incident involving the police occurs:

• Ask the officer for his/her card, and/or name.
• Look for or ask which police District the officer is assigned to.
• Remember it and write it down as soon as possible.
• If the badge and name are not in full view, make note of the physical description of the officers..
• Make note of the number of officers present.
• Make note of any witnesses.
• Take note of where you are.
• Take note of when (date, time of day) the incident occurred.

A L W A Y S WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!
Police harassment does not keep our communities safe!
Work with us on alternatives.

Broken windows policing does nothing to resolve the root causes of crime such as poverty, addiction, lack of affordable housing and healthcare, lack of social development programs, and substandard educational systems. Gang violence is a symptom of larger social & economic issues.
We need more programs and jobs for our youth – not more criminalization and incarceration.
An initiative of the Fix Broken Policing Campaign 2008

Know your rights! If you are stopped by police

REMAIN CALM

DO NOT reach into your pockets.
ASK why you are being stopped.
DO NOT become loud.
DO NOT make any sudden moves.

An officer can stop anyone based on “reasonable suspicion” and require proof of ID. You are not required to answer questions about your actions.
Remember: Depending upon the circumstances, the officer may think he/she has
reasonable suspicion to stop you or he/she might use any excuse to harass you.
If you are pulled over in your car

• A Police Officer can ask you to pull over at any time. You will be asked for your driver's license and registration. If she/he asks for this information, you MUST comply.
• If you are stopped ‐ pull over and sit tight.
• If you are stopped at night ‐ turn on your interior dome light.
• Place your hands on the steering wheel.
• Produce your identification when asked.

Things to keep in mind
Keep some legitimate form of identification on you at all times You have the right of silence. Use it! You have the right to know why you are being arrested.

You always have the right for legal representation. Never speak without a witness being present.

When the police knock at your door
• If the police knock at your door and ask to come in, you do not have to let them in unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. If they have a warrant, ask to see it.
• IF THEY HAVE AN ARREST WARRANT, CHECK the name to make sure they have the right person.
• IF THEY HAVE A SEARCH WARRANT, make sure it is for your specific address. LOOK to see what is listed on the warrant to be searched for in your home.

IF the warrant is proper, you must allow them in.
IF the police do not have a warrant you may let them in. BUT you do not have to let them in. Try to settle the issue at the door. If they do insist over your objections, then be
careful to:
• FIRST, Ask for a police badge.
• SECOND, Ask them what their purpose is in coming into your house.
• THIRD, If you object, make sure you tell them you do not consent to any search of your home.
• FOURTH, Write down the names, badge numbers, physical description of the officers and the date and time.

IF you are not sure that they are really police officers ask for the name of the highest ranking officer present at your door and a phone number where his identity can be verified.

Call his/her command number, and even 911 so that a record can be established.

IF the police take any of your property, that is not held for evidence, contact the Property Release Office at DPD Police HQ Rm 104 720‐913‐6589. After 30 days your property
will be destroyed or sold.

The police may also search without a warrant whenever they have arrested a person. They may search his person and the area close by where the arrest was made. They may also search after consent is given, so if you object, be sure to make it clear that you do not agree to any kind of search.

They may also search when there is an emergency (for example, someone screaming for help inside your home) or when they are chasing you or someone else into your
home. This is called the EMERGENCY EXCEPTION.

Source: 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care
http://100blacksinlawenforcement.org/tips.html

Stopmax: The Fight Against Supermax Heats Up

And we continue to build one of our own here in Colorado. They have broke ground on CSP II and are going to have to be creative in how they fill it up.

By Jessica Pupovac, AlterNet
Posted on August 11, 2008, Printed on August 11, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/94257/

"When I left Angola," says Robert King Wilkerson, who spent 29 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana's notorious Angola State Penitentiary for a crime he was later found innocent of, "I said, 'I may be free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me.'" Since his release seven years ago, the vow has taken him to rallies, churches and talk shows across the globe. Earlier this summer, it brought him to Philadelphia for the first-ever StopMax Conference, where he told stories, analyzed the state of the American prison system and collaborated with a throng of like-minded activists determined to "end the use of solitary confinement and related forms of torture in U.S. prisons."

Wilkerson is a former member of the Black Panther Party and one of the Angola Three. He spent more than 30 years in prison for the killing of a prison guard, along with two other former Black Panthers -- Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace -- before being exonerated by the state of Louisiana in February 2001. Woodfox and Wallace still languish in prison. They are the longest-held prisoners in solitary isolation to date in the United States.

On a Friday early this summer, Wilkerson addressed a crowd composed of both supporters and curious passers-by outside Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, which opened its doors in 1829 as the first institutionalized experiment in long-term solitary confinement. Over the past 40 years, with modern advances enabling an unprecedented level of isolation and control, the practice has been systematized, standardized and forced upon thousands of people across the country, from murderers to drug addicts and petty thieves.

Wilkerson was one of many modern-day solitary survivors who brought focus and momentum to the StopMax Conference, organized by the American Friends Service Committee. Bonnie Kerness, Prison Watch coordinator for the AFSC, said that over the past two decades, the organization has received an "astounding" number of letters from people in solitary confinement describing the abuse that occurs in their desolate cells. She told AlterNet that "they describe in excruciating detail," among other things, "the uses of devices of torture -- forced medication, restraint beds, restraint chairs …"

"And now we're also starting to hear from juveniles," she says, "so it's almost at a point where, how could we not respond?"

Alternet

A Different Kind Of Cottage Industry

Please note what they are selling for and what the guys are making...It looks like a great way to train people to get a great job - although it's reserved for about 20 people...total.

The Denver Post - Have a look at the desks the next time you visit a state government office. Odds are that they were made by a Colorado prison inmate — one "buy local" approach that perhaps you've overlooked.

Most of the desks, chairs, bookcases, credenzas and other furniture in state offices and buildings are built at the Colorado Correctional Industries' furniture factory and warehouse in Cañon City. So are a few of the wood bed frames in state university dormitories, though most of the beds go to residential youth correctional facilities.

"The dormitory furniture is kind of a sideline," said Andy Klinkerman, the manufacturing manager of the factory, which operates as a division of the Colorado Department of Corrections.

"The bigger demand is case goods — office furniture for state agencies. The biggest demand is for desks."

And not the kind of desks buyers can pick up for less than $300 at office supply stores, either. Go online to coloradoci .com, and check out the merchandise sold at the factory's Denver showroom.

A single bunk bed capable of being used as a loft bed costs about $180. A freestanding credenza, 70 by 23 inches, with drawers on both sides and a sliding door, in a dark cherry veneer over heavyweight particle board, goes for about $1,640.

"The cherry and the other hardwood veneers, those usually are for executive offices," Klinkerman said. Lower-ranking civil servants make do with wood-grain laminate surfaces on the same sturdy particle-board forms.

"We make a product that's focused on long-term sustainability. A lot of state agencies can't afford new furniture every couple years. A desk's got to last 10, 15, 20 years."

Jobs at the factory and assembly warehouse are reserved for inmates who are "report-free and program-compliant," prison parlance for exemplary behavior and graduation from prison training and educational programs.

Each prisoner in the factory earns about $3 to $3.50 a day in the factory. The production level varies, but last month, the warehouse produced 45 bookcases, 68 desks, 35 wood file cabinets, 39 conference and terminal tables, and 18 hutches and credenzas.

The Denver Post

Cornell Gets Mens Facility in Hudson

It was sold as a women's facility but will be built as a men's facility that we don't need. We should not be funding yet another prison when what we need are release facilities so that people can get back on their feet.

James E. Hyman, Cornell's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said, "The progress we made on executing our business plan resulted in strong operating performance for our second quarter, which enabled us to raise and then exceed our updated guidance for the period. We continued the expansions at the Great Plains Correctional Facility (Great Plains) and the additional expansion at D. Ray James Prison. We remain confident we can deliver our outlook for 2008, we can succeed in this strong demand environment, and we can accelerate our growth into 2009."

The Company also announced that it finalized arrangements for the construction of a 1,250-bed male facility in Hudson, Colorado, which will be built and owned by a third party and be located on land the Company is expected to sell to the third party. The Company has signed a new implementation agreement with the Colorado Department of Corrections relating to the development of the site and expects to begin receiving inmates in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Read The Article Here

Crime and Punishment

The Boulder Daily Camera looks at differences between the US and European nations and the difference between attitudes and policies in the penal system.

Last month, The Supreme Court struck down execution of a rapist in that no deaths were involved. Articles written by four members of The Camera editorial advisory board on June 28 wrestled with this issue. They tended to encourage life imprisonment as a desired alternative. Shortly afterwards, the conviction of a prisoner in Louisiana was overturned. He had been in solitary confinement for over 30 years! Can we not come up with a penal system which protects us without resorting to methods which demean us all and which increases the pathology which we abhor?

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A few years back, a Canadian journalist, Dan Gardner, described a typical scene in a Finnish prison near Helsinki. Two men are spraying water and shampoo on two women's hair, discussing modern hair styles as they work. All four are prisoners, serving short terms by American standards. They enjoy frequent visits from family and friends. Young children may live with their mothers in spacious daycare-like wards. Colorful paper cutouts of flowers obscure window bars. Home leaves are frequent and rarely result in problems, even for those convicted of violent crimes.

For the past three decades, Finnish criminal justice has sought to strengthen prisoner dignity, to offer training and therapy in order to minimize re-arrests. Prior to 1972, Finland's prison system was modeled after that of the Soviet Union where the concept of dignity had little meaning. The entire idea that tough prisons deter crime has been discarded. Convicted adults and youth are likely to be treated as "clients" or "patients." The results: Finland now has an imprisonment rate of only 52/100,000, compared to 119 in Canada and 702 in the United States. History shows that crime rates rise or fall not on the basis of the harshness of punishments. Crime rates respond to levels of urbanization, the proportion of young males in a community, social inequality, racial prejudice, and similar social or economic factors. In Finland, politics plays virtually no role even following a heinous crime. Their politicians feel no pressure to show that they are "tough on crime".

Finland is not unique. In Holland, the Dutch also do not believe in long prison sentences in that they see no evidence that such sentences deter crime. Humane treatment during imprisonment is central to Holland's system. Belgium emphasizes victims' rights and compensation, a policy which is increasingly common in Europe. In contrast to sharply increasing prison rates found in the United States, Canada has reduced length and rates of imprisonment. France appears to have increased lengths of incarceration but, in fact, it commonly spares juveniles from prison and uses generous amnesty and alternatives to imprisonment.

Boulder Daily Camera

As Americans Age Liquor Use Decreases

WASHINGTON — As Americans aged over the past two generations, they drank less alcohol. And the younger generation of adults drank less heavily than the ones before it, according to the first analysis of alcohol-consumption trends over adult life spans.

By the time they reached their 80s, more than 40 percent of men and 60 percent of women said they didn't drink at all, according to a study in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine.

Over time, beer drinkers generally shifted to wine, the study found, and the younger generation drank less hard liquor than the older ones did. At the same time, more and more adults aged into moderate drinkers by federal dietary standards. They define moderate drinking as two drinks per day for men and one per day for women.

"They've understood that a little alcohol is OK but a lot is not good," said Curtis Ellison, a co-author of the report and a professor of medicine and public health at Boston University School of Medicine.

The Denver Post

Denver Crime Rate Falls 12% In '08

Crime in Denver continues to decrease this year, with reductions in almost every category of the most serious offenses, according to city officials.

Overall, crime in the city is down 12.4 percent in the first six months of 2008.

Violent crimes fell 6.6 percent, and property crimes 19.9 percent.

The exception is robbery, which ticked up 2.3 percent.

The most dramatic increase was in bank robberies.

Denver recorded 10 bank robberies in the first half of 2007, compared with 34 this year.

If the numbers hold out, this would be Denver's third consecutive year of double-digit decreases in crime.

"I keep questioning the statistics. 'Are you sure about this?' " said police Chief Gerald Whitman. "It's too good to be true."

Whitman cited police staffing, problem-solving projects and a better flow of information as reasons why crime is continuing to decline.

The department also has targeted serial burglars through DNA analysis and cracked down on repeat offenders.

Rocky Mountain News

Teens Using Drugs To Combat Stress

NEW YORK, NY – A new study released by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America reveals a troubling new insight into the reasons why teens use drugs. According to the 2007 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study of 6,511 teens (PATS Teens), the number one reason teens see for using drugs is to deal with the pressures and stress of school. In this nationally projectable study (margin of error +/- 1.6 percent), 73 percent of teens reported that school stress is the primary reason for drug use, indicating that teens' perceptions of motivating factors for using drugs are dramatically different than past research has indicated.

Deep Disconnect Between Teen Behavior and Parental Awareness

An accompanying 2007 Partnership study of parents' attitudes about teen drug use, released in June, showed that parents severely underestimate the impact of stress on their teens' decision to use drugs. Only 7 percent of parents believe that teens might use drugs to cope with stress.

"A wide disconnect exists between what teens are thinking and feeling and what parents believe about their teens when it comes to attitudes about drug use," said Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the Partnership. "This is a pivotal opportunity for parents to understand what motivates today's teens to engage in this type of risky behavior, and to communicate the very real dangers and risks, while offering their kids support and guidance on dealing with pressure in a healthy way."

Join Together

Jeffco Judge Recommended for Removal

A Jefferson County judge was alone among 104 justices and judges up for performance review to be recommended for removal from the bench in evaluations released Tuesday.

The 1st Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance said Judge Judy Archuleta not be retained because of poor people skills, rudeness, problems interacting with victims and other characteristics. She was the only judge up for retention that didn't earn a "retain" rating from state and local performance commissions.

The commissions release such lists each election season, when judges from the county level up to the Colorado Supreme Court come up for review based on feedback from attorneys and others involved in the court system. Voters have the opportunity to vote not to retain judges.

All state judges serve a two- year probationary period before standing for retention. Judges then must be retained every four years for county court, six years for district court, eight years for appellate court and 10 years for Supreme Court.

Rocky Mountain News

DNA Not Kept In Half The States

DNA not kept in half of states

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Half the states lack requirements to preserve DNA evidence, despite a series of dramatic exonerations based on the critical biological material.

Supporters of retaining DNA evidence point to a growing list of wrongly convicted prisoners who have been freed. But some prosecutors and lawmakers cite concerns ranging from cost to expanding DNA collections from individuals who have never been convicted of crimes.

PHOTOS: Freed without DNA evidence

Evidence preservation has been the key to freeing more than 200 wrongfully convicted prisoners, says the Innocence Project, a group that works to free the innocent based on DNA testing.

ONE MAN'S STORY: In lieu of DNA evidence, exoneration proves tougher

Preserving DNA also has helped secure convictions. "We're becoming more successful in identifying perpetrators in cold cases than we were when we didn't have this technology," says Scott Storey, district attorney in Jefferson County, Colo.

There is disagreement over how long and under what conditions to keep DNA. Storage space and extra costs are key issues. "I don't know if there is enough room to keep all of this evidence," Storey says. "I believe in the innocence movement, but you've got to have some common sense injected."

What states are doing:

USA Today

National Night Out Helps Communities Connect

By AMY HAMILTON
The Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Don Arellano was not a happy camper when he bought his home in the 2800 block of Teller Avenue 14 years ago. The neighborhood was in decay, he said, and partly to blame were four nearby “drug houses” that brought down the block.

Dozens of calls to the Grand Junction Police Department later and a concerted effort to keep in touch with his neighbors have helped turn around the city’s east-end neighborhood.

“I don’t want to see that here again — the drugs and the trashy-looking houses,” Arellano said. “It’s perking up. Me and some other neighbors feel good about it.”

For the past 13 years, Arellano has helped organize a National Night Out event on his block that has gathered neighbors to talk about their concerns. Tonight, the Teller Avenue neighbors, like 41 other neighborhoods around the city, will participate in the annual gatherings designed to connect residents with police.

National Night Out parties have spanned across the nation each year on this night since 1984, an event commonly dubbed “America’s night out against crime.”

More than double the amount of neighborhoods this year compared to last year will meet over barbecued burgers and ice cream while police officers check in to give crime-prevention presentations and gather residents’ crime-related complaints.

Grand Junction Police Chief Bill Gardner said targeted enforcement has drastically cut some types of crime, such as property crimes. But a few specific highly publicized violent crimes have contributed to the public’s perception that the crime rate is high, he said.

Grand Junction Sentinel

No Talking Out Of Turn In Washington

For those of us who have seen the therapeutic community model at work--this is familiar. It takes a lot to implement because people have to change everything about themselves in order to make it work. Hopefully, they will combine the program with help with reentry. It's difficult for people to make positive changes and not be able to be successful when they get out. That's when old habits rise up and take over.

AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. —

No talking while others have the floor.

No horseplay either.

At Airway Heights Corrections Center, these guidelines are part of a new prison management model dubbed Right Living.

The concept, which requires inmates to obey rules of polite behavior that Miss Manners would applaud, has been used nationally in drug dependency programs for offenders who are preparing to re-enter society. The all-male Airway Heights facility west of Spokane will be the first in the country to implement the model prisonwide, according to the Washington Department of Corrections.

According to the Right Living handbook, inmates learn to interact as if they were participating positively within a community structure. The program stresses a work ethic, learning new skills, honesty, accountability, manners, civility and respect.

"The primary goal of the community is to provide members with a sense of belonging, acceptance, and skills for living without self-destructive behavior patterns," the handbook says.

Inmates who have participated in similar programs "are 5 percent less likely to re-offend," said Rob Herzog, Airway Heights' associate superintendent of programs.

George Skinner, a minimum security inmate and an appointed leader in the Right Living program, said: "If one of us doesn't come back in here, it has been a success." Authorities say the program works because participants learn that they tend to get the respect they give.

A bulletin board in the hallway of one of the prison's minimum security units lists behaviors expected of "community members" performance, responsibility, self-examination and self-sufficiency. The five principles - honesty, open-mindedness, willingness, respect and humility - also are up there.

Airway Heights began implementing Right Living last month in its minimum-security facility, which houses 600 inmates. Medium-security inmates will join the program in mid-2009, officials said.

Seattle Times

DOC's 2007 Statistical Report

Okay, now this is fascinating stuff. Read the entire report to find out who is going to prison and for what. What recidivism rates are, prison sentence and incarceration rates etc.
2007 Statistical Report

Pain Management

Once again Alan at Westword uncovers the ugly truth about what is really going on behind closed doors. This time it's at the Denver City Jail, where Emily Rice died from neglect not so long ago...
To read Alan Prendergast's blog about the Denver jail's heavily redacted policy on pain meds and release procedures, click here.

They let Timothy Thomason go shortly before 8 p.m. on August 26, 2006. He had spent less than 24 hours in the downtown Denver jail, but they were among the worst hours of Thomason's entire life. He moved slowly, dazedly through the exit door, and once he hit the street, he wasn't sure what to do.

Part of him wanted to flee as fast as his wobbly, aching legs could take him — get home, take the pain medication his body was screaming for, climb under the covers and try to forget everything that had happened since his arrest the night before.

Part of him knew that he couldn't forget. And that he would never have a night's peace until he found out a few things.

He stood there for several moments, then went back inside and approached the deputy sitting at the front desk.

"Excuse me," he said. "What's the name of the officer in charge of the second floor?"

Before the man could reply, the officer in question emerged from the elevator. Thomason's heart sank. Was the whole nightmare going to start again? But the officer just stared at him, then brought some papers to the desk. He was close enough that Thomason could read the nameplate on his uniform: CLEVELAND.

Thomason slipped away. He repeated the name to himself during the slow, arduous walk home to his Capitol Hill apartment. Cleveland. Deputy Sheriff Cleveland. The deputy wasn't the only source of his fear and misery — far from it — but for now, the name made for a convenient reference point.

During the previous 24 hours, Thomason's attitude toward law enforcement had been turned upside down. The Denver police officers who'd come to his apartment the night before to arrest him on a charge of cultivation of marijuana — they couldn't have been cooler. He'd told them that his brother had been LAPD and was now a cop in Montana; they weren't going to have any trouble with him. He'd told them he had cancer, terminal Stage IV non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and was taking massive amounts of Oxycontin for pain and Xanax for anxiety. They'd agreed to bring his pills when they took him in, and told him not to worry.

A female officer had driven him to the downtown jail, also known as the Pre-Arraignment Detention Facility (PADF). She'd promised to call his mom, and she'd told the jail staff that he was sick, that he had prescribed medications, and that they should treat him nicely.

But the PADF has its own way of doing things. Thomason had spent the night in teeth-gritting agony, his pleas for access to his painkillers repeatedly ignored. The next morning, a judge had ordered his release — but then he'd spent several more hours in the jail, apparently on the whim of a single deputy, until he had a seizure, banging his head on the cement floor of his cell. Thomason didn't understand any of it. What had happened was not right. He could have died from being without his meds for so long. How did the system get so screwed up?

Jails aren't known for their compassion. Still, what passes for medical care at the PADF these days can be costly and even fatal. In May, Denver Health Medical Center agreed to pay $4 million to the family of Emily Rae Rice, who died in custody in 2006 after a car crash and DUI arrest. Rice had suffered damage to internal organs that went undetected at Denver Health, and her efforts to get treatment at the jail were ignored ("Rae of Sunshine," March 9, 2006). Settlement negotiations continue between the family and the city over the conduct of PADF staff; amid allegations of coverup and falsified documents, one employee has resigned and three others have been disciplined.

Rice's death may be an instance of exceptional neglect, but there are plenty of horror stories about the downtown jail. The facility processes 48,000 detainees a year, most of them moving through the place in a day or two — just long enough to make bond or get to court. With the Democratic National Convention looming — and with it the prospect of hundreds, if not thousands, of protester arrests — the jail's procedures for booking and release and dealing with medical emergencies have come under increasing scrutiny.

Please read the rest of the article here at Westword

MD - SWAT Team Kills Mayors Dogs Over Pot

Just when you thought you'd heard it all....

Washington Post = A police SWAT team raided the home of the mayor in the Prince George's County town of Berwyn Heights on Tuesday, shooting and killing his two dogs, after he brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.

Mayor Cheye Calvo was not arrested in the raid, which was carried out about 7 p.m. by the Sheriff's Office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers. Prince George's police spokesman Henry Tippett said yesterday that all the residents of the house -- Calvo, his wife and his mother-in-law -- are "persons of interest" in the case.

The package was addressed to Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic, said law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

Tippett said police are working to determine for whom the drugs were meant.

Calvo said yesterday that he did not know how the drugs wound up on his doorstep. He works part time as the mayor and serves as director of expansion for the SEED Foundation, a well-known national nonprofit group that runs urban public boarding schools.

"My government blew through my doors and killed my dogs," Calvo said. "They thought we were drug dealers, and we were treated as such. I don't think they really ever considered that we weren't."

Calvo described a chaotic scene, in which he -- wearing only underwear and socks -- and his mother-in-law were handcuffed and interrogated for hours. They were surrounded by the dogs' carcasses and pools of the dogs' blood, Calvo said.

Spokesmen for the Sheriff's Office and Prince George's police expressed regret yesterday that the mayor's dogs were killed. But they defended the way the raid was carried out, saying it was proper for a case involving such a large amount of drugs.

Sgt. Mario Ellis, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said the deputies who entered Calvo's home "apparently felt threatened" by the dogs.

"We're not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples' dogs," Ellis said. "If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county."

Calvo, 37, has been mayor of the 3,000-person town near College Park since 2004. His wife is a finance officer for the state, he said.

The investigation that led police to their house in the 8500 block of Edmonston Road began in Arizona, officials said. There, a police dog at a shipping facility identified the package as being filled with marijuana. Prince George's officers posed as deliverymen and brought it to Calvo's home.

Washington Post

Racial Fairness Gaining Ground in Justice System

Mark Mauer from the Sentencing Project has this editorial in the Baltimore Sun
Nearly a million African-Americans are incarcerated in prisons and jails, and a black male born today has a one-in-three chance of going to prison in his lifetime, if current trends continue. People of good will disagree about the causes of these dramatic figures. Competing explanations include high rates of involvement in crime, differential rates of prosecution through the "war on drugs," racial profiling and inadequate family support. In fact, there is a good deal of documentation to support each of these contentions as at least a part of the explanation for the disparity.

While the numbers are distressing, the good news is that there are growing efforts among policymakers at the federal and state level to provide constructive approaches to sort out the causes and address them.

Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat, and Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, have just introduced the bipartisan Justice Integrity Act, which aims to address the important issue of unwarranted disparity within the federal criminal justice system.
Baltimore Sun

Over 100,000 Visitors

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Judge Removed From Jena 6 Cases

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- A Louisiana appeals court has removed a Lasalle Parish judge from the remaining "Jena Six" cases, court officials told CNN Friday.

Attorneys for four of the defendants had asked 9th Judicial District Judge Thomas Yeager to recuse Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr.

They said Mauffrey "had made numerous statements on numerous occasions" indicating he had already decided on a defendant's guilt and punishment.

"Indeed, Judge Mauffrey has expressed his belief generally that Jesse Ray [Beard] and his African-American friends are guilty, not only of the misconduct alleged in this matter, but of several other acts of misconduct as well," according to court documents filed in the case.

A court official said Friday Yeager had found that the appearance of impropriety existed and recused Mauffrey.

Beard is one of six black Jena High School students accused of beating a white student during a school fight on December 4, 2006.

The case drew national headlines when the teens initially were charged with second-degree attempted murder after they allegedly knocked out Justin Barker while stomping and kicking him.

After the charges triggered protests, they were reduced to aggravated second-degree battery. One of the teens, Mychal Bell, reached a plea agreement on a battery charge in juvenile court.

Dale Hickman, an attorney who represents another youth, Bryant Purvis, told CNN Mauffrey's removal was good news for his case. The judge tended to view the group as "six thugs" and not individuals, he said.

Hickman added he would be concerned about the outcome of a trial held before Mauffrey if his client waived his right to a jury.
CNN News