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2008 Prison News & Views

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May 2008

Fiscal Pressures Lead Some States to Free Inmates Early

By Keith B. Richburg and Ashley Surdin, Washington Post Staff Writers

5-5-08 -- Reversing decades of tough-on-crime policies, including mandatory minimum prison sentences for some drug offenders, many cash-strapped states are embracing a view once dismissed as dangerously naive: It costs far less to let some felons go free than to keep them locked up. . . . It is a theory that has long been pushed by criminal justice advocates and liberal politicians -- that some felons, particularly those convicted of minor drug offenses, would be better served by treatment, parole or early release for good behavior. But the states' conversion to that view has less to do with a change of heart on crime than with stark fiscal realities. At a time of shrinking resources, prisons are eating up an increasing share of many state budgets. . . . "It's the fiscal stuff that's driving it," said Marc Mauer, executive director of the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that advocates for more lenient sentencing. "Do you want to build prisons or do you want to build colleges? If you're a governor, it's kind of come to that choice right now." . . . Mauer and other observers point to a number of recent actions, some from states facing huge budget shortfalls, some not, but still worried about exploding costs.

NORTH CAROLINA  

When Law Prevents Righting a Wrong

The Nation -- By Adam Liptak

5-4-08 --  STAPLES HUGHES, a North Carolina lawyer, was on the witness stand and about to disclose a secret he believed would free an innocent man from prison. But the judge told Mr. Hughes to stop. . . . “If you testify,” Judge Jack A. Thompson said at a hearing last year on the prisoner’s request for a new trial, “I will be compelled to report you to the state bar. Do you understand that?” . . . But Mr. Hughes continued. Twenty-two years before, he said, a client, now dead, confessed that he had acted alone in committing a double murder for which another man was also serving life. After his own imprisoned client died, Mr. Hughes recalled last week, “it seemed to me at that point ethically permissible and morally imperative that I spill the beans.” . . . Judge Thompson, of the Cumberland County Superior Court in Fayetteville, did not see it that way, and some experts in legal ethics agree with him. The obligation to keep a client’s secrets is so important, they say, that it survives death and may not be violated even to cure a grave injustice — for example, the imprisonment for 26 years of another man, in Illinois, who was freed just last month. . . . A lawyer’s broad duty to keep clients’ confidences is the bedrock on which the justice system is built, they argue. If clients did not feel free to speak candidly, their lawyers could not represent them effectively. And making exceptions risks eroding the trust between clients and their lawyers in future cases. Experts in legal ethics are quick to point out that the various players in the adversary system have assigned roles and that lawyers generally must tend to a limited one. . . . “Lawyers are not undercover informants,” said Stephen Gillers, who teaches legal ethics at New York University. Indeed, said Steven Lubet, who teaches legal ethics at Northwestern, few clients would confess to their lawyers if they knew the lawyers might some day choose to disclose that information.

TEXAS  

Dallas County district attorney wants unethical prosecutors punished

By Jennifer Emily & Steve McGonigle / The Dallas Morning News

5-4-08 -- The Dallas County district attorney who has built a national reputation on freeing the wrongfully convicted says prosecutors who intentionally withhold evidence should themselves face harsh sanctions – possibly even jail time. . . . "Something should be done," said Craig Watkins, whose jurisdiction leads the nation in the number of DNA exonerations. "If the harm is a great harm, yes, it should be criminalized." . . . Wrongful convictions, nearly half of them involving prosecutorial misconduct, have cost Texas taxpayers $8.6 million in compensation since 2001, according to state comptroller records obtained by The Dallas Morning News. Dallas County accounts for about one-third of that. . . . Mr. Watkins said that he was still pondering what kind of punishment unethical prosecutors deserve but that the worst offenders might deserve prison time. He said he also was considering the launch of a campaign to mandate disbarment for any prosecutor found to have intentionally withheld evidence from the defense.

CALIFORNIA  

Court overturns conviction, faults judge's behavior

Justices Blast Former Deputy Da For 'Basically Taking Over The Prosecution,' Lack Of Impartiality

By Karen de Sá, Mercury News

5-3-08 -- The state appeals court on Friday rejected Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Joyce Allegro's handling of a 2006 case marked by bitter court exchanges in which the judge threatened to physically gag a defendant before finally ordering her taken into custody. . . . The 6th District Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of Salee Amina Mohammed on charges that she had failed to appear in court, in a rare published opinion that said the judge had ignored state law. . . . The opinion of the three-judge panel, authored by Justice Franklin Elia, states that Allegro had acted improperly when she refused to dismiss the charges against Mohammed, even though there was no evidence that the defendant knew she needed to appear. By deciding the case on that issue, the court avoided ruling on the defense contention that Allegro had been clearly biased against the defendant in both her rulings and her conduct. . . . Allegro, a former Santa Clara County deputy district attorney, has drawn past criticism for being overly aggressive as a prosecutor; those criticisms have followed her onto the bench. . . . The charges stemmed from whether Mohammed was aware, at the time that she was released from custody on an unrelated charge, that she still had to return to court. Under state law, defendants cannot be released from jail without bail without signing an agreement to appear in court; but in Mohammed's case, the agreement was not signed.

April 2008

PENNSYLVANIA

Group alleges hundreds of county youths denied lawyers

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker, Law & Order Reporter

4-30-08 -- Alleging youths are being denied their right to an attorney, a juvenile rights group Tuesday filed a petition asking the state Supreme Court to intervene in hundreds of past and current Luzerne County juvenile court cases. . . . An attorney for the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia said the center was prompted to act after research showed that 50 percent of youths who went through Luzerne County’s juvenile court system in 2005 and 2006 were not represented by an attorney – a figure the center says is 10 times the state average. . . . The failure to provide even the “most minimal” constitutional protections to those youths resulted in many making admissions of guilt without fully understanding their legal rights or the consequences, said Marsha Levick, the center’s legal director and one of the authors of the petition. . . . “Luzerne County’s juvenile court proceedings represent the most egregious violation of children’s constitutional rights in Pennsylvania,” Levick said. “When more than half of all youth appear in court without legal representation ... something is seriously wrong and it must be stopped.” . . . The petition was filed on behalf of two juveniles who went through the court system in 2007, as well as all juveniles with current cases.

FEDERAL COURTS

Why Wesley Snipes Got the Maximum

By: James Hirsen

4-28-08 -- Wesley Snipes had only been convicted of misdemeanors concerning his failure to file income tax returns. . . . And the action movie star had submitted written character testimonials from Denzel Washington, Woody Harrelson, and television's Judge Joe Brown to assist him in the judge’s consideration of his sentencing. . . . Through his attorneys, Snipes asked for probation rather than prison, which is the normal sentence with a conviction of someone without a criminal history. Still, in spite of it all, U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges sentenced Snipes to three years in prison. . . . Why did this happen? . . . Well, in February 2008, a federal jury acquitted Snipes of felony tax fraud and conspiracy (which could have placed him in the slammer for more than a decade) but convicted the actor on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return. . . . Snipes’ two co-defendants, a defrocked accountant and a tax protest leader, were convicted on the felony counts and may go to jail for 10 years. . . . Because Snipes is a celebrity, his case has received an enormous amount of publicity. In defense of his actions, he essentially asserted tax protest arguments that have consistently been brushed aside by the courts. . . . Unfortunately, unscrupulous people sell books, tapes and the like, which end up convincing some people that they don’t have to pay income tax.

NEW YORK  

Justice denied to many lacking lawyers

William Neukom • Guest essayist

4-27-08 -- How many lawyers should there be in this country? The American Bar Association has no magic number, but believes there should be enough to serve the needs of the public and provide access to the legal system for anyone who wants and needs it. . . . That is not the case now. . . . The ABA takes no position on the merits of establishing a new law school in a given community, but lawyers provide communities with needed services. . . . While in some places, the ratio of lawyers in private practice to the population may seem high, that is not true everywhere. In North Carolina, for example, there was one lawyer in private practice for every 758 people in 2000. In my own state of Washington, the ratio was one lawyer for every 555 people. Some lawyers serve individuals, while others teach, guide corporate business transactions, litigate and generally serve a broad spectrum of our communities. . . . But some segments of our society remain underserved. Surveys show that about 20 percent of the American public lacks access to a lawyer to address basic legal issues that arise in most people's lives — housing issues, tax disputes, contractual problems, family matters, work-related problems, health concerns and the like.

AMERICAN EXCEPTION

Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’

By Adam Liptak

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. . . . Indeed, the United States leads the world in producing prisoners, a reflection of a relatively recent and now entirely distinctive American approach to crime and punishment. Americans are locked up for crimes — from writing bad checks to using drugs — that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. And in particular they are kept incarcerated far longer than prisoners in other nations. . . . Criminologists and legal scholars in other industrialized nations say they are mystified and appalled by the number and length of American prison sentences. . . . The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

CALIFORNIA

Can murder victim's statements be used at trial?

By Mark Sherman,  (AP)

4-22-08 -- Dwayne Giles complains that his former girlfriend's statements should not have been used against him at his murder trial because the woman couldn't be cross-examined. . . . Her absence wasn't a result of a scheduling conflict. She was dead. And Giles killed her. . . . Three California courts that have considered Giles' claim have said, in effect, "You must be kidding." . . . Now, though, the Supreme Court, in arguments scheduled for Tuesday, is hearing Giles' case to see whether the use during his trial of statements the girlfriend made to a Los Angeles police officer violated his constitutional right to confront witnesses against him. . . . The issue the court has agreed to resolve is when defendants forfeit that right. It is already clear that a defendant who kills someone to prevent him from testifying may not come into court and seek to exclude prior statements by the dead person. . . . But this case is one in which there were no charges pending against Giles when he shot Brenda Avie dead with a 9-millimeter handgun outside his grandmother's house in September 2002.

Immunity for prosecutors

Miscarriages of justice cannot be rectified by allowing lawsuits against prosecutors.

The Los Angeles Times Editorial

4-19-08 -- It's hard to imagine a more sympathetic plaintiff than Thomas L. Goldstein, a Long Beach man who spent 24 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit. But the U.S. Supreme Court would be making a mistake if it allowed Goldstein and other wrongfully convicted defendants to sue prosecutors for management decisions that may have contributed to their convictions. . . . This week, the court agreed to review a decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Goldstein may seek damages from former L.A. County Dist. Atty. John Van de Kamp on the theory that the district attorney failed to institute procedures to make sure that trial prosecutors knew if their witnesses had received favors from the government. . . . One such witness, Edward Fink, had testified that Goldstein, his cellmate, had confessed to shooting a neighbor. Fink denied that he had received favors from county officials for incriminating Goldstein, but years later it emerged that Fink had served as a police informant and had received reduced sentences. That fact was known to some officials in the district attorney's office, but not to the trial prosecutors.

MASSACHUSETTS   

High court rules that predators can face charges for online messages

By Globe Staff

4-18-08 -- The state Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a person can be charged with enticing a minor simply by sending online messages. . . . Lawyers for a man appealing his conviction on a child enticement charge argued that he never engaged in anything more than “sending words” over the Internet. They argued that the law required the man to do something more, such as travel to an agreed rendezvous location. . . . Ruling in the case of Commonwealth v. Richard Disler, the SJC disagreed, saying that a person can be charged with enticement, if, with criminal intent, they “employ words, gestures, or other means” to induce a minor to enter or stay in a vehicle, building, or outdoor space. . . . “There is nothing in the language [of the law] that supports the defendant’s contention that, in addition, there must be an overt act in order for the crime of child enticement to occur,” the court said. . . . Disler was convicted after exchanging a series of instant messages with undercover police officers who were posing as a 14-year-old girl.

U.S. to Expand Collection Of Crime Suspects' DNA

Policy Adds People Arrested but Not Convicted

By Ellen Nakashima and Spencer Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writers

4-17-08 -- The U.S. government will soon begin collecting DNA samples from all citizens arrested in connection with any federal crime and from many immigrants detained by federal authorities, adding genetic identifiers from more than 1 million individuals a year to the swiftly growing federal law enforcement DNA database. . . . The policy will substantially expand the current practice of routinely collecting DNA samples from only those convicted of federal crimes, and it will build on a growing policy among states to collect DNA from many people who are arrested. Thirteen states do so now and turn their data over to the federal government. . . . The initiative, to be published as a proposed rule in the Federal Register in coming days, reflects a congressional directive that DNA from arrestees be collected to help catch a range of domestic criminals. But it also requires, for the first time, the collection of DNA samples from people other than U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who are detained by U.S. authorities.

NEW YORK

Senator Schneiderman, Innocence Project and Others Champion Mandatory Electronic Recording of Interrogations

4-14-08 -- On Friday, April 11, State Senators Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan/Bronx), Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn), John Sabini (D-Queens), John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) and Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan), Assemblymember Charles Lavine (D-Glen Cove), and leading criminal justice advocates took part in a public forum to address wrongful convictions and Mandatory Electronic Recording of Interrogations. . . .
At the forum, expert testimony was presented by Barry Scheck of The Innocence Project, which is affiliated with the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Nicholas A. Gravante, the attorney who represented Frank Esposito in People v. Esposito, the representatives for Long Island native Martin Tankleff, who was present at the forum, Thomas P. Sullivan, a former United States attorney and national expert on recording custodial interrogations, Jeffrey Szabo, Deputy County Executive and Chief of Staff to Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, and Jeffrey Deskovic, who was exonerated in 2006 after serving 15 years in prison for a murder and sexual assault that he did not commit.

States expand taking of DNA

All felony suspects fair game in some

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY 

4-14-08 -- States are dramatically expanding controversial DNA sampling. . . beyond convicted felons to include tens of thousands of suspects arrested on felony charges before they are tried. . ..  Twelve states have laws that permit sampling for some or all felony arrests, up from five in 2006, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) says. Another 21 are considering such proposals, according to DNAResource.com, which tracks DNA-related laws. . . . Provisions in most of the new laws call for destroying samples if suspects are acquitted or charges are dropped. After a sample is destroyed, the DNA cannot be matched to other crimes in the database. . . The fast-growing legislation, once applied narrowly to sex offenders and convicted felons, worries civil liberties advocates who believe the testing amounts to a clumsy forensic dragnet. . . . "In our system, you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty," says Maryland state Sen. Lisa Gladden, a Democrat, who opposed a DNA sampling plan offered by Gov. Martin O'Malley, also a Democrat. . . . Despite such objections, the technique is gaining popularity as a law-enforcement tool. The expansion "is definitely picking up steam," says Donna Lyons, criminal justice director at NCSL. . . . Beginning in July, South Dakota and Kansas will require all felony suspects to provide DNA samples. In January, California and North Dakota will do so. In California alone that could double the number of state samples in the federal DNA data bank from 1 million to 2 million, state Attorney General's Office spokesman Gareth Lacy says.

ALASKA

Search for Justice

Abigail A. Orr, Waukee, Iowa

Published Sunday, April 13, 2008

To the editor:

I am starting this group, A Search for Justice, on behalf of my dear friend Kevin Garner. In February 2007, Kevin was arrested for vehicular manslaughter in Fairbanks; he was convicted in October 2007. It is now April, and he has not yet been sentenced.

His case was very controversial because the victim was laying in the road at 3 in the morning when Kevin hit her. She also had three times the legal limit of alcohol in her system, plus twice the recommendation of cold medicine in her. She was either passed out in the road dying of hypothermia or dead when Kevin hit her.

I have had no choice but to accept his conviction, and I am not saying that he should not be punished. I believe it is cruel and unusual punishment to let him sit in jail for over a year — six months since he has been convicted — without knowing his sentence. I believe justice has not been served here, and though it infuriates me, all I can do is write about it. The presiding judge, Judge Olsen, passed sentencing on to a three-judge panel because he believes Kevin has a higher chance of rehabilitation than most. The panel could have given him a lesser sentence than the minimum according to Alaska law; but yesterday (April 4, 2008) the panel gave the case back to Judge Olsen, prolonging Kevin’s sentencing.

Can you imagine, after being convicted of a crime, sitting in jail for over a year, having one judge give it to a three-judge panel, having those judges give it back to the original judge, and six months after being convicted still not knowing your sentence? Is that justice? Please join if you feel you or a loved one has been unjustly treated by our criminal justice system.

To take a closer look at this support group simply follow this link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/searchingforjustice/

There is strength in numbers my friends, so please consider joining this group in support of justice for all members of society!

As Many Crack Convicts Are Freed Early, Will Crime Rise?

Of the 19,500 drug offenders eligible over the next 30 years to apply for early release, 3,417 have had their sentences reduced as of Monday.

By Alexandra Marks | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

4-9-2008 -- In an effort to eliminate a legal inequity – one that has hit African-Americans especially hard – federal judges have begun reducing the sentences of thousands of crack-cocaine offenders. . . . Some police groups and prosecutors, as well as US Attorney General Michael Mukasey, assert that in trying to right a historic wrong, violent criminals are headed en masse back to the streets. . . . So far, indications are that this is not the case because the release process has safeguards built in. Statistics from the US Sentencing Commission, as well as interviews with federal public defenders and criminal-justice experts, indicate that federal prisoners who are to be released early are predominantly nonviolent and have good conduct records while in prison. Of the 19,500 drug offenders eligible over the next 30 years to apply for early release, 3,417 have had their sentences reduced as of Monday. Of the 1,500 inmates eligible for immediate release, dozens so far have been let go in the past month. . . . "There has been no release of a flood of violent criminals," says Michael Nachmanoff, federal public defender for the Eastern District of Virginia. "The people who are being released ... overwhelmingly had cases where there was no violence whatsoever and who were given unduly harsh sentences. And now, their sentences are being reduced by a modest amount." . . . Critics worry the crime rate, which has already ticked upward, will continue to increase as more prisoners apply for a sentence reduction. The Justice Department, for example, has pointed out that according to the Sentencing Commission's own analysis, nearly 80 percent of the 19,500 who would be eligible for early release had prior criminal records. Of the 1,500 eligible for immediate release, about one-quarter carried a weapon or were with someone who carried a weapon when they were arrested. . . . "This tells us those who are eligible for early release are very likely to commit another crime," Attorney General Mukasey told the Fraternal Order of Police earlier this year.

MASSACHUSETTS   

Fewer batterers put into programs

Victims' advocates fault plea bargains

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff

04-08-08 -- As domestic homicides more than doubled in Massachusetts, judges across the state sent only about half as many batterers to abuse intervention programs last year as they did in 2003, according to public health officials. . . . The plunging numbers are raising concerns among victims' advocates that judges are too readily accepting plea bargains that allow offenders to attend shorter anger management classes instead of the more rigorous batterer-intervention programs. . . . Beyond that, state officials and advocates worry that fewer victims are taking their cases to court, for a variety of reasons. Among them: victims afraid of retaliation, illegal immigrants who are afraid to become involved in the criminal justice system, and a key Supreme Judicial Court ruling that puts more pressure on victims to provide often difficult testimony in their cases. . ..  "If there are fewer prosecutions and fewer people being ordered to batterer intervention, it all starts to look like a pattern of lack of accountability for perpetrators," said Mary Lauby, executive director of Jane Doe Inc. "It should then be no surprise that there are more homicides."

FLORIDA

Miami-Dade jails under federal investigation

Less than a year after Miami-Dade's housing agency was taken over by the feds, the county jail system is under scrutiny

By Charles Rabin & Amy Driscoll

04-06-08 -- Conditions at Miami-Dade County jails have become so dire that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into possible civil-rights violations -- including poor treatment of the mentally ill and the mistreatment of inmates -- and suicides. . . . The investigation, detailed in a department letter sent this week to County Mayor Carlos Alvarez, Corrections Chief Tim Ryan and U.S. Attorney R. Alex Acosta, comes on the heels of an ongoing federal inquiry into language barriers at local jails. . . . Federal authorities are ''obliged to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution of the United States in the conditions at Miami-Dade County Jail,'' Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker informed county officials. . . . ``Our investigation will focus on protection of inmates from harm, including providing adequate suicide-prevention measures, medical care, mental healthcare, protection from inmate violence and sanitation conditions, as well as the use of excessive force against inmates.''

SOUTH CAROLINA

Attorney General Proposes Alternative Court For
Nonviolent Crimes

WLTX.com  (AP)

04-06-08 -- Nonviolent offenders could avoid prison through an alternate court system being pushed by Attorney General Henry McMaster as both a better way to rehabilitate people and save the state money. . . . McMaster says nonviolent offenders are often turned into hardened criminals by jail sentences. He is suggesting a combination of counseling, drug treatment, school, work and restitution to help those offenders make up for their crimes and turn their lives around.

RHODE ISLAND

Lawmakers hear pleas for second chance

By Katherine Gregg, Journal State House Bureau

04-02-08 -- One after another, advocates for the erasure of criminal records urged state lawmakers yesterday to give people a second chance, free of their sometimes messy pasts. . . . “By passing this legislative bill, you’re giving people opportunities to find better jobs so that they can get off the dole,” said Ramon Martinez, president and chief executive officer of the Hispanic advocacy group Progreso Latino. . . . Even Albert E. DeRobbio, chief judge of the Rhode Island District Court, sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee urging support for one in a trio of bills up for a hearing yesterday that were aimed at cleansing criminal records so people can tell prospective employers they have never been convicted, or giving judges discretion to lift the prohibitions against people with records obtaining licenses to work, for example, as travel agents, movers, auto mechanics and nursing assistants. . . . Current law allows the expungement of a single, nonviolent offense from the record of a first-time offender five years after he or she has completed a sentence for a misdemeanor; 10 years after completing a sentence for a felony.

WISCONSIN

Judges can still punish acquitted defendants

In refusing to consider a Wisconsin man's appeal, the Supreme Court says jurists can issue prison sentences even if the jury has cleared a defendant of certain crimes.

By David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

04-01-08 -- The Supreme Court declined Monday to reconsider a legal rule that might surprise most Americans: Judges can punish defendants for certain crimes even after a jury has acquitted them of those charges. . . . In recent years, the justices have described the right to jury trial as one of the bedrock principles of American law. At the same time, they have been unwilling to say that a jury's not-guilty verdict on some charges means the defendant cannot be punished. Instead, the court has said judges may take into account "acquitted conduct" when they decide on a prison term. . . . The case of Mark Hurn of Madison, Wis., provides a stark example of the rule. . . . Hurn was given an additional 15 years in prison for possessing crack cocaine, even though a jury acquitted him of the charge. He was convicted of having powder cocaine in his house, a charge that would warrant between two and three years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines. . . . But he was sentenced to nearly 18 years in prison, as though he had been convicted on both counts.

March 2008

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

U.S. Supreme Court to review '94 murder case

By Christine Clarridge, Seattle Times staff reporter

Archive | The story of a drive-by murder

03-19-08 -- The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether to reinstate the murder conviction of the driver in a fatal drive-by shooting of a Ballard High School student 14 years ago. . . . The Supreme Court is slated to hear oral arguments this fall in the case of Cesar Sarausad II, who was a 19-year-old University of Washington engineering student when Melissa Fernandes was fatally shot at Ballard High on March 23, 1994. . . . The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had overturned Sarausad's second-degree murder conviction because it determined that King County Superior Court Judge Larry A. Jordan erred when he told jurors Sarausad could be convicted of murder regardless of whether he knew of any plan for a killing. . . . The appeals panel ruled that the jury should have been told Sarausad could be convicted of murder only if he knew the triggerman had a gun and planned to kill. . . . The state appealed the 9th Circuit decision, and the Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear the case.

TENNESSEE

Ex-CCA official: Puryear misled clients

Versions for public allegedly whitewashed prison incidents

By Getahn Ward • Staff Writer

03-19-08 -- A former Corrections Corporation of America manager is accusing the company's general counsel and federal judicial nominee Gus Puryear IV of overseeing a practice that produced misleading reports about safety incidents at its prisons. . . . Ronald T. Jones, who until last year worked as a senior manager in quality assurance at the Nashville-based prison operator, said that Puryear directed him and other staff to classify incidents such as escapes, unnatural deaths and disturbances as less serious to make its performance look better in reports to government agency clients. Reports prepared for internal use, meanwhile, included more details about the specific incidents, Jones said. . . . Time Magazine also reported Jones' allegations on its Web site on Thursday. . . . Private Corrections Institute, an advocacy group that opposes prison privatization and has been an outspoken critic of Puryear's nomination, Thursday urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold another round of hearings at which Jones could testify and Puryear be asked more questions about his actions.

MARYLAND

Murder Defendant Found Man to Win Case: Himself

High School Dropout Prevails at Pr. George's Trial

By Ruben Castaneda, Washington Post Staff Writer

03-17-08 -- It's an axiom known by every lawyer and judge in every courthouse in the land: A man who represents himself in court has a fool for a client. . . . Try telling that to Harold J. Stewart. . . . Last month, Stewart, a 42-year-old high school dropout, defended himself in a murder case in Prince George's County, where he was accused of beating a sleeping man to death with a baseball bat. . . . The trial lasted three days. Stewart called no witnesses. The jury deliberated less than an hour. . . . The verdict: Not guilty of first-degree murder. Not guilty of second-degree murder. . . . "Everybody told me I was crazy to represent myself," Stewart said in an interview. "I had no choice. They were obstructing my rights." . . . The obstructionists, in Stewart's view, included county prosecutors, the trial judge, the assistant public defender who represented him at his first trial (which ended in a mistrial), the private defense lawyer who represented him between the two trials, jail officials he says unfairly denied him access to the law library and the state Attorney Grievance Commission. . . . "Oh, wow," Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said when told of the case. McCarthy said he was not aware of a pro se defendant in Montgomery winning an acquittal in a serious felony in his 27 years as a prosecutor there. . . . "We certainly have had pro se defendants win trials on charges like drunk driving or disorderly conduct," McCarthy said. "It's the kind of thing your colleagues generally tease you about." . . . Circuit Court Judge Vincent J. Femia, a judge or prosecutor in Prince George's for 47 years, said he, too, had never heard of such an outcome in a murder case. Regarding the quick acquittal, Femia said, "It would make you wonder about the quality of the case, if a guy who knew nothing about the law could kick your [expletive]." . . . Through his spokesman, State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey declined to comment on the case. Assistant State's Attorneys Mary K. Brennan and Dorothy Engel, who prosecuted the case, also declined to comment.

MICHIGAN

Four held nude in jail seek damages

Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

03-14-08 --  Justin Anderson was 21 when he hit a stop sign in 1999 outside Saginaw and was arrested for drunken driving. When he objected inside the Saginaw County Jail to police questions about a missing girl, jailers threw him naked into a solitary confinement cell called "the hole." . . . He wasn't the only one nude in the jail. For years, Saginaw County deputies had a policy of stripping prisoners they deemed uncooperative. . . . Officials said they ended the practice in 2001. Four years later, U.S. District Judge David M. Lawrence made it official, deeming the policy unconstitutional in a ruling that had an impact on jails statewide. . . . Today, Lawson is expected to preside over the start of a jury trial to determine whether Anderson, two other men and a woman arrested for misdemeanor, nonviolent infractions deserve money for psychological harm they suffered for similar treatment."I considered it a form of rape," said Anderson while waiting for a jury to be selected Thursday.

Senate Clears Prisoner Bill

Gary Fields reports on prisons.

03-12-08 -- After three years of procedural and legislative delays, a prisoner re-entry bill first introduced in 2005 has cleared the Senate and is heading to the president’s desk. . . . Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) on Monday lifted his legislative “hold” on the bill that had prevented any action on it for weeks; he had a number of concerns, including some on the cost and effectiveness of the programs. His Alabama colleague, Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, then placed his own hold on the bill, but lifted it on Tuesday. . . . The Second Chance Act passed Tuesday evening, and is now expected to be signed by President Bush. The measure provides about $180 million a year in 2009 and 2010 for prisoner re-entry services to curb a recidivism rate that has held steady at about 66%, meaning that two-thirds of all inmates released annually from state and federal prisons re-offend or violate the conditions of their release within three years and are locked back up. Close to 700,000 people a year are released from prisons, according to Justice Department statistics. . ..  The recidivism rate is one of the reasons the nation’s prison population has grown to more than 2.2 million from 501,886 in 1980. As a result, corrections costs are among the fastest growing expenditures for states. Annual criminal-justice expenditures for police, prisons, probation and courts have risen to more than $200 billion from $36 billion in 1982.

OHIO  

Judges object to release program

03-12-08 -- (AP) - Some Ohio judges are objecting to a program that lets selected inmates out of prison just months into their years-long sentences if they complete a counseling program. . . . Of the 1,229 inmates who participated in the program in the past year and were released early, fewer than half got a judge's approval, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Tuesday. Unless a judge blocks it, inmates are cleared to go through the 90-day program under the current law. . . . Some judges said they never heard from the prisons about the program and want a chance to object to early release. State lawmakers are looking to change the law to make judicial approval mandatory. . . . "We're the ones that wear the jacket on these cases when someone gets out," said Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Stuart Friedman in Cleveland. "And so when they get out almost before the ink has dried, we should know about it." . . . Terry Collins, head of the state prison system, said his staff tries to notify the judges and said judges are sometimes to blame for not objecting. Collins said prison officials now will send letters by certified mail for judges to approve inmates.

CONNECTICUT

Inmates Describe Prison Crowding

03-11-08 -- Inmates housed in recreation rooms at overcrowded Cheshire Correctional Institution had to defecate and urinate in plastic bags because they were denied frequent access to the bathroom, according to a lawsuit by two inmates who argued their case Monday in a court in New Haven. . . . Ezekiel Scott, a convicted burglar, and Raymond Hayles, convicted of shooting another man, have both since been moved out of the "day room" at Cheshire since they filed the civil suit. . . . But the plaintiffs said they feel obligated to push ahead with their claim that they were subject to cruel and unusual punishment to prevent other inmates from having to endure similar conditions. . . . In the lawsuit, the men say they were let out of the locked day room — designed as a place to read or watch television, not sleep — once per night to use the bathroom, according to their suit. In intervening hours, they have used plastic bags to urinate or defecate, they claim, and suffer from bladder problems as a result of having to hold their wastes.

KENTUCKY

As Ky. studies prison fixes, other states act

By John Cheves

03-11-08 --  Texas and Kansas are cutting prison populations as their legislatures experiment with sentencing, addiction treatment, probation and parole, and social services targeted at high-crime neighborhoods. . . . The new attitude didn't come easy in a state like Texas, better known for executing prisoners than trying to rehabilitate them. But Texans balked when prisons needed 14,000 new beds at an estimated cost of more than half a billion dollars. The state already incarcerates 171,000 people. . . . "We had an understanding from everybody on all sides that our current model was not working, and it was time to try something new. How often does that happen?" asked Ana Yanez-Correa, executive director of the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. . . . And then there's Kentucky. . . . The General Assembly and Gov. Steve Beshear agree that Kentucky faces the same dilemma as other states, if not worse. Its prison growth leads the nation. However, they have little to show as lawmakers enter the final days of their 2008 session. . . . Beshear and the Senate propose separate committees to study the justice system and suggest ways to alleviate inmate crowding. These committees would follow on the heels of similar committees whose findings were largely ignored. The Senate proposal -- awaiting House action -- originally called for a report by July 2011, but that date was bumped forward to this December because senators agreed they need to move faster. . . . A few bills that could ease demand for incarceration right away -- for example, diverting non-violent drug offenders into treatment -- appear stalled.

NEW MEXICO

Governor appoints task force on prison reform

Associated Press

03-07-08 --  (AP) - Governor Richardson is appointing a task force on prison reform that would make recommendations for next year's legislative session. . . . The governor says the state's prison population is bulging - in part because of tough-on-crime policies. . . . He says he wants to tackle the problem before the corrections system gets too overwhelmed. . . . Richardson says the task force will look at diversionary programs that keep people out of prison. . . . It will also study work and education programs for inmates to get them ready for release, and probation and parole programs.

CALIFORNIA

Prison Reform Campaigns Need a Few Thousand Volunteers ASAP

Dr. B. Cayenne Bird

It certainly is good to see ordinary people in action registering voters and getting behind candidates that are really going to represent the will of the people. . . . Since we won our campaign to get the legislators to pass a bill that could release frail elderly, terminally ill and medically incapacitated people in October, many people have written to me begging UNION members for help with their campaigns, . . . There are no rescuers, no group representing prisoners in California can call 1,000 or more people to the Capitol to show the lawmakers we are intelligent enough to organize. This is where we need to focus on building up our troops so that we can do initiative campaigns because we have enough funds and volunteers lined up in advance. . . . No group has this in place except for Drug Policy Alliance who spent ten years building up to 25,000 members and raised $9 million dollars. This is the right way to do it folks. Having 500 small, fractured groups out there, especially those that just pass email and don't do any real campaign is not as smart as having one or two large ones. . . . The state runs on groups, if you haven't built yourself a voting machine, no one hears your voice. . . . Within the UNION network, we have some dynamic people who are working for reform without enough funds and volunteers. People on the sidelines who don't write to editors, post at the news sites, show up to important hearings three times a year at least in Sacramento, who never register voters or bring new people into the movement are blocking reform. . . . Everyone wants to win so this is how we need to break it down right now because permanent decisions are being made which impact all of us involved in prison reform, education or nursing.

February 2008

New High In U.S. Prison Numbers
Growth Attributed To More Stringent Sentencing Laws

By N.C. Aizenman, Washington Post Staff Writer

02-29-08 -- More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year and the federal government $5 billion more, according to a report released yesterday. . . . With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving far-more-populous China a distant second, according to a study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States. . . . The growth in prison population is largely because of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been particularly affected: One in nine black men ages 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women ages 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 for white women in the same age group. . . . The report compiled and analyzed data from several sources, including the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics and Bureau of Prisons and each state's department of corrections. It did not include individuals detained for noncriminal immigration violations. . . . Although studies generally find that imprisoning more offenders reduces crime, the effect may be less influential than changes in the unemployment rate, wages, the ratio of police officers to residents and the proportion of young people in the population, report co-author Adam Gelb said. . . . In addition, when it comes to preventing repeat offenses by nonviolent criminals -- who make up about half of the incarcerated population -- less-expensive punishments such as community supervision, electronic monitoring and mandatory drug counseling might prove as much or more effective than jail.

CALIFORNIA

Keep crack criminals in prison

A move to revise offenders' sentences should stop until its effects can be weighed.

By Craig Morford

02-27-08 -- The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently decided to apply -- retroactively -- new, lighter sentences for those convicted of crimes related to crack cocaine. As a result, on Monday, courts across the country will begin to decide whether 19,500 of them should be released early from federal prison. . . . A disproportionate share of these prisoners came from urban areas such as Los Angeles, and those communities will bear the brunt of their return. . . . It is the residents of those communities who will have to live with the Sentencing Commission's decision -- and many of them have asked me and others to oppose it. That is why the Department of Justice and national law enforcement organizations have asked Congress to postpone the decision from going into effect. . . . When I speak with people who live in these communities, they tell me that they struggle with the scourge of crack cocaine every day: Children can't play outside, elders can't sit on the front porch, families are imprisoned in their homes. And they have asked prosecutors like me to do something about it. Simply put, we prosecute crack offenders because everyone has the right to be safe in their homes.

NORTH CAROLINA

Drawing the Line: Treatment or Prison

By NC WANTED Staff

02-27-08 -- Every day, judges send mentally ill people to prison for crimes they committed without taking their medication or visiting mental health professionals on a regular basis. . . . Lawmakers and the criminal justice system in North Carolina are struggling to address this complicated problem in a political climate that lends little priority to mental health issues. . . . As some of the state’s most vulnerable people have fallen through the cracks of society and had difficulty getting the treatment they need, many have found themselves in trouble with the law. . . . State-run mental hospitals have more admissions than ever, and North Carolina’s overcrowded prisons and jails have