Mr. Paladino stated that he wanted to “transform some New York prisons into dormitories for welfare recipients, where they could work in state-sponsored jobs, get employment training and take lessons in ‘personal hygiene’.”   When questioned about his idea that is gaining some steam in the Tea Party, Mr. Paladino stated that “he doesn’t want to send welfare recipients to prison dormitories- it would be voluntary.”  Wow!  So, there you have it- a voluntary program to that will create more financial strain on the state of New York, train welfare recipients without a defined scope and purpose and teach the respective individuals how to clean themselves.

To many single mothers, individuals who have lost their jobs in this stagnant economy and the self-responsible poor who have tried to pick themselves up, what a derogatory, condescending and indifferent proposal that has been presented by Mr. Paladino.  Most non-partisan historians would agree that the welfare system that dates back to the 1930s during the Great Depression has helped countless families and individuals overcome difficult and destitute times.  In 1996, under President Clinton, the bipartisan Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 changed the nation’s welfare system into one requiring work in exchange for time-limited cash assistance and created the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.

Many critics continue to question this legislation.  But, with over 40 million people in the United States currently living at or below poverty thresholds, the reformed welfare system is still sorely needed.  To be sure, continual accountability and oversight of the TANF program is needed, as there will always be those who will try to do the opposite of what is right.  But, to isolate millions of people in neo-housing projects (i.e., prison dorms) to implement actions that are already required by law is simply not a wise mechanism to solve any problems associated with the TANF program in New York or anywhere else.  And, as a candidate for governor, Mr. Paladino should know that his proposal is not sound from at least three perspectives.

First, the proposal would result in unnecessary costs and expenditures for an already struggling state.  The TANF program is only a temporary financial assistance program with a maximum of 60 months of cash benefits within one’s lifetime.  In New York State, this holds true for individuals who participate in the federally-funded TANF program or the state Safety Net Assistance program.  At the end of the 60-month period, studies have shown that most recipients have found jobs or have acquired necessary job skills.

Second, the TANF program requires that recipients participate in work activities (i.e., unsubsidized or subsidized employment, on-the-job training, community service, vocational training, job skills training, education directly related to work or satisfactory secondary school attendance) as soon as they are job-ready or no later than two years after coming on assistance, with a few exceptions.  This is another reason why most recipients find jobs or acquire necessary job skills.

Third, let’s consider a proposed law that embodies personal hygiene classes for those from the inner cities, as Mr. Paladino stated.   Thus, those from the inner city must learn how to wash their hands, brush their teeth, use deodorant, take regular baths, shampoo their hair, file their nails, etc.  Doesn’t this sound like an excellent public policy?  It is very interesting when politicians from both sides of the political spectrum attempt to play the race card from a subtle perspective.

It is simply not prudent for candidates, exclusive of race, to suggest that prison dormitories should be established for welfare recipients across the board.  It is extremely disrespectful to those who are trying their best to overcome and rise above antagonistic circumstances.

Anthony Jerrod is a bestselling author, speaker, and public policy expert.

Source: Atlanta Post

Michal Czerwonka/Getty Images

The California Institution for Men prison fence is seen on August 19, 2009 in Chino, California

Aug. 25, 2010 | Julie Small | KPCC

Related Stories

• Part 1: California’s budget woes thwart improvements to prison medicine (8/23/2010)
• Part 2: Chino prison sees some improvements in medical care (8/24/2010)

Web Resources

• Sidebar: Chino prisoner’s wife’s journal shows problems with prison medical care
• Prison Affliction – Medical care inside California state prisons
• Slideshow: A look at the California prison medical system
• Video: Chino Prison’s medical system
• Federal Receiver’s Death Reviews
• LAO: “2010-11 Budget: Prison Receivership Proposals Pose Significant Financial Risks”
• Frank Lucero’s lawsuit over his eye exploding
• Prisoner reduction order
• Do you work in prison medical care? Tell us.
• Slideshow: William Furr’s medical documents

I sat in a prison cell yesterday. And not your regular bullpen where they cram in 4 people who’re waiting to go to court. The real deal. Where our clients sleep at night (and often during the day). That of the 60 square foot variety.

There was a bed – a small bed – that was the length of the room. At the foot of the bed a metal toilet, with no cover. Just beyond that the heavy metal door, with a slit for a window. The door was maybe 3 feet wide, if that. At the head of the bed, if you were laying on your right side, you’d be about half a foot away from an ugly metal desk with holes that pretended to be drawers. This could not have been more than a foot long. The bed was flush with one wall. The desk with the opposite.

The bed looked hard, cold and dirty. And that’s it. This particular cell happened to have a window at the head of the bed. A window looking out onto nothing. Any future inhabitant of this particular cell would have it good. It was a single. Across the narrow passageway from this cell was another, identical in every respect except two: it was a double cell and there was no window. (Here’s a post I wrote a while ago about a different take on prisons in a foreign country.)

I didn’t have the courage to ask my escort to have them close the cell door for a minute, locking me in. It was nauseating and claustrophobic enough as it is. Maybe I was having a panic attack, or maybe the air in there was dead, like the spirits of the men that inhabit these cells, but I thought I was going to faint.

I willed myself to stand there, though, for a minute. To look around at the bare walls, the bare desk, the dirty toilet and imagine someone “living” there.

I even briefly closed my eyes and tried to picture myself there, day in and day out, for months, which turned into years, which turned into decades.

Would I survive? How does anyone? Would I give up and stop bathing, shaving, eating? Would I maintain my sanity or would I quickly decompensate? How long would it be before I’d want to kill myself?

Luckily, my stint in a jail cell ended rather quickly. As I stepped out and waited for my escort to guide me to the next location, I peeked into the cell across the way – the double – and it was occupied. Two men, sleeping ramrod straight (for these “beds” are as wide as the human body and no more), in a dark, dingy cell. One lifted his head as I was spying and looked at me. I looked away. I didn’t want to see his lifeless eyes.

People in cells are lucky, though. The next portion of the tour took me to the dorm-style housing. Which is nothing like any dorm you’ve ever lived in. Imagine instead the makeshift MASH hospitals, or perhaps the busiest train station in your neighborhood at rush hour, except instead of standing, people are milling about a hundred bunk beds on that tiny platform.

There is no privacy, there is no solitude, there is no being left alone. You are part of a large crowd. You are in someone’s face and they are in yours. You are a collective. Day in and day out. You share your bedroom with 125 other people.

Leaving the prison, I asked my colleague: cell or dorm? There’s no debate. Cell. I’d rather lose my sanity by myself.

—

Parole has got to be a sham. There’s no way that a group of 3 or 4 “regular folks” can decide whether one inmate is worthy of release over another. How can anyone better themselves in those conditions? Is there any choice but to give in to the atmosphere? The aura of despair, rejection and failure? How can we reasonably expect a person to prove to us on the outside that they’re worthy of a shot, when we give them no chance at redemption?

Parole hearings last 30-40 minutes. In that time, the board will try to determine who the person is that is sitting before them, what they’ve done to “change” and whether they’ll reoffend. It’s a crock of shit. It has to be. We spend our lifetime trying to figure out who we are and yet we ask others to perform this act and convince us of the goodness of their hearts and the errors of their ways in the time it takes for me to absent-mindedly watch the latest episode of crappy sitcom after crappy sitcom. They don’t stand a chance. Parole is a guessing game, much like poker. There’s a lot of bluster and bluffing and saying the right things and avoiding doing the wrong things.

It’s like locking a man in a room for 5 years with only a bicycle tire and asking him to manufacture the Bugatti Veyron in that time period and then punishing him when he is unable to. Why are we surprised? Why do we blame them?

How can one fault the inmate who, having served 30 years of his 40 year sentence, has done close to nothing, when it is we who have taken the tools from him. We, who have told him in no uncertain terms that his life, his potential, his talents, mean nothing, who have sucked the spirit out of him and confined him into submission, cannot then turn around and hold that man responsible for his failure to meet our arbitrary standards of rehabilitation.

Time slows down in prison. A minute seemed like an hour to me. I bet an hour seems like a year and a week like a decade. What of sentences of 5, 10 and 40 years? I can’t imagine what that must feel like. Hearing an imaginary clock tick every second of every day in your head, loud and unstoppable. Thinking about it is agonizing. Living it must be unbearable.

Why are we surprised that the lifer has given up? That he sleeps on the floor and not the bed, that he doesn’t eat or exercise or bathe or cut his hair? That he’s resigned himself to dying in prison? Because that’s what will happen. We’ve made that decision for him.

I do not believe that there is anyone who will not change, who will not repent or grow out of their childish bravado. Yet we send scores upon scores of our fellow human beings to these warehouses with no meaningful review of their development and growth for decades and decades.

Maybe it’s a self-fulfilling prophesy. They cannot change because we don’t let them. Because if we did give them the tools to “better” themselves and they did, our draconian system of punishment would seem barbaric.

We cannot be wrong. We are never wrong. We are not them.

—

There is so much wrong with our criminal justice system: the way we treat inmates, the disparate sentencing of minorities and whites, the witchhunts of sex offenders. Yet there is nothing that you or I can change about this. And that’s a pity. Fear has won and will always win. Stereotyping still rules the day and will do so for eons to come. We are wonderful at recognizing the heterogeneity of those close to us and the homogeneity of everyone else.

Lots of people have lost faith in the goodness of the human spirit and have forgotten that man, at his core, is a fallible being. But he is not his actions; rather he is how he responds to them.

I could be snarky and say that visiting a prison cell should be required for all prosecutors and judges. Or I could be honest and say that it should be required for all defense counsel. We need to see where the people we represent live and how they live. We need to understand that they are unhappy when they come to court and we forget to see them. That our failure to do our absolute best eliminates any chance another human being has to escape these horrid conditions.

It is a sobering reminder of the consequences of our work. We must all place ourselves in our clients’ position and be aware of the awesome burden that is placed upon our shoulders. Prosecutors and judges may not care. We must.

No doubt those in jail have transgressed against our social and moral code. But we, on the outside, have abused that code and disfigured it beyond recognition. Just as those in jail may be responsible for pain and suffering and loss of human life, so are we.

Reposted with permission

Source:

A Public Defender Blog

16 August, 2010
Countercurrents.org

*HARM: We the good, holy, saintly people of society who are free of sin – Condemn, shame & hate the criminals & prisoners in our society. & Yet as Regush states: “Everyone is capable of causing harm or murder”. (1) All humans harm; We harm other humans with our anger & swear words; We harm animals: Killing them for food, clothes & medicine; & We harm the Earth with human Overpopulation, wars & nuclear bombs. So, To condemn, shame & hate criminals is To condemn, shame & hate ourselves. We humans are cruel in the way we judge others with our righteous attitudes.

*OBSERVATION & RECOMMENDATION: Prisons are a form of Caveman justice based on Newton’s 3 rd Law of Motion (2), the Revenge ethic & the Biblical eye for an eye principle; As a result of this punitive & retributive justice system, prisoners suffer many Human rights violations in prison systems such as the loss of Freedom, the risk of prison Rape & the risk of diseases such as Tuberculosis. Prison is society’s irrational, dysfunctional & vindictive method of putting people who do harm — in Cages. I argue for Prison reform, Restorative justice & improved Human rights for prisoners — To replace the current outdated, cruel & sadistic prison system.

* MISSION STATEMENT: The purpose of this essay is: #1. To explore the human rights abuses of the world’s prisons, #2. To examine people’s flawed thinking regarding Prisons & policing, #3. To understand society’s motives for incarceration & #4. To investigate: Alternatives to imprisonment. The Key sections of this paper are:

I. Human Rights Abuses in Prisons.

II. The Movement to End the Prison Industrial Complex

including A Review of the Critical Resistance Website.

III. Alternatives to Prison

including Definitions of Key Terms such as Restorative Justice.

IV. Manslaughter & Transformative Justice.

V. Final Comments & Questions.

I. PRISONS & HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES including PRISON RAPE:

*UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak describes the distressing & appalling conditions of the majority of the world’s prisoners & detainees: “In many countries I was simply shocked by the way human beings are treated in detention. As soon as they are behind bars, detainees lose most of their human rights & often are simply forgotten by the outside world”. Nowak comments on cells that are: “Dirty, crowded & without adequate light & fresh air; Cells with no beds, mattresses or blankets, No toilets apart from a hole or bucket, No toilet paper, water or food”. “The noise, smell, heat & violence in those cages was unbearable even for the prison wardens & absolutely intolerable for the prisoners, some of whom had survived many months or even years under these inhumane conditions”. “Nowak says the way societies treat persons deprived of their liberty … is one of the best indicators for the human rights culture in any country”. (3)

*PRISON RAPE:

*STOP PRISON RAPE Presentation to the UNITED NATIONS 2006: “In it’s 1994 decision in Farmer v. Brennan, the U.S. supreme Court explicitly recognized prisoner rape as a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against cruel & unusual punishment”. The Supreme court held unanimously that officials have a responsibility to safeguard prisoners from violence perpetrated by other prisoners”. (4)

*PRISON CODE of SILENCE: This U.N. report describes the Prison ‘Code of Silence’ regarding Prison Rape: “A pervasive code of silence among corrections officials at the Corcoran State Prison in California contributed to the 1999 acquittal of 4 prison staff members charged with arranging the rapes of (Mr. D.). A 23-year old, 120 pound, first-time prisoner; (Mr. D.) was deliberately housed in solitary confinement with a sexual predator known as the ‘Booty Bandit’, in an effort by prison officials to ‘Teach him a lesson’ after he kicked a female corrections officer. The ‘Booty Bandit’ raped (Mr. D.) repeatedly over a 2 day period, as corrections officers passed by the cell & laughed”. (5)

*JUST DETENTION International states: “Victims of prisoner rape are left beaten & bloodied, contract HIV & other sexually transmitted diseases & suffer severe psychological harm”. (6)

*HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: “Statistics compiled by a U.S. Justice Department agency reveal that the rape & sexual abuse of prisoners by other prisoners & staff plague prisons nationwide”. “Certain prisoners are more vulnerable to rape & are targeted for sexual exploitation – Especially prisoners who are young, physically small or weak, gay, first offenders” (etc.) “Human Rights Watch research revealed that sexual abuse by other inmates often occurred because staff failed to adequately supervise inmates or respond appropriately to complaints of unwanted sexual activity”. (7) Human Rights Watch in the book No Escape, Chapter #8 Deliberate Indifference states: “Rape occurs in U.S. prisons because correctional officials, to a surprising extent, do little to stop it from occurring”.(8) Why does the U.S. criminal justice system allow this human rights violation of prison rape by corrections officer employees?

*Insideprison.com: “A study of four Midwestern states in 2000 found that about 1 in 5 inmates experiences some form of pressured or coerced sexual conduct while incarcerated.”(9)

II. INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT to REFORM or END the PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX:

REVIEW of the CRITICAL RESISTANCE WEBSITE:

* MISSION STATEMENT: The Critical Resistance organization’s Mission statement is: “To build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging & controlling people makes us safe. … Our work is part of global struggles against inequality & powerlessness.”

*VISION: “Critical Resistance’s vision is the creation of genuinely safe, healthy communities that respond to harm without relying on prisons & punishment.” CR is … (a) grassroots movement to stop using punishment to ‘Cure’ complicated social problems. … More police & prisons will not make our communities safer. Instead, we know that things like food, housing & freedom are what create lasting safety. We work to prevent people from being arrested or locked up in prison. … We organize to build power & to stop the devastation that … prisons & policing have brought to ourselves, our families & to our communities” “We seek alternatives to Cage based punishment & to reduce the number of prisoners & prisons”.

*FAQ’S: “Prisons are not about reducing harm in our communities & in fact, … Studies have found that imprisonment actually serves to destabilize our communities”. “Prisons are violent institutions that only perpetuate violence”. “Even the most horrendous forms of harm do not happen without a reason.” “People who commit acts of harm often have been harmed themselves in the past”. “Punishment creates the opposite of accountability – A sense of social isolation — instead of responsibility to others. … Punishment makes future harm more likely … People who have seriously harmed another need appropriate forms of support, supervision & social & economic resources”. CR provides an example of an alternative to prison: “In post-apartheid South Africa … rather than try, punish & potentially imprison those who had done harm to others under apartheid, the new government set up a Truth & Reconciliation Commission. The Commission heard testimony of people who took responsibility for their actions & were held accountable without imprisonment.”
*THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, (PIC): CR states: ”The United States uses prisons & policing as a Failed ‘solution’ to social, political & economic problems”. The PIC has many negative features including: “Oppressive systems of racism … human rights violations, the death penalty”, etc.. “The PIC is fueled by dramatic & racist reporting about ‘Crime’, ‘Delinquency’, & ‘Rebellion’, creating a culture of Fear”.

*ABOLITION: CR’S vision is “To reduce harm in our communities by creating lasting alternatives to punishment & prisons, investing in the things that truly build safe communities such as education, housing & employment, thus eliminating the ‘need’ for the prison industrial complex”. (10)

*PENAL REFORM INTERNATIONAL: Penal Reform International’s (PRI) Mission Statement is: “PRI is an international non-governmental organization working on penal & criminal justice reform worldwide”. “PRI seeks to achieve penal reform by promoting”: International human rights “In relation to law enforcement & prison conditions”, “The elimination of unfair & unethical discrimination in all penal measures”, “The abolition of the death penalty”, The reduction of imprisonment worldwide & “Support (for) the social reintegration (of) offenders whilst taking into account the interests of victims”. PRI’s Prison reform themes include: The death penalty, Health in prison, Juvenile Justice, Life Imprisonment, Prison Overcrowding & Women in Prison. (11)

III. ALTERNATIVES to PRISON:

*EDUCATION: Judge Mathis the host of “The Judge Mathis Show” has developed a Prisoner program called Prisoners Educated for Empowerment & Reform or PEER. Judge Mathis states: “I believe that anyone who was born with a right mind & maintains that right mind has an opportunity for redemption & rehabilitation”. Mathis says he “Was able to turn (his) life around through Education”; The Honorable Judge Charles Kaufman gave Mathis a sentence of probation & ordered Mathis to get a GED as a condition of his release from jail. Regarding the cost of housing prisoners: Mathis states: “We spend $30,000 on average to house a prisoner – for one year. & We spend approximately $12,000 a year for them to go to a major university”. (12) (13)

*DEFINITION OF TERMS:

*RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE: “Retributive Justice is a theory of justice that considers that punishment … is a morally acceptable response to crime”. (14)

*RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: “Restorative Justice is an approach to justice that focuses on the needs of victims & offenders, instead of the need to satisfy the abstract principles of law or the need of the community to exact punishment. Victims are given an active role in a dispute & offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, ‘To repair the harm they’ve done – By apologizing, … or doing community service”. (15) “Restorative Justice involves a fostering of dialogue between the offender & the victim & has shown the highest rates of victim satisfaction, true accountability by the offender & reduced recidivism”. “The Little Book of Restorative Justice by author Howard Zehr (acknowledges the 3 questions of Retributive Justice): What laws have been broken? Who did it? What do they deserve? – Restorative Justice asks: Who has been hurt? What are their needs? Whose obligations are these?” (16) In the Restorative Justice program in Minnesota , “Trained mediators … facilitate meetings between the victim & the aggressor & (it) gives offenders a chance to voluntarily apologize & explain their actions”. (17)

*TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE: Transformative Justice: “Uses a systems approach, seeking to see problems, as not only the beginning of the crime but also the causes of crime & tries to treat an offense as a transformative relational & educational opportunity for victims, offenders & all other members of the affected community”. (18) Author Morris states that our current justice system is: “Expensive, unjust, immoral (& a) failure” & she argues for Transformative justice including a powerful discussion of Listening (including Victim-Offender Reconciliation) & Forgiveness. Morris states: “Victims need the healing release of contact with their offender(s)”. “We cannot experience transformative justice (un)till we are willing to let go of our particular graven images. & A part of letting go is both giving & receiving forgiveness to others caught up in this seductive illness”. (19)

*EXAMPLES of ALTERNATIVES to PRISON: Author Craig Russell offers examples of Alternatives to Prison including: Probation & Parole, Rehabilitation, Community Service, Boot Camp, Day reporting & House Arrest. (20)

*RESTITUTION: Also Author Anderson discusses Residential Restitution work programs coupled with probation or parole as an alternative to prison; Anderson references Lawrence : “The study shows that a state with a high incarceration rate & a large, crowded prison population can successfully divert a significant number of offenders to restitution centers at no greater risk to the community”. (21)

Legal Definition of Restitution: A “Program under which an offender is required, as a condition of his or her sentence, to repay money or donate services to the victim or society”. (22)

*ALTERNATIVES to PRISON: The Center for Community Alternatives (CCA) is a leader in the field of community-based alternatives to incarceration”. The mission of CCA is: “To promote re-integrative justice & a reduced reliance on incarceration through advocacy, services & public policy development in pursuit of civil & human rights”. CCA helps people who are seeking community reintegration & productive, law-abiding lives”. CCA helps “Reduce the collateral consequences of incarceration, strengthens families & builds safer communities”.

*Honorable Judge Weinstein of the U.S. District Court states: “The work of the Center for Community Alternatives has been extraordinarily helpful to the courts, defendants, probation & the United States in providing alternatives that protect the public while reducing unnecessary costs to the taxpayers & harm to the defendants & their families”. (23)

* NEW YORK STATE ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION PROGRAMS: New York State offers offenders Alternatives to Incarceration including: Mental Illness Programs, Drug & Alcohol Programs & Community Service Programs. (24)

IV. MANSLAUGHTER: Could a Transformative Justice program be offered to someone convicted of Manslaughter?

*DEFINITION of TERMS:

Manslaughter: i.e. The killing of a human being without malice aforethought. (25) The killing of a human being unlawfully, but not willfully – as opposed to murder. (26) Manslaughters is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. Murder requires either the intent to kill – A state of mind called malice – or the knowledge that one’s actions are likely to result in death; Manslaughter … requires a lack or any prior intention to kill or create a deadly situation. (27)

*Examples of Manslaughter by U.S. Law include: Provocation (with loss of self-control), Imperfect Self-Defense (an honest but unreasonable belief that deadly force was necessary) & Diminished capacity (e.g. diminished mental state – to be distinguished from mental insanity). (28)

*QUESTION: Could a Transformative Justice program be offered to a person convicted of Manslaughter? Yes, I believe that a person convicted of Manslaughter (who had No malice, No prior intention to kill) could be offered a Restorative Justice program – especially if that person has Remorse for that crime. Remorse is defined as “A feeling of deep regret”. (29) “Remorse is an emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act which they deem to be shameful, hurtful or violent”. (30)

V. FINAL COMMENTS & QUESTIONS:

*MICHAEL JACKSON’S: They Don’t Care About Us Song & Video: Michael Jackson’s song & video They Don’t Care about Us, is about prison, shame, loss of liberty, hate & human rights abuses. (31), (32) (33)

*HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: Prisoners do Not deserve the Human rights violations they are subjected to in prison such as Prison Rape. Human rights violations of prisoners is Not a part of their sentence. (34) Mecha Shiva states: Rape is never justified. (35)

*CAGING Prisoners: Can the people & societies of the world respond to Harm in a more dignified, less revengeful manner that to Cage & punish prisoners? Can the human race become more enlightened & offer people who violate society’s rules Alternatives to prison? It is important that we all ask ourselves: Do we all really feel safe in communities filled with police & prisons? – Or are the police & prisons creating greater fear in our lives? Has the Prison industrial complex brought happiness to our societies? – Or has it created more harm? I believe the Prison industrial complex is all about society’s Power, Revenge & Hate in response to other people who harm.

*PRISON RAPE: When will U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pass the Prison Rape Elimination Act? (36)

*AMERICA ‘S HIGH INCARCERATION RATE: Mr. Rosemann comments on Marc Mauer’s book Race to Incarcerate & America’s high incarceration rate: “These numbers are not … due to high rates of criminal activity, but rather to factors such as Social inequality, inordinate media attention given to crime, political demagoguery (‘get tough on crime’) & a long legacy of racial discrimination. Mauer makes many suggestions for a more humane & effective response to crime than the current ‘Race to incarcerate’. (Mauer) concludes his book with the moving appeal to stop ‘Cag(ing) the least fortunate among us to solve our problems’”. (37)

*PREVENTION: Can the human race put a higher priority on the Causes & Prevention of crime – Rather than on the Punishment of crime?

*EDUCATION: Why can’t the human race offer those who have harmed: Education, housing & employment – Rather than hate?

*HARM: Critical Resistance states: “We know that people who commit acts of harm often have been harmed themselves in the past”. (38) How many human beings are at a higher level of consciousness & acknowledge the pain & suffering of those that harm?

THANK YOU:

*Thank you Nelson Mandela for your leadership in the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission & offering the world a good example of an alternative of imprisonment. (39)

*Thank you Mr. Bill Quigley for your excellent essay regarding the U.S. Criminal Justice System & your Internet references regarding this topic. (40)

Salaam. Shalom. Shanti. Peace.

Thank you. Respectfully, Mary Hamer, M.D.

Mary Hamer is a medical doctor who writes Earth, peace & human rights essays.

REFERENCES:

1. Regush, Nicholas. The Breaking Point: Understanding Your Potential for Violence. Key Porter Books. 1997. Pg 176.

2. en.wikipedia.org. Newton ‘s Laws of Motion.

3. www.ohchr.org. Prison Walls – Locking Prisoners In & Society Out. U.N. Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak.

4. In the Shadows: Sexual Violence in U.S. Detention Facilities. Stop Prisoner Rape Presentation to the U.S. Committee against Torture. 2006. Referencing: Farmer v. Brennan. 511 U.S. 825 1994.

5. In the Shadows: Sexual Violence in U.S. Detention Facilities. Stop Prisoner Rape Presentation to the United Nations Committee against Torture. 2006. Referencing: Christian Parenti. Guarding their Silence. Prison Nation. Herivel & Wright eds. 2003.

6. www.justdetention.org. Just Detention International. Mission Statement.

7. www.hrw.org. U.S. Federal Statistics Show Widespread Prison Rape. Human Rights Watch. 12/15/7 .

8. Human Rights Watch. No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons. C. 2001. Pg 143.

9. www.insideprison.com. Prison Rape. By insideprison.com. May 2006. Referencing: Struckman-Johnson & Struckman-Johnson, 2000.

10. www.criticalresistance.org. Critical Resistance Mission Statement, Vision & FAQ’s.

11. www.penalreform.org. About PRI.

12. prisonnewsblog.com. by Michael Santos. 7/24/10 . Transcript of Larry King Show on Prison Reform. 7/23/10 .

13. en.wikipedia.org. Judge Charles Kaufman.

14. en.wikipedia.org. Retributive Justice.

15. en.wikipedia.org. Restorative Justice. Referencing: A New Kind of Criminal Justice. Parade. 10/25/9 .

16. salidacitizen.com. Restorative Justice. By Admin. Patty LaTaille. 4/24/9 . including a Reference to Zehr, Howard. The Little Book of Restorative Justice. Good Books. C. 2002. Pg 21.

17. www.forbes.com. 10 Alternatives to Prison. By Ruth David. 4/18/6 .

18. en.wikipedia.org. Transformative Justice.

19. Morris, Ruth. Stories of Transformative Justice. Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc. C. 2000. Chapter #1, 2 & 6. including a Chapter 6 Reference to Henderson, Michael. The Forgiveness Factor. Grosvenor Books. London . 1996.

20. Russell, Craig. Alternatives to Prison. Mason Crest Publishers. C. 2007.

21. Anderson, David. Sensible Justice: Alternatives to Prison. The New Press. 1998. Referencing: Lawrence, Richard. Restitution as a Cost-Effective Alternative to Incarceration. Criminal Justice, Restitution & Reconciliation. Galaway, Burt & Hudson, Joe eds. Willow Tree Press. 1990.

22. legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com. Legal Definition of Restitution.

23. www.communityalternatives.org. Center for Community Alternatives. Welcome! & About CCA.

24. dpca.state.ny.us. Alternative to Incarceration Programs.

25. www.google.com. wordnetweb.princeton.edu. Definition of Manslaughter.

26. www/google.com. en.wiktionary.org. Definition of Manslaughter.

27. en.wikipedia.org. Manslaughter.

28. en.wikipedia.org. Manslaughter. Referencing: Manslaughter in the First degree, N.Y. State Penal law section 125.20. State Legislative web site (Search for Penal Law).

29. www.google.com. wordnetweb.princeton.edu. Definition of Remorse.

30. en.wikipedia.org. Remorse. Referencing: O’Hear, Michael. (1996-1997) Remorse, Cooperation & Acceptance of Responsibility: The Structure, Implementation & Reform of Section 3E1.1 of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. 91, NW, U.L. Rev. Pg 1507.

31. en.wikipedia.org. They Don’t Care about Us. HIStory album. 1996

32. www.azlyrics.com. Michael Jackson Lyrics. They Don’t Care about Us.

33. www.youtube.com. Michael Jackson They Don’t Care about Us (Official Prison Version).

34. www.justdetention.org.

35. www.rhrealitycheck.org. Lovisa Stannow’s blog. Comments: by Mecha Shiva. 5/5/10 .

36. www.justdetention.org. Federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.

37. Mauer, Marc. Race to Incarcerate. New Press. 1999. www.amazon.com . Reviews Section. Philipp Rosemann.

38. www.criticalresistance.org. FAQ’s.

39. en.wikipedia.org. Truth & Reconciliation Commission.

40. Quigley, Bill. Fourteen Examples of Systemic Racism in the U.S. Criminal Justice System. Countercurrents.org. 7/26/10 .

Scott Martelle Contributor

(Aug. 16) — Call it the New Jersey of the West.

Story by Alexa Vaughn

Supporters and opponents bounce between salient statistics and tragic stories when debating California’s current Three Strikes and You’re Out law, which locks up criminals convicted of three felonies for 25 years to life.

Those who want to see the law amended often point to its costs: Since implementation, at least $19.2 billion has been spent on the additional nine years the average three-strike felon serves, according to the California state auditor.

Three-strike inmates make up a quarter of the state prison population, and more than half of them committed non-serious or non-violent offenses on their third strike, according to the bipartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office. Because the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation budget has more than doubled in the last decade – from approximately $4 billion for fiscal year 1998-99 to $9.7 billion for 2007-08 – the LAO recommended early parole for older convicts whose third strike was non-violent and non-serious. Two to 4 percent of this older, three-striker population re-offend, compared to 70 percent of the general prison population.

Opponents of the three-strikes law such as Paco Torres, a law student working for the Stanford Three Strikes Project, spotlight stories like one of the project’s clients, a three-strikes prisoner serving life for stealing three disposable cameras from a store. The project helps three strikers serving life for non-violent crimes appeal for shorter sentences. Though all three strikers have committed at least one serious crime – a legal term used for 28 types of crime including home invasion – the project does not help prisoners who have committed murder or sex crimes. More than 1,000 names are on their waiting list.

“The point isn’t that our clients are completely innocent. It’s that the punishment given should be proportional to the crime committed,” Torres said. “The way the law is currently structured is far from fair.”

Three strikes supporters point to victim stories like those of 17-year-old Lily Burk. During a visit to Southwestern Law School in Westlake on July 24, 2009, she crossed paths with Charlie Samuel, a 50-year-old parolee permitted to leave a drug rehabilitation center to visit the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Burk probably would have never met Samuel if not for a clerical error in a prosecutor’s records when he was sentenced for second-degree burglary in 1997. Without the error, the San Bernardino prosecutor could have given him a third strike and locked him away for 25 years to life. Instead, years later, he was free to kidnap Burk and slash her neck.

Preventing these kinds of murders is exactly what Fresno photographer Mike Reynolds had in mind when he wrote the ballot initiative for the Three Strikes Law, Proposition 184, which passed with 72 percent approval in 1994. Two years before, Reynolds’ 18-year-old daughter Kimber Reynolds was fatally shot in the head by two robbers. Both men were repeat offenders.

A year before the law passed, the national media put a spotlight on another repeat offender for the abduction, rape and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas from Petaluma.

Reynolds has seen many attempts to alter the proposition he championed in the name of his daughter. He said he doesn’t think any are necessary, including attempts to keep people like Torres’ client from getting life sentences for stealing three disposable cameras.

“If you lower rates of burglary, guess what else goes down? Rates for rape and murder,” Reynolds said. “Frankly, when he’s stealing food or whatever else from your house, there’s always the chance he’ll also take advantage of raping you or killing you so you’re not a witness.”

Violent crimes decreased from 336,100 in 1993 – before three strikes was implemented – to 191,493 in 2007, all while the state population grew by more than 6.1 million people. Reynolds admits no one can say with certainty that one change in the system is the cause for another, but he is confident his law has saved the state money and lives.

“Right now, the chances of you getting burglarized are the same as they were in 1952,” Reynolds said. “When you stop one burglar, many times you’re really stopping a one-man crime wave.”

Politically, Democrats and Republicans can be seen on both sides of the three-strikes argument. In 2004, Proposition 66 would have amended California’s three strikes law so that a second or third strike would have to be a serious or violent felony. It was endorsed by the grandfather of Polly Klaas, Joe Klaas, in a campaign ad, and two weeks before the election, 62 percent of voters supported the measure.

But a last-minute, bipartisan media campaign against the proposition led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former governors Jerry Brown, Pete Wilson, Gray Davis and George Deukmejian changed the public’s sentiment. After warning that 26,000 dangerous criminals and rapists would be released if passed, the proposition’s approval dropped to 47 percent and ultimately failed to pass. Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo told reporters the turnaround was unprecedented.

Today, the Democrat and Republican candidates running for California attorney general want to see life sentences for non-serious and non-violent third strikes disappear. Steve Cooley, the Republican candidate and current district attorney for Los Angeles County, has been more active on the issue than his opponent, Kamala Harris. The list of more than 60 three strikers serving life for non-serious and non-violent crimes Cooley once made was the inspiration for the Stanford Three Strikes Project.

Buzz that Cooley’s election could lead to another shot at three strikes reform has shown up in international publications as recently as May in the New York Times and July in The Economist.

But Reynolds doesn’t expect any change to the law in the near future, especially with two tough-on-crime candidates for California governor, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown.

“If it is ever undone, the results will speak for themselves.”

Source: Berkeley News21

Inmates’ deaths mean no chance to say good-bye

Before Daniel Martin went back to prison, he told his wife, “I’m not coming back this time. I’m going to die in there.”

Ten months later, on July 18, Yolanda Martin got an early -morning call. On the other end of the line, an unfamiliar voice said, “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your husband passed away last night.” Yolanda Martin and her sons, 20 and 27, said they could do nothing but remain silent and grieve. They say they were denied the common decency of saying their farewells.

In 30 of the state’s 33 prisons the policy is clear: Family will be notified of the medical condition of the prisoner only when the doctor determines he or she will not recover and is bound to die. Word occasionally comes too late. Due to security reasons, only then can family visit the inmate, according to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton in Sacramento. There was no prior notification in Yolanda Martin’s case.

On average, one inmate a day dies in custody, according to the latest report by the California prison receivership. Due to visitation rules imposed by the CDCR, a lack of communication and an apathetic, overworked staff, families outside are often left feeling helpless, ignored and unjustly punished.

With the exception of California Men’s Colony, Central California Women’s Facility and California Medical Facility, which have a hospice unit, the CDCR forbids family visits for inmates too ill to get to the visiting rooms. Inmates often die with no chance to say goodbye to their children, spouses, partners or parents, even when they spend days or months in a hospital bed.

“They didn’t even let him call me. They didn’t explain anything to me,” Mrs. Martin said, her voice breaking over the phone from her home in Costa Mesa.

Yolanda Martin said the watch commander who delivered the news told her Daniel Martin died in a hospital outside of the California Correctional Center in Susanville, where he was serving his term for sales and possession of drugs. She last spoke to her husband over the phone less than two weeks before he died. They last saw each other eight months ago.

Had the CDCR let her know her husband had fallen ill, Yolanda Martin said she would have flown to Susanville to stand by his bed and spend their last few hours together. But the call was too late, and their 35-year relationship ended without good-byes.

Daniel Martin felt he would die in prison because his health was fragile when he went in. After battling an almost 30-year addiction to heroin, he had an infection that left one of his legs swollen. He required clean bandages and antibiotics daily, his wife said. The Martins went to court, supported by Daniel’s physician, in an unsuccessful attempt to keep him outside prison and under medical supervision.

“When they called me, they said, ‘Did you know that he had Hepatitis C?’ I said ‘no’,” Yolanda Martin said. She didn’t think he knew either.

“They said he died of kidney failure.”

CDCR spokeswoman Thornton told News21 in an e-mail that the 51-year-old man died of natural causes.

Thornton said the inmate had been moved to a hospital unit inside the prison three days before his death, but this information was withheld from the widow due to CDCR rules. Yolanda Martin learned this through fragmented accounts from her husband’s cellmate and friends inside the prison.

This lack of communication between the CDCR and the families exacerbates the pain experienced by relatives in the outside, said Gretchen Newby, executive director of Friends Outside, an independent organization that supports around 200,000 relatives of inmates in the state.

“It’s a serious problem,” she said. “We have experience dealing with this. Unfortunately, in our experience, it is very often.”

Newby said that what happens in prison is a mystery to the family, and this makes them feel helpless. She said she thinks part of the problem is that the CDCR is not equipped to provide information to so many people on the outside since the system is overcrowded on the inside. When families approach Friends Outside, there’s not much left to do but help them understand the rules surrounding prisons.

Selerina Arteaga of Los Angeles County also lost a family member behind bars. Her father, Jose Arteaga, 79, was serving a 29-year sentence in Mule Creek State Prison for sexual assault. He died unexpectedly July 5. The daughter heard the news from a family friend and contacted the CDCR.

“First they said it was of natural causes, and then they said it was prostate cancer,” Selerina Arteaga said, speaking the day after her dad’s funeral in their hometown of La Puente.

“Nobody knew what was going on. They transferred me from one person to another, and it was really brief: ‘Oh yes, he passed away in San Joaquin County, natural causes — oh no, prostate cancer’,” Arteaga said.

“Why didn’t they let him call me?”

In Jose Arteaga’s case, the CDCR told News21 the inmate was admitted to a hospital 10 days before he died. Prison staff do not notify families when an inmate is transferred to a hospital. Selerina Arteaga was not informed when her father died, the department said, because her contact information was outdated.

“Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon event,” CDCR spokeswoman Thornton said, adding that it’s up to the inmate to keep these records up-to-date.

A lot of what happens when an inmate falls ill is in the hands of the correctional officers, said John Espinosa Nelson, 43, a former inmate of Wasco and Folsom state prisons as well as the California Rehabilitation Center.

“Nowhere in that chain is there an urge to call their families,” he said. “There’s nothing to obligate them to call their family members and tell them.”

During his four years behind bars, Nelson, who was convicted of robbing bookstores and banks at age 22, he said he witnessed many accounts of neglect toward inmates, some of which ended fatally.

In the case of one fellow inmate, Nelson said, after complaining of a migraine and pain in his back and neck, he banged on the nurse’s window to get medication for a week until he collapsed on the floor. He was taken away and never seen again. Next to his name on the daily inmate roster a few days later was the word, “dead,” said Nelson.

Because Nelson held a position as a clerk in prison, he said he had access to information the other inmates didn’t. During his work, he learned his fellow inmate had died of spinal meningitis, a highly contagious infection.

“Information is the most important currency of all in that environment,” Nelson said. “In terms of confirming what happened, we’re left to figure it out on our own.”

More than 330 inmates died in custody from the period of June 2008 to June 2009, according to the latest prison receivership’s report. The county coroner’s office opens an investigation and performs an autopsy when a cause of death is unknown. It is the last step in the process of an inmate dying in custody, before his remains are handed over to family or disposed of by the state.

During his 12 years in office, Marin County Coroner Kenneth Holmes has dealt with people who yearn to know more about their relatives’ death behind bars. His responsibilities include investigating deaths that happened at San Quentin State Prison.

“The CDCR is not as communicative as the families would like,” Holmes said. “Families typically will say to us ‘Geez, we’re not getting much out of the prison about what happened out there.’”

“I’ll tell them everything I know,” he said. But the only information Holmes can provide for them is medical. Sometimes, that means informing them of serious hereditary illnesses found in the autopsy.

What most families crave to know are details of their loved one’s last moments. But the felony conviction often prevents sharing these details with the bereaved relatives.

“We have to remember that, like a lot of things, there’s always two sides of every story,” said Gretchen Newby, from Friends Outside. The victims of the crimes committed by these inmates may not feel like justice is served if the law becomes lenient at the end of a criminal’s life, she said.

Coroner Holmes observed:

“Death is the great equalizer. You’re no different than me if we’re both dead.”