Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?
Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.
Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.
OUR VIEW: Unchain pregnant mothers in jail (vote in poll) | b - Opinion - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO
In this country, even prisoners and inmates are supposed to be treated with a modicum of basic dignity. Senate Bill 193, known as the anti-shackling bill, would ensure that pregnant mothers in Colorado prisons and jails, and their babies, are protected from the dehumanizing and dangerous ordeal of labor in chains.
The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week and goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday with the blemish of a small fiscal note of $44,000 — purportedly the additional annual cost of guarding unshackled women in labor. Other states have passed similar bills without incurring additional costs, but officials of the Colorado Department of Corrections insist they will need to have more correctional staff with inmates in the hospital if laboring mothers aren’t shackled.
The little-known bill, sponsored by Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, would prohibit the shackling of inmates and prisoners in all public and private incarceration facilities who are in labor, giving birth or recovering from giving birth. It makes an exception for mothers who pose threats to themselves or others, and for those who represent serious flight risks. The bill would require written public disclosure and explanation when exceptions are made. Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, supports the bill because he says the state has a vested interest in protecting the health of mothers and babies from problems that can arise from giving birth in restraints.
Senators heard testimony from Boulder Weekly editor Pamela White, who researched and published a story on the horrors of women who have given birth while shackled.
“It’s about unchaining troubled women whose lives are already complicated,” White told The Gazette. “It’s also about their babies. Their babies are guilty of nothing, and their babies are doing time with them.” (Please vote in poll to lower right, in red type. Must vote to see results. Thanks!)
White, who writes romance novels under a pen name, authored a book that features a Colorado prisoner giving birth in shackles, leading to a law against it. She told senators the real-life story of a Pennsylvania doctor who raced to cut shackles off a woman, using a hacksaw, in order to save mother and baby. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has mounted a campaign to stop the shackling of laboring mothers, declaring it dangerous (see their letter).
Though some Coloradans may have little sympathy for convicts, King reminds them that an unborn child can’t possibly have committed a crime and deserves every opportunity to receive a safe birth. He hopes to add a legislative declaration to the bill that would emphasize the health and safety of inmate mothers and their babies.
CBS 4 Denver COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) ― A 14-year-old boy charged in the shooting death of his younger brother told a Colorado Springs detective he hoped what happened was "just a nightmare."
The boy's comments were part of a taped interview played in an El Paso County courtroom Wednesday during a hearing to determine whether the teenager should be tried as an adult. The hearing continues Thursday.
Prosecutors say the boy shot his younger brother while he slept last year and then wounded their mother by shooting her with a rifle and stabbing her with a knife.
The boy's defense attorneys say he has a history of sleepwalking and hallucinating. They say the teen would be the youngest inmate in 117 years at Colorado's Department of Corrections if he is tried and convicted as an adult.
CBS Denver DENVER (AP) ― The Colorado Senate gave initial approval to legislation Tuesday that would ban leg shackles and waist restraints on female inmates during childbirth and limit the use of other restraints during delivery.
In Colorado, guards sometimes handcuff one arm of a state inmate to the bed during labor depending on her escape history and security level.
In rare instances, women are also handcuffed to the bed during delivery, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections. But unlike some other states, the department says Colorado inmates do not have to wear chains around their waist or have their legs restrained during labor or delivery.
The bill would only allow such restraints to be used if officials think the woman poses an immediate threat to medical staff. If restraints are used, authorities would have to maintain a record of what was used and for how long.
Guards would have to use the least restrictive restraints on pregnant inmates while transporting them. State prison officials say they don't use waist restraints or leg shackles, which could put pregnant women at risk of falling, starting in the second trimester.
The bill would apply to city and county jails and juvenile detention facilities in addition to state prisons.
At least six states largely ban the use of shackles on women during childbirth, which has been condemned by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for unnecessarily risking women's health.
The Senate's approval followed a debate that touched on the politics of abortion. Republicans backed the measure even though Democrats refused to include any reference to the babies of inmates.
Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, tried to add a legislative declaration stating that protecting the health and safety of the mother are vital to a healthy birth and the health of a "born baby."
But some Democrats objected to other parts of the declaration that used the word baby during the time of pregnancy.
Bill sponsor Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, said her intent was to make sure that female prisoners are being treated humanely at a time when they're the most vulnerable, not to define when a fetus becomes a baby.
9NEWS.com | Denver | Colorado's Online News Leader | Inmates worked at prison employees' homes STERLING - A 9Wants to Know investigation and a citizen's complaint prompted a Colorado prison warden to stop a program that allowed prison employees to hire inmates for jobs at the homes of employees. One of the projects violated the state's $2,500 financial cap on inmate projects. Inmates at the Sterling Correctional Facility worked for employees doing jobs at a fraction of what a private contractor would charge. The inmate projects included building a Corian counter top, building a sidewalk, delivering firewood and most recently installing a septic system, according to prison records reviewed by 9Wants to Know. That most recent job cost $4,782, well in excess of the Department of Corrections' policy cap. Sterling Correctional Center Warden Kevin Milyard stopped the practice after 9Wants to Know looked i nto the program and a local contractor complained. "I saw prisoners out excavating. It was the actual inmates with a guard watching over them," said Steve Frank, who called the prison to complain. Frank owns an excavation business near Fleming, about 20 miles from the prison. He admits he wishes he was hired to do the job instead of the inmates. "The economy is down," he said. "I'm just upset they are out there doing the jobs that private contractors should be doing." Frank estimates he lost $900 in profit by not being hired to do what he estimates was a $6,000 job. Inmates did it for about $4,800.
A Highlands Ranch man whose medical marijuana growing business was featured on a Denver television station has been indicted by the federal grand jury in Denver.
Christopher Bartkowicz was indicted late Tuesday for allegedly manufacturing and possessing at least 100 marijuana plants with intent to distribute.
Bartkowicz was also indicted on charges he maintained a drug-involved premises and manufacturing and distribution near a school.
The alleged medical-marijuana-growing operation was in the basement of Bartkowicz's Highlands Ranch home.
Bartkowicz, whose house is a block away from the Sand Creek Elementary School, came to the attention of the Drug Enforcement Administration in February when 9News featured Bartkowicz.
He told the station he serves as a caregiver to a number of medical-marijuana patients and hoped to turn a profit this year in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"I'm definitely living the dream now," Bartkowicz told 9News.
A day after Bartkowicz's story appeared, DEA agents raided the house.
"It's still a violation of federal law," said Jeffrey Sweetin, the DEA's special agent in charge in Denver. "It's not medicine. We're still going to continue to investigate and arrest people."
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver, the search at the Highland Ranch home was done with Bartkowicz's permission.
He later waived his right to being indicted and was charged by information on March 5.
However that changed after Bartkowicz announced at a change of plea hearing on April 16 that he planned to go to trial on the charges.
As a result, said the U.S. Attorney's Office, the matter was taken to the grand jury and the grand jury returned the three-count indictment late Tuesday.
He also defended his decision to join a national lawsuit challenging the new federal health-care reform law, and opposed Arizona's new immigration law.
Suthers made his positions known during a meeting with The Durango Herald's editorial board. He was in Grand Junction on Monday to launch the Colorado Meth Project, a new campaign aimed at deterring youths from trying methamphetamine. Suthers, a Republican, is seeking re-election against Democrat Stan Garnett, Boulder County district attorney.
Nothing in Amendment 20 - the medical marijuana law voters narrowly approved in 2000 - authorized dispensaries or the commercial sale of medical marijuana, Suthers said. Rather, it allowed patients with debilitative conditions to grow marijuana or obtain it from caregivers who have “significant responsibility for the welfare of the patient," he said.
House Bill 1284, which passed 39-23 and is pending in the state Senate, would allow local governments to forbid marijuana dispensaries by a vote of a city council, county commission or local voters.
“I really feel that's appropriate, because I think that the people ought to have a crack at whether we want these dispensaries, because they did not vote for that in 2000," Suthers said.
During the last 18 months - since Obama became president - the marijuana registry has grown from 2,000 names to 100,000 names, with a “big, huge backlog," Suthers said. In other words, about 2 percent of the state's population now holds a medical marijuana card.
While Suthers supports tougher regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries, he supported lower penalties for simple drug addicts, with the exception of meth. The judiciary is not sending people to prison for first- or second-time drug use and possession offenses, and the state doesn't want to send drug addicts to prison unless their drug activity is leading to other crimes, he said.
Westword
Troy Anderson knows he's never going to get out of prison alive. He's spent 23 of his forty years on the inside, and though he's never killed anyone, he's currently serving a 75-year sentence on multiple counts for two shootouts with police in the late 1990s.
Yet Anderson, who's been diagnosed with mental illnesses ranging from manic depression to "intermittent explosive disorder," figures he shouldn't have to spend all those years in solitary confinement at the Colorado State Penitentiary -- deprived of sunlight, books (he's allowed two a year), and the medications that might actually help him control his behavior and reduce his sentence. With the aid of student lawyers from the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law, he's filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging as unconstitutional the state prison policies that keep him locked down 23 hours a day and and denied mental health treatment. Anderson, whose prison nickname is "Evil," has a long history of erratic behavior, suicide attempts and violence going back to an early age, a voluminous and much-misdiagnosed psychiatric record explored in my 2006 feature "Head Games." As he put it himself at that time, in his abrupt, staccato writing style:
"It may be too late to help me. But if I can help anyone else get better treatment. At least I did something. There's no hope here, man. I don't think it's right that I stay here, possibly for the rest of my life. All over a problem that medication could solve. Or at least help. But I can't get it. That's crazy!"
Since that article was published, Anderson's suit alleges, his treatment has only gotten worse. CSP staff have ignored their own doctors' recommendations, denying him prescribed medications or punishing him for a "bad attitude" by taking meds away; he's been refused entry to programs that might allow him to progress out of solitary because of negative observations recorded by staff, called "chrons," that he's never had a chance to read or challenge; and, despite a lack of disciplinary writeups, his isolation remains complete.
The Colorado Department of Corrections has a prison designed specifically for the mentally ill, but it's full. Mentally ill inmates who are considered to be "uncooperative" or "acting out" tend to end up at CSP, where their condition often deteriorates. Almost 40 percent of the state's "administrative segregation" (solitary confinement) inmates are classified as mentally ill.
State lawmakers today killed a proposal that would have asked voters whether to ban medical-marijuana dispensaries statewide.
The proposal, introduced by a handful of Republicans and backed by law enforcement officials, would have put before voters a ballot measure to clarify that only individual, small-scale caregivers could provide pot to medical-marijuana patients instead of large, commercial dispensaries.
The measure's proponents said Monday they fear acceptance of dispensaries will lead to increased pot use by teenagers and promote fraud in the medical-marijuana system. But dispensary defenders said they provide a safe, regulated way for approved patients to obtain marijuana.
The Statesman
Maryland won the battle and Colorado lost.
Neither state probably knew of the battle. But for several decades Maryland’s annual count of persons confined to Maryland’s state prisons had placed them 22d in the nation’s gross prison population.
As the annual count entered the 21st century, the continued increase in Colorado state prisoners took us from 25th to 23rd. And as the years passed Colorado came closer and closer to overtaking Maryland.
The contest became “serious” in 2004. Maryland held 23,276 state prisoners vs. Colorado with 20,841. While Maryland numbers remained steady, Colorado continued to close the gap.
If you looked at U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics you will likely not find the number of state prisoners as of Dec.31, 2009. You will find the numbers of prisoners as of Dec. 1, 2008.
But when numbers are collected, there are people and organizations who can determine what they mean. State prisoners numbers as of Dec. 31, 2009 were collected and made available by the Public Safety Performance Project of the Pew Center On the States in partnership with the Association of State Correction Administrators.
I had originally attempted to find the 2009 numbers by phoning the Colorado prison statistic office. I kept getting different Colorado totals depending on who I spoke to. The number I settled on of 22,661 was incorrect. The Pew Center number was 22,795. Maryland dropped from 23,324 to 22,009 and into 23rd place. Colorado increased to 22d highest prison population.
On state prison percentage population reduction Maryland came in third, but when you sweep away New Hampshire (-173) and Rhode Island (-371), Maryland comes in second, a 5.6 percent drop of 1,315 prisoners.
First was Michigan showing 3,260 fewer prisoners, a 6.7 percent drop. Mississippi fell 5.4 percent with 1,233 fewer prisoners.
Nine of the 50 states hold slightly more than half of the state prisoners. The nine are Texas, 171,249; California, 169,413; Florida, 103,915; New York, 58,648; Georgia, 53,562; Penn., 51,429; Ohio, 51,606; Michigan, 45, 478, and Illinois, 45,161.
Overall state prison totals were 4,777 fewer than the Dec. 31, 2008 total of 1,408,830.
This reduction was the first in 38 years to have a smaller state prison population than in the proceeding year.
Colorado now has to worry about climbing from 22nd to 21st in a battle with Wisconsin, which had 23,112 prisoners or 317 more than Colorado as of Dec. 31, 2009. To Colorado’s credit, the state was 9th best in prison population reduction during 2009.
Why the drop in state prison population? The Pew Center gives a lot of credit to how parole revocations are now treated when mostly technical violations. Immediately holding violators in prison shows them the state “means it.”
Community-based treatment and diversion programs helped in Texas, as did shortened probation times. Nevada provides credits for education, vocation and abuse treatment. Mississippi reduced the nonviolent offender time actually spent in prison. Other useful tools: development of more accurate risk assessment, polls taken supporting alternatives to prison, and focus on cost-benefit analysis.
But Pew Center found the budget pressure played the big starting role. “Corrections cost has quadrupled in just the past 20 years and now account for one of every state general fund discretion dollar. Correction has been the second fastest growing category of state budgets behind only Medicaid and nearly 90 percent of that spending has gone to prisons.”
Pew writers claim, “No matter what happens in the short term, the United States will continue to lead the world in incarcerations for the foreseeable future.”
The Chieftain
DENVER — A bill that calls for one Colorado prison to close by Nov. 1 gained preliminary approval in the House on Friday.
Under HB1421, Colorado Department of Corrections Executive Director Ari Zavaras would choose which prison to shutter. Eleven prisons meet the criteria outlined in the bill — eight of them in Southern Colorado. A DOC spokeswoman said even if a prison is decommissioned by the bill, no jobs will be lost.
Originally, the bill sought to redirect a portion of funds saved by closing a prison to anti-recidivism programs at private prisons in the state. However, it was amended in the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday and on the floor Friday to instead devote funds to staffing levels at state-run prisons and existing programs for inmate treatment and preparation for release. The committee passed the bill on a 6-5 vote.
After the amendments, none of the savings would be earmarked for private prisons, and inmates from whichever prison would close would be transferred to state prisons rather than private ones, as long as bed space is available.
Provisions also were added to address the possibility that DOC can't assess and designate a prison for closure by the Nov. 1 deadline.
Fiscal analysis of the bill used Fort Lyon Correctional Facility as an example and showed that the state would save $7 million in the fiscal year 2010-11, and $10 million in the fiscal year 2011-12 if that prison closed.
One of the bill's sponsors, House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, said just because Fort Lyon — located 90 miles east of Pueblo — was used as an example, it shouldn't be assumed that it is the site that will be selected.
"Fort Lyon was selected for fiscal analysis as a low-ball estimate, a conservative representation of the savings," Weissmann said. "You can't rule out Fort Lyon or any number of the facilities that meet the criteria of this bill, for that matter. That would be for the Department of Corrections to decide."
And that process hasn't begun, according to DOC spokeswoman Monica Crocker.
"We do not have a priority list or a clear-cut facility that meets the criteria" for closure, she said.
The Denver Post I'll keep writing about the case against Tyler Sanchez until someone in Douglas County speaks out about People's Exhibit #1.
Sanchez, 19, will face trial for a break-in and sexual assault that common sense and a motherlode of evidence suggest he didn't commit.
The system failed him when Parker police hauled him in last summer, ostensibly related to a string of burglaries in the Stonegate neighborhood.
It failed him again when — ignoring signs that he is hearing-impaired and mentally disabled— sheriff's deputies turned the questioning into a 17-hour interrogation about the unsolved assault. An 8-year-old reported being fondled by an intruder who climbed through a second-story window of her family's home in the housing tract a week earlier.
It kept failing him when prosecutors continued pressing charges despite serious holes in the case described by Judge Susanna Meissner- Cutler as "contradictions," "inconsistencies" and "speculations." Among those is the fact that the thin redhead looks nothing like the older, bigger, brown-haired intruder described by the victim. Oh, and that DA Carol Chambers asserts that nothing is proved by the fact that DNA analysis of the girl's panties — the key physical evidence — shows the profiles of two men, neither of them Sanchez. She also disputes that he is cognitively delayed.
The system further failed him Wednesday, when the judge ruled he must face trial based solely on a single piece of highly questionable evidence. People's Exhibit #1 is an 11-sentence statement Sanchez wrote after detectives broke him down 37 hours after his arrest. Sentence by sentence, it parrots the detectives, echoing verbatim details they admit they repeatedly fed him during their interrogation.
"First when I got off work from a bad night I decide to go chill out and drive around in my car for a little while," it starts.
Guard Error Led To Alaska Uprising At Colo. Prison
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ― The company that operates a Colorado prison for Alaska inmates said an error by a guard led to an uprising at the Hudson Correctional Facility.
A correctional officer in a central area electronically unlocked the cells of 41 inmates, Cornell Companies spokesman Charles Seigel told The Anchorage Daily News on Thursday. The mistake at 1:20 a.m. on April 14 allowed prisoners into corridors of the segregation unit, which holds problem inmates.
At least eight prisoners refused to go back into their cells and attempted to break into an office where two guards had barricaded themselves. A prison tactical team ended the disturbance six hours later. Some inmates suffered minor injuries.
The guard responsible for the breach has resigned. Seigel said he thought at least a couple of the instigators in the disturbance had been moved to a Colorado state prison.
The prison at Hudson, about 25 miles northeast of Denver, opened in November and holds about 900 inmates, all from Alaska. Cornell is looking into making improvements in the security system, Seigel said.
Corrections officials from Colorado and Alaska also have been investigating what happened.
Colorado's private prison monitoring unit and inspector general's office are involved, said Monica Crocker, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections.
The Bill
16-3-310. Oral advisement and written consent prior to search
of a vehicle or a person during a police contact. (1) (a) PRIOR TO
CONDUCTING A CONSENSUAL SEARCH OF A PERSON WHO IS NOT UNDER
ARREST, THE PERSON'S EFFECTS, OR A VEHICLE, A PEACE OFFICER SHALL
COMPLY WITH PARAGRAPH (b) OF THIS SUBSECTION (1).
(b) A PEACE OFFICER MAY CONDUCT A CONSENSUAL SEARCH ONLY
AFTER ARTICULATING THE FOLLOWING FACTORS TO, AND SUBSEQUENTLY
RECEIVING CONSENT FROM, THE PERSON SUBJECT TO THE SEARCH OR THE
PERSON WITH THE APPARENT OR ACTUAL AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE
PERMISSION TO SEARCH THE VEHICLE OR EFFECTS. THE FACTORS ARE:
(I) THE PERSON IS BEING ASKED TO VOLUNTARILY CONSENT TO A
SEARCH; AND
(II) THE PERSON HAS THE RIGHT TO REFUSE THE REQUEST TO SEARCH.
(c) AFTER PROVIDING THE ADVISEMENT REQUIRED IN PARAGRAPH (b)
OF THIS SUBSECTION (1), A PEACE OFFICER MAY CONDUCT THE REQUESTED
SEARCH ONLY IF THE PERSON SUBJECT TO THE SEARCH VOLUNTARILY
PROVIDES VERBAL OR WRITTEN CONSENT. OTHER EVIDENCE OF KNOWING
AND VOLUNTARY CONSENT MAY BE ACCEPTABLE, IF THE PERSON IS UNABLE
TO PROVIDE WRITTEN OR VERBAL CONSENT.
(2) A PEACE OFFICER PROVIDING THE ADVISEMENT REQUIRED
PURSUANT TO SUBSECTION (1) OF THIS SECTION NEED NOT PROVIDE A
SPECIFIC RECITATION OF THE ADVISEMENT; SUBSTANTIAL COMPLIANCE WITH
THE SUBSTANCE OF THE FACTORS IS SUFFICIENT TO COMPLY WITH THE
REQUIREMENT.
(3) IF A DEFENDANT MOVES TO SUPPRESS ANY EVIDENCE OBTAINED
IN THE COURSE OF THE SEARCH, THE COURT SHALL CONSIDER THE FAILURE
TO COMPLY WITH THE REQUIREMENTS OF THIS SECTION AS A FACTOR
NY TIMES
The Census Bureau is hiring a million or more people to assist with the 2010 count. It is temporary work, but it pays well. With national unemployment at nearly 10 percent, it looks like an excellent opportunity. That is unless you are one of the nearly 50 million Americans with any arrest or conviction on record.
A new class-action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of applicants who say they were unfairly turned down for census jobs based on an opaque screening policy that relies on F.B.I. checks for any criminal histories. Those checks are notoriously unreliable. A 2006 federal report found that half of them were inaccurate or out of date.
The Census Bureau is vague about what makes someone ineligible. In Congressional testimony, it suggested that it is excluding people who have been convicted of crimes involving violence and dishonesty. The bureau’s Web site seems to say that applicants whose background checks turn up any arrest — no matter how trivial, distant in time, irrelevant to the job — receive a letter advising them that they can remain eligible only if they produce “official court documentation” bearing on the case within 30 days. Incredibly, the letter does not identify the alleged criminal activity. Applicants must prove eligibility, even if they don’t know why they were flagged.
Official court records are often unobtainable for the millions of people whose convictions have been sealed or expunged or for people who have been arrested and released because of lack of evidence or mistaken arrest. This problem falls heaviest on black and Hispanic communities where stop-and-frisk policies and indiscriminate arrests are common.
The hiring problem is not limited to the Census Bureau. After 9/11, Congress required port workers to undergo F.B.I. background checks to keep their jobs. Last year, a study by the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for workers, found that the government had mistakenly denied credentials to tens of thousands of those workers.
States and cities are wisely revising employment policies. The federal government needs to develop a fair and transparent screening system for job applicants and a more effective appeals process. Congress must also require the F.B.I. to verify the criminal records — and find missing data before issuing background checks.
The Denver Channel CANON CITY, Colo. -- Long dubbed "Old Max," Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility sits quietly on the outskirts of Canon City. Built in 1871, CTCF has never been closed at any time, and renovations have many inmates looking forward to new classroom space in the near future.
"About 95 percent of our inmates will one day be back in our neighborhoods," said Administrative Services Manager Mary Ann Aldrich. "So it's worth our time and energy to do what we can to give them educational skills, vocational certificates, apprenticeships; whatever we can do to help them be able to make a good living whenever they get out." With the focus on being able to make positive transitions back into the community, the educational programs through CTCF have waiting lists. One building on CTCF grounds houses a line of classrooms called "education row," with five to six classes going twice a day for about three hours each. Anthony Johnson, who has another nine months on his sentence, said he is trying to take advantage of as many classes as he can. "I take a couple of college courses through Adams State," said Johnson, who takes evening courses in algebra and environmental science. "They send teachers here. I'm tired of the tough guy career. I'm trying to do something to make my family and myself proud. I'm trying to be more of a positive role-model for my peers." In addition to his college courses, Johnson spends the morning in educator Becky Kelly's health class. He plans to go into the cosmetology courses in the near future. After the recent closure of the women's prison, the cosmetology program was moved into the men's prison, and has received popular appraisal among the inmates who are waiting for a new saloon-style classroom. "This is the first cosmo program in a men's prison," said instructor Rebecca Roller. "It is exactly like the course taught at PCC or any other cosmetology courses. Once these guys are done, they'll be able to go to the state board and get a provisional license. It's a very good incentive program." Both the culinary arts and cosmetology programs within CTCF are self-supporting. Culinary arts instructor Russ Crawford has been with CTCF five years and works with a dozen students up to 35 hours a week for their 10 college credits through Pueblo Community College. "This is a part of the segment of the job market that's increasing. They always need cooks and food service," Crawford said. "And, they take great pride in doing a good job. The biggest thing for us is to get them thinking along those lines. When they do graduate, they are so proud and that's why we have a graduation ceremony." Waiting times for the classes are not necessarily based on a first-come basis. Often, an inmate with a closer release date will be moved to the top of the list in order to prepare them for the transition. Health class student David Brumbley said he is hoping to get into other classes, but with a 2025 possible release date, he knows his wait is longer. "I'd love to get into computer class, but my out date is too far away right now," Brumbley said. "There's people getting out sooner, which it will help, so they give them priority. It makes sense. I don't like it, but it makes sense." CTCF also offers courses or vocational programming in janitorial, plumbing, electrical, construction, landscaping, canine training, adult basic education and GED. Colorado Correctional industries programs are those which have to produce money, such as the license plate manufacturing and the canine training program. "It would be great to have more," Kelly said. "But with the budget, we're lucky to have the teachers we have. Luckily, we have a governor that's pro-programs. The more education you have when you leave, the better your chances are of not coming back." Those students who complete a certificate program often use their skills within CTCF during their time. "If you look at the statistics of men's facilities," Johnson said, "men who are in an educational program that suits them and interests them are less prone to get into risky or violent behavior."
Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority experiments remain one of the most
inspired contributions in the field of social psychology. Although Milgram undertook
more than 20 experimental variations, his most (in)famous result was the first official
trial run – the remote condition and its 65% completion rate. Drawing on many
unpublished documents from Milgram’s personal archive at Yale University, this article
traces the historical origins and early evolution of the obedience experiments. Part 1
presents the previous experiences that led to Milgram’s conception of his rudimentary
research idea and then details the role of his intuition in its refinement. Part 2 traces
the conversion of Milgram’s evolving idea into a reality, paying particular attention to
his application of the exploratory method of discovery during several pilot studies.
Both parts illuminate Milgram’s ad hoc introduction of various manipulative techniques
and subtle tension-resolving refinements. The procedural adjustments continued
until Milgram was confident that the first official experiment would produce a high
completion rate, a result contrary to expectations of people’s behaviour. Showing how
Milgram conceived of, then arrived at, this first official result is important because the
insights gained may help others to determine theoretically why so many participants
completed this experiment.
Chowchilla, California - High in the mountains overlooking Bakersfield and the south end of the San Joaquin Valley is a piece of California's past, the California Correctional Institution, or as inmates know it, Tehachapi.
It was one of the state's first big prisons, built at the height of the Great Depression in 1933 to contain the unraveling social fabric of Hoovervilles, high unemployment, a vast influx of Dust Bowl refugees, and left-wing political movements spreading like wildfire.
The penitentiary spreads across 1,650 acres of a remote desert valley. Designed for 2,785 inmates, it now holds 5,806 - 200% of an already inhumane standard. And while it was built as the original California Institute for Women, today its only inhabitants are men.
Jazzman Art Pepper, son of a Los Angeles longshoreman, lived in its cells for four and a half years in the 1950s. Like Pepper, today's prison inmates are mostly there because of drugs. Pepper would have recognized them for another reason. Tehachapi's inmates are almost all Black and Latino, like the rest of California's prisoners, and have been since the prison system began. And poor.
While Tehachapi was mentioned in "The Maltese Falcon," people like Hammett's middle-class grifters don't normally wind up there. Having no money is practically a requirement for residence.
When teachers and home-care workers rallied down below in Bakersfield on March 5, and kicked off the March for California's Future, few had more than a vague idea of the kind of presence Tehachapi and its fellow institutions would cast over them as they walked up the San Joaquin Valley to Sacramento. They then spent 48 days in a traveling protest over the extreme budget cuts that have cost the jobs of thousands of California teachers, and threaten those of thousands of other public workers.
USA Today WASHINGTON — President Obama has received more
petitions for pardons and shorter prison sentences
than previous presidents at this point in office, and
he hasn't approved a single one. Obama has already logged 2,361 clemency
petitions, according to the Justice Department. He
also faces a backlog of 2,173 old requests, a legacy
of a system that civil rights groups and conservative
jurists say has fallen into disuse. Not since Gerald Ford, who approved more than
150 clemency petitions in his first year in office, has
a president granted mercy more than 10 times early
in his tenure. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each
waited about two years to approve a pardon or
shorten a prison sentence, records show. "The incredibly pernicious political atmosphere
makes it difficult for even a president who wanted to
use the power," says Daniel Kobil, a professor at
Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio. HOPING FOR CLEMENCY: Convict seeks reduction in
crack penalty
Westword
Today at 2 p.m., the public will be able to comment as House Bill 1284 reaches a senate committee.
It's sure to be a contentious session, since even pro-regulation advocates like Matt Brown see the latest version of the measure as regressive, and Senator Chris Romer is eager to add controversial amendments like one that bans everyone 21-and-under from dispensaries and envisions licensing fees of up to $35,000.
As for Sensible Colorado head Brian Vicente, he has assembled a medical-marijuana-industry ballot initiative that he'll withhold if the final measure is to his liking. And if not? "We're ready to hit the ground and gather signatures as needed," he says. Vicente feels lawmakers "went over the top with discriminating against people with prior criminal records and preventing them from taking part in this new health-care field. It's my understanding that you're ineligible if you had any drug felony, including possession, ever, and that's just wildly overly prejudicial. You could have someone who was growing a single marijuana plant back in the '70s to help someone deal with cancer -- and if they were convicted, they wouldn't be eligible to engage in this industry thirty years later. I think they've gone way too far in that provision, and they're not reflective of societal norms.
"Today, we have medical marijuana laws in place and taken many activities that used to be crimes and completely legitimized them. And now we're saying that people who were using marijuana medically fifteen years ago or more are forever ineligible to take part in this program?"
In addition, the rejiggered bill gives municipalities the right to ban dispensaries. "That's a really difficult sticking point for Sensible Colorado," Vicente says. "Banning dispensaries is the equivalent of banning pharmacies in Colorado. I think patients should have convenient access to medicine and not have to take a bus out of town to get their doctor-sanctioned medicine."
One way cities can ban dispensaries is to put the question on the ballot -- something Vicente might be able to accept. But he's distressed at the prospect that "a city council can ban dispensaries, like Aurora has. You've got overly conservative council members there who are voting to discriminate against the minority, which is poor, sick patients -- and they shouldn't have the power to deny these individuals access to health care without a full vote of the people in that community."
Of course, these aspects of the bill can still be removed. Should they remain, Vicente is prepared to formally launch his initiative.
"We're seeing more restrictions being pushed by some legislators and, frankly, by the governor's office -- and their chief concern doesn't seem to be looking out for patients. I think they're coming more from a law-enforcement standpoint.
"That's one of the reasons why we're closely watching this legislation move forward and reserving the right to go to the people."
The Coloradoan Bipartisan legislation that takes steps to redefine
substance abuse as a public health concern rather
than a criminal offense makes sense for offenders,
families and taxpayers alike. Colorado House Bill 1352, which passed the House
last week and is expected to be taken up in the
Senate today, contains two important elements: > It realigns state law to fairly reflect what the
judicial system already has aimed to do - direct
drug offenders who are primarily users and addicts
to community intervention programs rather than to
jail or prison. The drug sentencing reform bill does
this by reducing the crime of drug use from a Class
6 felony to a Class 2 misdemeanor. If evidence
exists that even a small amount of drugs were
possessed with intent to distribute, prosecutors can
still file a criminal charge of drug distribution. > And the legislation requires cost savings from
this bill to be evaluated annually by the Division of
Criminal Justice, which will file a report with the
state Legislature's Joint Budget Committee. The bill
requires the Legislature to appropriate savings
generated by the bill to the Drug Offender Treatment
Fund. Stakeholders will develop a plan for treatment
of substance abuse or co-occurring disorders to
ensure consistent treatment approaches.
DENVER — A bill introduced in the state Legislature Monday would close a state-run prison by Nov. 1.
Under HB1421, a prison with a capacity of at least 500 beds would be shuttered, with at least 20 percent of the savings redirected during the fiscal year 2010-11 to recidivism-reduction programs at private prisons.
The director of the Colorado Department of Corrections would determine which prison would close.
The bill cites the state's decreased revenue and its reduction in prison population as factors driving the proposal. It has bipartisan sponsorship from party leadership in the House, with House Majority Leader Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville, and House Minority Leader Mike May, R-Parker, as its co-sponsors.
It comes on the heels of a $10 million budget provision for the same fiscal year to open a portion of Colorado State Penitentiary II to house more than 300 prisoners.
More changes in store for medical marijuana rules - The Denver Post DENVER—State lawmakers are close to cracking down on shady doctors who are writing medical marijuana recommendations but, with just about two weeks to go, they're still trying to figure out how—and whether—to regulate dispensaries.
A proposal to license dispensaries, require owners to undergo criminal background checks and to grow most of the marijuana they sell (House Bill 1284) is set to get its first hearing in the Senate on Tuesday. Sponsor Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, thinks about 80 percent of the estimated 1,000 dispensaries in the state wouldn't be able to pass muster and would have to close. He believes about 200 dispensaries would be enough to provide medical marijuana to the estimated 100,000 people entitled to use the drug legally.
"My intention is to get the thugs and the knuckleheads out of the business," said Romer, who wants to set the license application fees at between $10,000 and $35,000 depending on the size of the dispensary.
He also plans to make more changes to the regulations including barring those under 21 from entering dispensaries and prevent people from out-of-state moving to Colorado to open a dispensary. The current slate of regulations has already approved by the House so any more amendments made in the Senate would have to go back to the House for another vote.
Meanwhile, a group of Republican lawmakers wants to ask voters to just ban dispensaries altogether. Their proposed referendum would require that only actual people—not shops—be able to provide medical marijuana to patients and that those caregivers also help patients with the daily necessities of life. They need to get support from two-thirds of lawmakers to get it on the ballot.
Prosecutors and Attorney General John Suthers have been urging lawmakers not to regulate dispensaries because they say that will legitimize an industry that they say wasn't sanctioned under the medical marijuana law passed by voters in 2000. Backers of Amendment 20 point out that the law does reference dispensing of the drug.
Lawmakers are close to passing a less controversial measure (Senate Bill 109) that bars doctors from writing medical marijuana recommendations if their medical license isn't active or has been restricted by regulators of if they've lost their federal certification to prescribe drugs.
Ned Calonge, the state's chief medical officer, said about 15 doctors have written about 80 percent of the medical marijuana licenses and seven of them have restricted licenses. The medical marijuana registry is confidential and he says that has kept him from referring any cases to the medical examiners' board for investigation. He said the bill will make it clear that he can ask the board to investigate and allow him to turn over records with patient information redacted.
Many dispensaries want lawmakers to pass regulations for their shops, both to legitimize their industry and protect them from possible federal drug raids. However, smaller operators fear the current proposal that they grow 70 percent of their pot themselves will drive them out of business. Lawmakers say the limit will make it easier to track sales to ensure that they're legal.
In the middle are patients, whom advocates say are being forgotten in the rush to get a handle of dispensaries.
The proposed regulations would allow cities to ban dispensaries within their boundaries. City councils or voters could approve such a ban. Anyone who has been convicted of a drug felony would be barred from running a dispensary.
Both Syringe Exchange and the Drug Sentencing Reform bill passed out of their respective committees unanimously. Thank you goes out to Senators Mitchell and Steadman. SB 179 passed 2nd reading today in the Senate. The bill proposes to restore the voting rights of people paroled from felony convictions, and facilitate the voting rights of eligible voters in the criminal justice system.
Statesman Journal
Nearly half of Oregon's 14,000 prisoners — 6,797 — are mentally ill, according to the Department of Corrections.
This troubling convict population has boomed during the past decade and now is 10 times larger than the mental patient population at the 627-bed Oregon State Hospital in Salem.
Alarmed by the rising number of mentally ill convicts, prison officials plan to create a new multipurpose mental health center at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, just south of the state hospital.
The penitentiary's "super max" unit, officially called the Intensive Management Unit, will be converted into three therapy-minded units.
For two decades, the IMU has operated as a tightly controlled compound within the now-2,000-inmate prison. It corrals belligerent and disruptive inmates — some mentally ill — in their cells for more than 23 hours per day.
By the end of this year, the two-story IMU facility will get a facelift to soften its austere environment, and will begin serving a therapeutic role.
"With the types of programs we want to bring in there, we need to bring in some acoustic sound proofing and lighten it up with some paint," said Brian Belleque, DOC administrator for the west side institutions.
Mental health services are planned for three of the four units in the IMU building:
NY TIMES
As more and more states allow medical use of the drug, and California considers outright legalization, marijuana’s supporters are pushing hard to burnish the image of pot by franchising dispensaries and building brands; establishing consulting, lobbying and law firms; setting up trade shows and a seminar circuit; and constructing a range of other marijuana-related businesses.
Boosters say it is all part of a concerted effort to trade the drug’s trippy, hippie counterculture past for what they believe will inevitably be a more buttoned-up future.
“I don’t possess a Nehru jacket, I’ve never grown a goatee, I’ve never grown my hair past the nape of my neck,” Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said. “And I don’t like patchouli.”
Steve DeAngelo, the president of CannBe — a marketing, lobbying and consulting firm here — will not even use the word “marijuana.” Calling it pejorative, he prefers the scientific term “cannabis.”
“We want to make it safe, seemly and responsible,” Mr. DeAngelo said of marijuana.
BUENA VISTA — Inmates have been tending trout at the medium-security prison in Buena Vista for 24 years but a streamlined operation has increased production and landed a deal from a major natural foods retailer. Colorado Correctional Industries, already known for its organic tilapia raised at the East Canon Prison Complex in Canon City, now makes fresh rainbow trout available for sale by Whole Foods markets in Colorado.
Correctional Industries took over the Buena Vista trout operation in 1990.
Production of 65,000 rainbow trout annually has increased to 200,000 thanks to expansion and improved practices.
Eight inmates work at the Buena Vista trout farm, said Jim Heaston, Correctional Industries agricultural operations manager.
The inmates start out by hatching the fish eggs in hatching jars before the tiny trout, also known as fry, are released to grow in outdoor flow-through cement ponds.
Once they reach the size of about half a pound, or 6-inches in length, some of the 5-month-old trout are purchased by the Colorado Division of Wildlife for release into Colorado's lakes and streams.
Imagine awaiting the birth of your child from a jail cell. That's a reality for countless women around the country, sentenced for a crime while pregnant. Another reality: once they deliver, chances are they'll be separated from their child within hours as the baby is taken to relatives or foster care. When you're a pregnant inmate, you can't exactly keep your baby with you in prison. Or can you?
Sharlene Henry, 29, was pregnant when sentenced to seven-years for criminal possession of a controlled substance. The thought of having her baby in prison was so devastating that she almost decided not to. She scheduled an appointment to end the pregnancy, but ultimately couldn't do it. As fate would have it, Henry was sentenced to New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women. The prison houses the country's oldest prison nursery, a program allowing non-violent offenders with relatively short sentences to keep their babies for up to 18 months. Now, Henry is raising seven-month old Delilah with her in prison, a crib right there in the cell.
Prison nurseries are a new trend emerging in the criminal justice system. There are nine nurseries nationwide and more than half have opened in the last 15 years. They're partly a result of a new sense of social responsibility and the Department of Corrections' desire to keep families intact. But they are also the result of sheer numbers: there are more women in prison than ever before, and more need for programs like these.
I visited two nurseries for my special report "Mara Schiavocampo Reports: Mothers Behind Bars." At Bedford Hills, where I met Sharlene and Delilah Henry, there are nine babies, as well as a few women waiting to give birth. The wing where the infants live looks typically institutional; fluorescent lights, linoleum flooring, mint green walls.
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — As many as 40,000 San Francisco drug cases handled by Deborah Madden, the former police laboratory technician suspected of stealing cocaine booked as evidence, may need to be reviewed and it's going to take money to do it, Public Defender Jeff Adachi told a Board of Supervisors' committee Monday.
"We're being deluged with calls from people in prison, asking us to review their cases," Adachi said after a morning-long hearing on the police crime-lab scandal. He already has asked the mayor's office for money to hire two more people to help deal with the load.
"There's a substantial amount of work that needs to be done," Adachi said.
The 40,000 cases is a matter of simple math, the public defender added: Madden was questioned about 4 grams of cocaine missing from evidence she handled in 2005, so every case she handled since then should be suspect.
Conflict of interest? Adachi also slammed the conduct of both the police and the district attorney's office, arguing that neither agency can fairly investigate Madden when her job for 29 years was to help police and prosecutors.
They have a vested interest in minimizing her criminal involvement so that fewer drug cases get tossed out, Adachi said.
"Why should the district attorney be in charge of prosecuting one of their star witnesses?" Adachi asked after the hearing. "She testified every day for them in court. They were in the business of bolstering her credibility."
He also complained that the police were dragging their feet by refusing to file charges against Madden quickly.
"I've never seen a stronger case," Adachi said.
Back off, Gascón says Police Chief George Gascón rejected any suggestion that his department should pass the Madden case to the state Department of Justice or another agency.
"It's putting the cart before the horse" to say the San Francisco Police Department shouldn't be investigating the matter, the chief said at a news conference.
"I was brought in to fix this Police Department," said Gascón, who took over as chief in July. "It was understood that it needed to be reformed, and that I was the one to do it. ... We have been very transparent. Until someone proves that I am not transparent, they need to back off."
Madden allegedly told investigators she began taking cocaine from the crime lab in October. She took a leave from her job in December, just weeks before lab supervisors discovered that cocaine was missing from evidence she had handled. She retired March 1.
Drug testing at the lab was stopped last month in the wake of a police investigation into the lab and its operation.
'This lab is a mess' "There is no doubt this lab is a mess. ... I know there are issues in the lab," said Assistant Chief Jeff Godown, whom Gascón has tapped to run the investigation into what went wrong with the lab and come up with solutions. "It's a daunting task, but it will be taken care of."
Westword
Our cover story this week recounts the tale of Alan Sudduth, a juvenile who was sentenced to seventy years in prison in 1996 for the murder of a cab driver -- even though a recent hearing showed that the prosecution's case was full of holes, earning Sudduth a new trial.
Sudduth was caught up in a movement that grew out of the so-called Summer of Violence in 1993, which gave prosecutors more leeway to "direct file" charges against kids as adults, without having to hold a hearing to determine whether the defenders should be taken out of juvenile court. Colorado's direct-file system has been criticized by criminal defenders and youth advocates ever since -- and Sudduth's case may be a glaring example of the system's drawbacks.
The state's current direct-file system was a response to growing concerns about crime in the 1990s, says Kim Dvorchak, chair of the Colorado Juvenile Defender Division. "What had been happening before was that when a child committed a serious crime, the DA would have to petition the juvenile court judge to waive jurisdiction and send the case to adult district court," she says. "In the 1990s, crime went up and the judicial transfer process was perceived as cumbersome. You had to have a hearing. There were defense lawyers involved and they might get evaluations and evidence. It was like a mini-trial."
So to get tough on crime, the Colorado Legislature passed a series of laws that allowed prosecutors to bypass judicial hearings and direct file kids fourteen and older for class 1 or class 2 felonies and other crimes. That gave DA;s offices widespread new authority, says Dvorchak. "The direct-file statute relieves a prosecutor of having to prove the child is no longer amenable to treatment in the juvenile system," she explains. "Even when prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, they have to give notice. It's a separate sentencing hearing, and a jury decides whether or not to impose the death penalty. Even that level of due process is absent from the direct-file statute."
Colorado isn't unique in having direct-file laws. Fourteen states allow district attorneys to direct file kids as adults, something often referred to as judicial waiver. Some states have even passed mandatory waiver laws, meaning that kids over a certain age accused of first-degree murder have to be charged in adult court, no matter what defense attorneys or prosecutors might say.
But Colorado is unique in one regard, says Dvorchak: "We have no ability to return kids to juvenile court. The majority of other states that have direct-file or mandatory waiver laws give the child an opportunity to challenge adult-court jurisdiction either at pretrial or at sentencing. As Colorado's direct-file statute currently stands, there is no provision that allows defense attorneys to challenge the prosecutors' decision that a child should be subject to adult laws instead of juvenile laws."
And that's a problem, says Dvorchak, because once such a decision is made, it can have drastic consequences on the kids involved. For one thing, as part of a direct file, the prosecutors can decide the youth should stay in adult jail pending the conclusion of the trial. Since these jails don't have separate facilities for juveniles and the kids can't be mixed in with the older inmates, that often means the youths are subjected to 23- or 24-hour cell lockdown. There are often few of the recreation and education opportunities available at juvenile facilities, and the young inmates aren't allowed contact visits with their families. "The conditions are almost like death row," says Dvorchak. "They have worse conditions than the adults."
Over the past couple of years, there have been two prominent examples of teenagers committing suicide while incarcerated in local adult jails, one in Pueblo and one in Denver.
Dvorchak says there are also major problems with sending kids through court proceedings designed for adults. "Reports have found that prosecuting children in adult court increases recidivism," she says. "Children's experiences going through the adult court proceedings are so negative. In juvenile court, it's a much friendlier atmosphere. Most people in the juvenile court system are interested in rehabilitating these kids, getting them on the right track. That's not what happens in adult criminal court. It's a much more sterile environment."
That was one reason there was an atmosphere of triumph on the E-Wing of the Decatur Correctional Center, as prison officials, community volunteers, inmates and former inmates marked the third anniversary of an innovative program that allows women to keep their babies with them in prison.
The infants live with their mothers on a unit on which each mother has her own room, with access to large day rooms decorated with colorful murals and outdoor patios. There are plenty of toys and books throughout the unit.
Michael Randle, director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, commended the program, noting it is important that infants bond with their mothers during the first 18 months of their lives.
But the comment that sparked thunderous applause was related to the thorny issue of recidivism.
"Of the 25 offenders that have gone through this program, none, zero, have returned to this prison," Randle said. "That is certainly something you all should be proud of. Today is a celebration of your success."
Women now living in "the free world" were invited to the celebration, partly to show current inmates what success looks like.
Sylvia Martinez, 21, said she was reluctant to come back to the prison that she was so happy to leave on May 8, 2009, but she felt an obligation to let people know how much the program helped her. She returned with her 2-year-old Chloe, an energetic redhead who had spent most of her life on E-Wing.
"I cried a little bit when I came back in," Martinez said.
She said she cried much more when she first entered the unit as a pregnant 18-year-old in September 2007, convicted on a methamphetamine charge.
While she was an inmate at Dwight Correctional Center, a large maximum-security facility, she heard about the new program at Decatur, which is structured to serve women who will be released by the time their children reach 2 years old.
Chloe was born in Decatur Memorial Hospital on Dec. 19, 2007, two days after her mother's 19th birthday. Martinez was allowed to stay in the hospital with Chloe for a few days before they both settled on the Mom and Babies Unit.
Martinez was given about six weeks without a work assignment, a prison version of maternity leave, to focus on bonding with Chloe and developing good parenting skills. She received help from staff members and inmates on the unit, who are all mothers, all trained in child development and CPR.
When Martinez settled into a routine, which included studying for her GED and attending substance abuse classes, she realized her attitude was changing. The change was partly an outgrowth of the "really good bond" she was forming with Chloe.
"I was determined to get out and be the best mom for her," Martinez said, "so she wouldn't end up here."
SB 193 (use of restraints on pregnant inmates in labor)
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
SB 193: Concerning the Safe Treatment of Pregnant Persons in Custody
Sponsors: Senator Hudak and Representative Levy
Description: SB 193 was just recently introduced and addresses the use of restraints on pregnant women in custody or confined in prisons, city/county jails, juvenile detention facilities, or department of human service facilities. SB 193 would prohibit the use of restraints on a pregnant inmate during delivery, postpartum recovery, or transport to or from a medical facility for childbirth unless medical staff or corrections staff determine that the woman poses an immediate and serious risk of harm to herself or medical staff or the woman posses a substantial risk of escape that cannot be reasonably reduced by another method.
The contact information for the Senate Judiciary Committee members is listed below. Please ask them to SUPPORT SB 193. Senator Hudak, the bill sponsor, is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. If you contact her, please thank her for her leadership.
MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2010 AT 1:30PM
HB 1352 (drug sentencing reform)
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
HB 1352:Drug sentencing reform.
Sponsors: Representative Mark Waller (R) and Senators Steadman (D) and Mitchell (R)
Co-sponsors: Representatives Pace (D), Court (D), Gardner B (R), Gerou (R), Kagan (D), King S. (R), Levy (D), Looper (R), Massey (R), May (R), McCann (D), Miklosi (D), Nikkel (R), Roberts (R), Ryden (D) and Stephens (R) and Senators Carroll M.(D), Hudak (D), Morse (D), Newell (D), Penry (R), and White (R)
Status: HB 1352 was passed by the House on a vote of 58-5 with two excused. It will be heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, April 26, 2010.
Description: This bill is based on recommendations approved by the Colorado Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice. It would reduce penalties for the crime of drug use or possession and redirect cost savings in corrections to substance abuse and mental health treatment. The bill also creates enhanced penalties for adults convicted of selling drugs to a minor. The bill also makes two changes to the special offender statute to exclude “simple possession” quantities from an enhancement for importation and redefines the nexus required for the sentence enhancement for involvement of a weapon during a drug offense. In 2010, $1.5 million will be allocated to expand funding for substance abuse treatment to people in the criminal justice system.
The following are the three Republican members that have not yet indicated their position on HB 1352.
SB 189: Concerning Authorization for Government Agencies to Approve Clean Syringe Exchange Programs to Reduce the Spread of Blood-Borne Disease
Sponsors: Senator Steadman (D) and Representative Weissmann (D)
Status: SB 189 was passed on third reading in the Senate on a vote of 24-10 (with 1 excused). We will let you know when it has been scheduled to be heard in the House.
Recently, the House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the following four bills! Thank you to all who contacted committee members.
HB 1360: Reducing Revocations for Technical Violations
Sponsors: Representative Pace (D) and Senator Steadman (D)
Description: The bill provides for more funding for re-entry support services for people on parole. It also provides funding for substance abuse and/or mental health treatment options for parolees at risk of revocation with treatment needs. If the parole board revokes parole for a technical violation, the maximum time a parolee with an underlying nonviolent conviction could be reincarcerated for a technical parole violation is 90 days (from the current statutory cap of 180 days) if s/he were assessed as medium risk or below. The current 180 day statutory limit on the period of reincarceration would be retained if the parolee was assessed as high risk, or being revoked to a community return to custody facility or community corrections facility.
HB 1374: Changes to Parole
Sponsors: Representative Ferrandino (D) and Senator Penry (R)
Description: This bill is based on recommendations from the Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice regarding changes to the statutory parole guidelines that encompassed three different recommendations: (1) changes the statutory parole guidelines and requires the parole board to use structured decision-making in both release and revocation hearings; (2) clarifies eligibility for enhanced earned time that was passed last year in HB 09-1351; and (3) repeals some archaic language in statute that mandates the arrest of a parolee under certain circumstances (e.g., if the parolee is in a county where there is a correctional facility without permission of the parole officer).
HB 1373: Sentencing Changes for Escape Crime
Sponsors: Representative T. Carroll (D) and Senator Hudak (D)
Description: This bill is based on a recommendation approved by the Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice. Under current law, a conviction for escape requires the court to impose a mandatory, consecutive sentence and a broad range of scenarios can be considered escape. HB 1373 would exclude diversion clients in community corrections and parolees on intensive supervision from the mandatory, consecutive sentencing requirement, although judges retain the authority to impose a consecutive sentence in any given case. People on “inmate status” would still face the mandatory consecutive sentence, including people in secured correctional facilities, work release, and DOC transition clients in community corrections.
SB 159: Concerning Defendant Statements at a Community Corrections Hearing
Sponsors: Senator Foster (D) and Representative Miklosi (D)
Description: The bill requires that a community corrections board accept a written statement from an inmate regarding a transitional referral if it was timely submitted by the inmate to the DOC case manager. The written statement must be included in the initial electronic referral made by DOC to a community corrections board. Community corrections boards would have the discretion whether to accept a written or oral statement by a third party on behalf of an inmate. Community corrections boards would be required to develop written policies that are publicly accessible regarding written statements or oral presentations by victims or inmate representatives regarding an inmate’s transitional referral to community corrections.
7 DUI cases dismissed after Springs lab errors - The Denver Post COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Seven DUI cases were dismissed and charges were reduced in two others following a review of faulty blood-alcohol tests at the Colorado Springs Metro Crime Lab. Colorado Springs authorities in December announced the discovery of errors and a review of results at the lab where the alcohol content in blood samples was higher than the true result. Earlier this year, officials from the lab said the problems were a result of how a solvent was used by a chemist during the testing process.
In all, the lab retested 7,892 blood alcohol cases dating back to 2006 and found a total of 206 errors. Of the nine affected cases, five defendants had served jail time.
PRESS RELEASE
Doc Berman over at Sentencing Law and Policy posted this press release from the US Sentencing Commission.
Here's a piece but click above to read the whole thing
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Sentencing Commission voted to promulgate sentencing guideline amendments that expand the availability of alternatives to incarceration and address the relevance of certain specific offender characteristics in sentencing. The Commission also voted to promulgate guideline amendments on additional topics including hate crimes, the calculation of a defendant’s criminal history, and sentencing corporate offenders.
The amendment on sentencing alternatives has several key components. First it informs courts that departures from the guidelines may be warranted in situations where an offender’s criminal activity is related to a treatment issue such as drug or alcohol abuse or significant mental illness and sentencing options such as home or community confinement or intermittent confinement would serve a specific treatment purpose. The Commission also recommends in a new application note that courts take into consideration the effectiveness of residential treatment programs as part of their decision to impose community confinement. Second, the Commission voted to increase the availability of alternative sentencing options by expanding by one offense level Zones B and C in the guidelines’ sentencing table. According to the guidelines, offenders in Zones B and C are eligible, in the court’s discretion and subject to statutory limitations, for alternatives to straight imprisonment such as split sentences, home or community confinement.
“The Commission has heard from virtually every sector of the criminal justice community that there is a great need for alternatives to incarceration,” said Chair of the Commission, William K. Sessions III. “Expanding the availability of alternatives to straight incarceration is a public safety issue. Providing flexibility in sentencing for certain low-level, non violent offenders helps lower recidivism, is cost effective, and protects the public. The Commission’s action in this area amounts to a very modest but important step in the right direction.”
DENVER — It's difficult enough to get prosecutors and defense lawyers to agree on basic facts — the sun rising in the morning, for instance.
But on Monday, state Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, convinced interests on both sides of the prison fence that there's value to providing services parolees need to avoid returning to prison and, in turn, spare the state $15 million to use on other programs.
With the support of the state Public Defender, the Colorado District Attorneys Council, the Colorado Department of Corrections, the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition and others that tend to be polarized by law-and-order issues, Pace's HB1360 advanced unanimously Monday through the House Judiciary Committee.
"The whole goal is to take the cost savings from decreased time in prison and use it to prevent people from committing other crimes," Pace said.
About $3.1 million of the savings would be devoted to the programs outlined in Pace's bill.
The bill seeks to reduce the number of parolees who violate conditions of parole without committing new crimes. It aims to isolate the factors that tend to divert released prisoners off the right path and address them specifically. That would be determined using evidence-based formulas for determining likelihood of recidivism, and affording opportunities for treatment to intercede in the cases of parolees who pose the lowest risks.
It provides for halfway house space and treatment in the areas that are most often pitfalls for parolees — such as housing, employment, mental health and substance abuse.
"The keystone in all of this is support services for parolees when they come out of prison," said Christine Donner of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.
The bill would provide for 70 more beds in halfway-house-style situations for parolees who violate technical terms of parole without committing new offenses. By being placed in those settings, they would not take up prison beds and would get the treatment they need to avoid repeating their violations.
The parole board also would have the option of releasing some parolees directly into the programs to prevent violation in the first place.
Pace said in Pueblo, organizations like Crossroads' Turning Points, Spanish Peaks Mental Health Center, Minnequa Community Corrections and Community Corrections Services Inc., could provide the services the bill seeks to make available to parolees to keep them on track.
For those parolees who have violated the rules but are deemed to be low-risk, the bill calls for 90-day sentences in community return to custody facilities — similar to halfway houses — rather than 180-day stays in prison.
The bill will go through the House Appropriations Committee on its way to the House floor for debate.
