California's Three Strikes Reform Advocates Look Hard at 2012 Ballot Measure

 From Neon Tommy:  http://www.neontommy.com/news/2011/09/californias-three-strikes-reform-advocates-look-hard-2012-ballot-measure

California's Three Strikes Reform Advocates Look Hard at 2012 Ballot Measure

California’s three strikes law is broken.  The United States Supreme Court ordered the state to reduce the overflowing prison population that is straining California’s physical as well as monetary resources late in 2010, and a recent poll found that 74 percent of voters were ready for change to the controversial law.

But those who have long been advocating for reform are waiting anxiously and hopefully for a key donor to step up and provide the financial resources necessary to capitalize on the political opportunity that has opened up before them.

Despite swirling rumors and reports of definite sponsors those at the forefront of the reform campaign are still waiting.

“We have been fighting to reform the harshest aspects of the three strikes law by any means. There are lots of different ways to ameliorate the harshest aspects: litigation, legislation, and public education,” said Michael Romano, director of the Stanford law school’s three strikes project.

But the project limits its work to two specific advocacy areas: working on individual litigation on behalf of clients, Romano said, and representing the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in advocating for more systemic reform.

“That is that,” Romano said, offering no further comment on a report published in the San Jose Mercury News that his project is involved in an effort to put reform on a November 2012 ballot measure.

If advocates and donors want to move, they’ll have to move fast.  Garnering public support for a ballot measure takes lots of time and money – at least a year of planning and an estimated $1.5 million in fundraising are still needed in order to have a chance at winning a majority in favor of three strikes reform.

“I think we will all know by the end of October,” said Geri Silva, Director of Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes.

Three strikes is a habitual offender law that dictates mandatory minimum sentencing of 25 years to life if an individual in the state of California has committed and been convicted of three crimes.  The law was instituted in 1994 with massive public support following the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas by an ex-convict.

Since then, several infamous cases brought negative attention to the law, and led to reform efforts.  Gary Ewing was sentenced to 25-to-life under the three strikes law after shoplifting golf clubs; Jerry Dewayne Williams was also given a 25-to-life for stealing a slice of pizza. 

While three strikes reformers in the state of California are holding their breath waiting for someone to field a ballot measure in 2012 that would amend the state’s controversial three strikes law, many are hoping that such a measure would replicate the judicial model used by Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley.

MODEL LOS ANGELES

Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley’s approach to enforcing the three strikes law – in which only felonies, and not misdemeanors, count towards the third strike that would result in a mandatory 25-to-life sentence – is a model that advocates say they want expanded across the entire state.

Three strikes “can be and is a law that removed violent criminals from our society,” said Cooley at a recent symposium on the three strikes law.  “But it has also caught up incredibly petty offenders.  The ‘gotcha’ mentality of some prosecutors was readily apparent in the early historical application of the law.”

Such application of the law, which Cooley called “grossly disproportionate” to the crimes being committed, led him to run for Los Angeles County District Attorney in 2000.  He won that race by a landslide 28 points, with reforming three strikes as “the centerpiece issue of the campaign,” according to Cooley.

Now the LA district attorney’s office only pursues 25-to-life sentences in the case of a violent or serious felony as the third strike.

“If the third offense was non-violent and non-serious as defined by California penal code, that individual will not see 25-to-life,” said Cooley.

While the motivation for a ballot measure in 2012 may be a keen sense of justice, activists say the move would have beneficial repercussions for debt-riddled California.

“The budget sucks, the prisons are eating up a lot of that money,” said Silva. “They can reduce it based on non-violent, non-serious, and non-sexual offenders. But for a ridiculous law, most of the guys in there would be out based on that.”

Mandatory minimum sentencing is a key contributor to prison overcrowding, reform advocates argue. 

The three strikes law is costing California $49,000 per prisoner per year; with over 40,000 people imprisoned under the three strikes law, according to the California Legislative Analysts’ office, that adds up to nearly $2 billion a year in costs for the state of California.

Litigation against the state has also spiked “quite a bit,” as third-strikers sue against their sentences or over the overcrowded conditions they face, according to Jeannie Woodford, former director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, adding further costs.


With such a high cost for prison stays, the state of California could save serious money by reforming three strikes, say activists -- and indeed such an opportunity might present itself with the potential ballot measure upcoming in 2012.

The human cost is also staggering, with the essential warehousing of people caused by overcrowded conditions resulting in a severe cut of social services like rehabilitation and health care and health care.

Arnold Steinberg, a Republican political strategist who supports the Los Angeles model of three strikes implementation, said that non-violent, non-serious three strikers offenders were being put into extreme prison situations, making a clear case for sentencing reform.

“I’ve toured Gitmo, where I felt perfectly safe,” he said.  “Then I toured LA County jail, where I felt precisely the opposite.”

A three strikes sentence – and the mandatory minimum sentence of 25-to-life that it requires – means that prisoners can be classified as much more violent than they actually are. 

Elsewhere in the state, jurisdictions are sending three strikes prisoners who are “not your typical gang member to prisons with more violent individuals,” according to Woodford.

“More and more of these inmates asking for protective housing,” she said.  “We were now mixing what were typically drug offenders with more high-level offenders who would generally be getting a 25-to-life sentence.”

Add to the fact that California’s prisons are overcrowded, with non-violent and non-serious criminals being housed in the same facilities as gangs, the fact that the law in its application is “pretty much dealing with homeless drug addicts,” according to Michael Romano, director of Stanford Law School’s Three Strikes Project.

“Three strikers are twice as likely as other prisoners to be mentally ill and or physically ill,” said Romano.

PRETTY INTENSE

One such man sentenced to a 25-to-life punishment under the California three strikes law is Isaac Ramirez.  He was convicted in 1996 for petty theft with priors for stealing a VCR from a Sears department store.  There was no violence involved.

His two priors were theft from a Lucky store and theft of a television from K-mart, both in 1992.  After serving a six-month sentence for those first two offenses, he turned to drugs.  Four years later, he was sentenced to life in prison for his third theft.

“It was pretty intense for me,” he said. 

He was locked up in the highest security prison possible.

“It’s very difficult in there.  Racial riots.  Lockdowns.  Programs are shut down that could help you process,” he said. 

The state has cut drug rehabilitation programs and education programs for prisoners due to budget constraints for the past several decades. 

Such cuts to rehabilitative programs in prisons are “short-term savings at long-term costs,” according to Matthew Cate, the Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

With the assistance of legal advocates, Ramirez got his sentence overturned and is now a free man. After finding God in prison, he found work as a full-time pastor at a church in Corona. 

While Cooley thinks the system as a whole has self-corrected, implementation of three strikes still depends largely on the whim of a particular jurisdiction’s district attorney.

Cooley said that his policy of counting felonies but not misdemeanors towards the third strike has been “very well received by the public at large, who saw it as fair, law enforcement, who saw it as rational, and the courts and the defense bar, who saw it as a good way to go with this powerful, powerful tool.”

Indeed, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck supports Los Angeles’ unique model.  “Justice shouldn’t be cookie cutter,” Beck said.

“I basically agree with the way that Steve Cooley prosecutes three strikes,” he said.  “You have to have progressive sentencing for continued criminality.  To me, that’s one of the hallmarks, the tenets of our justice system.  But you also have to have some discretion to make sure that you are truly targeting the right people.  And I think [Cooley and his team] do that.”

While Cooley’s model is heralded by Republicans, Democrats, and advocates for and against the complete repeal of three strikes, his policy is not without criticism.

“Steve is the only Republican I’ve ever voted for, and that says a lot,” said Ronald Brown, the chief public defender of Los Angeles County.  But that doesn’t mean his three strikes policy is perfect.  “One of the problems with Steve’s policy is he still wants all the discretion to be in the DA’s office.  My fear is that judges are afraid to make the right call because they have to be re-elected every 6 years.”

And Cooley’s stance is not, he admits, wildly popular across the state of California. 
““I paid a political price for my reform efforts,” Cooley said.  “Take a look at the last attorney general race.”

Cooley lost the 2010 statewide Attorney General race to Kamala Harris, albeit by a razor-thin margin.  He speculates that, were he not a reformer on three strikes, he might have won.

Under Governor Jerry Brown, who is tough on law and order, legislators are not interested in reforming three strikes and being perceived as soft on crime, according to Gloria Romero, a former California State Senator who says she pushed for reform and lost her seat as a result.

As a consequence of Sacramento’s political hesitation on three strikes reform, advocacy groups are still holding their cards close to their chest with regards to a potential 2012 ballot measure.
“Only the person who has the money to put behind this can say if it’s a go or not,” said Silva. “But I’m feeling convinced it’s going to happen. We know there’s interest in it. It’s the perfect time.”

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes.

Citizens for Prison Reform"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

State Plans to Close Mound Road Prison in Detroit, cut 2,000 Jobs

From the Detroit News:  http://www.detnews.com/article/20110928/METRO01/109280394/1361/State-to-close-Mound-Road-prison-in-Detroit--cut-2-000-jobs

Paul Egan/ Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing — Michigan Department of Corrections Director Dan Heyns unveiled a plan Wednesday to cut about 2,000 prison employees from the state payroll by closing a prison and privatizing medical services.
The plan is expected to save the department about $50 million next year and an additional $12 million to $13 million in 2013, Heyns said in a conference call with reporters.
The plan includes:

Closure in January of the Mound Correctional Facility in Detroit, which has just over 1,000 prisoners.
A call for bids to privately run the Woodland Correctional Facility in Whitmore Lake, a medical prison where most of the state's most seriously mentally ill prisoners are housed.

Another call for bids to privatize prison medical and mental health services statewide.

"This is pretty drastic measures," Heyns said. "It's part of a bigger plan to reach our targeted goals."

The state prisons budget of nearly $2 billion has been a major target of state lawmakers seeking to cut the budget, because nearly all of it comes from the state general fund, rather than from federal government subsidies.

Heyns said the plans were developed as a contingency during negotiations with unions to find $145 million in state employee cost savings statewide. But after looking at the contingency plan, Heyns said he determined it makes sense to implement it regardless of the outcome of the union negotiations, which are ongoing.

A Democratic state senator said that amounts to "a betrayal of trust" that will "complicate any negotiations for trying to get wage concessions."

Sen. Glenn Anderson, D-Westland, said the Legislature considered the closure of Mound during this year's budget deliberations and rejected the idea.

"I feel like I've been double-crossed," he said. "I'm pretty outraged that this is even being proposed."
Gov. Rick Snyder, who is away on a trade mission to Asia, "agrees with my assessment, so we're going to move ahead," Heyns said.

Mel Grieshaber, executive director of the Michigan Corrections Organization, said he was surprised and concerned by the closure and privatization plans.

"I'm surprised that if they're going to close a prison, they're closing Mound," Grieshaber said. "Where are they going to put over 1,000 prisoners?"

Heyns said the prison population has dropped from a peak of more than 51,000 to about 43,000 in August and there are about 700 vacant beds into which some of the Mound prisons can be moved.

"It's kind of ironic that we're closing a prison here and people are anxious," Heyns said. "It ought to be cause for celebration."

Mound was chosen for closure because its proximity to other prisons will facilitate transfers and because it has high per diem costs, said Heyns, who was Jackson County sheriff before Snyder put him in charge of the state prison system earlier this year.

The Woodland Correctional Facility in Whitmore Lake, targeted for transfer to a private operator, has the highest per diem costs of any prison in the state, he said.

Heyns said the department would need 324 fewer employees as a result of the Mound closure and 2,000 fewer employees once the plan is fully implemented some time next year. But it's impossible to say how many layoffs would be involved, he said. He said he expects a contractor will want to hire many of the department's medical employees and "they're just going to have a different boss."

In all, the department's workforce, which has the equivalent of 15,800 employees, would be reduced by about 2,000.

He said "these decisions will likely create questions and concern," but "we will do our best to minimize impact to the extremely professional and dedicated staff who work hard every day keeping Michigan's citizens safe."

Mound costs about $32.6 million a year to operate, he said.

During the recent budget deliberations, Mound was earmarked for closure at one point but not in the budget as it was finally passed. Heyns said he chose Mound for closure independently of whatever analysis the Legislature had done.

State prison medical services are partly privatized, spokesman Russ Marlan said. It's not clear whether the state will end up with a single medical contract or several, he said.

The chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections issued a statement Wednesday saying he backs the decisions.

"I am in full support of Director Heyns' decision and applaud him for making the tough choices that will reform Michigan's corrections system," said Rep. Joe Haveman, R-Holland.

"Competitively bidding prison services is a huge step in the right direction and the cost savings to the Department of Corrections and our state's taxpayers is obvious and essential to making our system sustainable long-term."

pegan@detnews.com
(517) 371-3660
www.twitter.com/paulegan4

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes.

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

Join American Friends Reading and Discussion, October 6, 7 to 9--Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther

Join us for a reading and discussion with Dominque Stevenson and Marshall "Eddie" Conway, co-authors of Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther 

October 6, 7:00pm to 9:00pm at the University of Michigan's
School of Social Work
Room 1840

Panel Discussion to follow reading with:

• Buzz Alexander, Co-Founder of Prison Creative Arts Project; English Professor, University of Michigan
• Mark Fancher, Attorney for the Racial Justice Project, ACLU-MI
• Peter Martel, Prisoner Advocate, American Friends Service Committee's Michigan Criminal Justice Program 

Spread the word with the flier: Reading and Discussion on Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther 

Co-sponsored by Prison Creative Arts Project and American Friends Service Committee's MI Criminal Justice Program   

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes.

 

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

Abu Ghraib on the Allegheny: Sexual and Physical Abuse at Pennsylvania Prison

From Solitary Watch:  http://solitarywatch.com/2011/09/28/abu-ghraib-on-the-allegheny-sexual-and-physical-abuse-at-pennsylvania-prison/

A story out of Pennsylvania reveals the extreme abuse to which some U.S. prisoners are subjected. Yesterday, a suspended prison guard from the State Correctional Institution (SCI)-Pittsburgh was arrested on charges that he sexually or physically assaulted more than 20 inmates–and the district attorney has signalled that there are more arrests to come. As the AP reports:

The 92 criminal charges filed Tuesday include several counts each of institutional sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and official oppression — which amounts to covering up the crimes or allegedly threatening others to do so. The criminal charges mirror allegations contained against [corrections officer Harry] Nicoletti and officials at the state prison in Pittsburgh in two civil rights lawsuits filed by inmates in recent months…

The lawsuits, one filed in 2010 and another on behalf of an anonymous inmate last week, allege the systematic abuse of inmates — especially those convicted of child sex-crimes, or believed to be homosexual —by Nicoletti and other inmates at his direction. The lawsuits say the abuse occurred over the past two years in the prison’s F Block, a reception area where new prisoners are housed for a few days for medical testing and to receive other supplies before they’re moved to permanent cells.

Among other things, Nicoletti is charged with raping inmates, threatening them with other sexual acts, and with having inmates contaminate the food and bedding of his alleged targets with urine and other bodily fluids.
According to the criminal complaint, one of Nicoletti’s victims was a transsexual male who developed female breasts due to hormone treatments. Nicoletti fondled that inmate before raping him, while shouting racial and sexual epithets, including calling him a “weird freaky monkey,” the complaint said.


In another instance, Nicoletti singled out an inmate for abuse by announcing the man’s conviction for a child-sex offense and saying “Make way for the mole,” according to the complaint…

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections professes to be shocked and appalled. But while Nicoletti’s conduct may represent the extreme, this is clearly not a case of a single rogue prison guard. The AP notes: “In April, corrections officials suspended eight guards at the prison, including Nicoletti, and four top prison officials were removed and have since left the department, although officials have declined to say whether they were fired or resigned.” Today, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that “Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said this morning that  at least 11 other Department  of Corrections employees will be charged  after a  wide-ranging investigation into sexual and physical abuse at SCI Pittsburgh.”

As Matt Stround reported last week in the Pittsburgh City Paper, one of the inmate lawsuits, filed in July by transgender prisoner Rodger Williams, contains “the assertion that [Nicoletti's] abuse ‘occurred with the full knowledge of the superintendent and other high ranking staff at … SCI-Pittsburgh.’ Williams’ lawsuit names as defendant former SCI-Pittsburgh superintendent Melvin Lockett and other prison administrators…In May, the DOC replaced Lockett and three other high-ranking officials at the prison. All three were named in Williams’ lawsuit; none are currently employed by the DOC. At the time, DOC press secretary Susan McNaughton would neither confirm nor deny to CP that the staffing changes had anything to do with the suspensions or grand-jury investigation.”

According to the Pittsburgh-based Human Rights Coalition, which tracks abuse in Pennsylvania’s prisons, the second inmate lawsuit, just filed on behalf an anonymous prisoner at SCI Pittsburgh, “depicts a situation of intimidation, coercion, and physical assault wielded against inmates who tried to refuse the guards or to expose the abuse. Beatings, filing of false charges against inmates, and retaliatory time in solitary confinement were common…All of this transpired with the full knowledge and inaction of the prison management, including Superintendent Lockett. John Doe’s parents made repeated calls to the DOC and the Commonwealth while their son was incarcerated at SCI Pittsburgh, to no avail.”

Prisoner abuse is not limited to SCI-Pittsburgh. Earlier reports by the Human Rights Coalition, based on extensive inmate testimony as well as prison records, show a pattern of what the group calls “institutionalized cruelty” in the solitary confinement “Restricted Housing Units” at SCI-Dallas, SCI-Huntingdon, and throughout the Pennsylvania prison system.

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes.

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

CITIZENS FOR PRISON REFORM Walked on behalf of the mentally ill incarcerated! Local Residents Among Those Walking Off Mental Illness Stigma

From WHMI Radio  http://whmi.com/news/article/13108

Local Residents Among Those Walking Off Mental Illness Stigma

September 26, 2011

9/26/11 - As many as 1,300 walkers, including some from Livingston County, participated in the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, or NAMI, Walk on Saturday in Farmington Hills. The event seeks to raise awareness of and eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness. One of those taking part was Michelle Kozak, a member of Genesis House in Fowlerville. The organization, which helps individuals re-acclimate to society following a serious bout with mental illness, had 10 members take part in the walk. Also taking part was Lois Demott of Citizens for Prison Reform, who said a legislative meeting has been set for October 26th in Lansing for interested parties to voice their opinion on what they say is the inhumane treatment of prisoners with mental illness. If one plans to attend the legislative meeting, a notice must be given by Oct. 15 by calling (269)339-0606 or citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com. Organizers of the NAMI Walk say they raised more than $75,000 prior to Saturday’s event and they hope when all is said and done they’ll generate about $150,000. (JK)

We were there and thank NAMI and each and every group that was involved!  It was a beautiful day filled with many warm feelings!

Citizens for Prison Reform"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

ACLU Report Details Wide Abuse in Los Angeles Jail System

From The New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/us/aclu-suit-details-wide-abuse-in-los-angeles-jail-system.html?_r=1&emc=eta1


Report Details Wide Abuse in Los Angeles Jail System

By JENNIFER MEDINA

Published: September 28, 2011

LOS ANGELES — One inmate said he was forced to walk down a hallway naked after sheriff’s deputies accused him of stealing a piece of mail. They taunted him in Spanish, calling him a derogatory name for homosexuals.

Another former inmate said that after he protested that guards were harassing a mentally ill prisoner, the same deputies took him into another room, slammed his head into a wall and repeatedly punched him in the chest.
And a chaplain said he saw deputies punching an inmate until he collapsed to the ground. They then began kicking the apparently unconscious man’s head and body.

The examples are just a fraction of dozens of detailed allegations of abuse in Los Angeles County’s Men’s Central Jail and Twin Towers, according to a report that the American Civil Liberties Union is expected to file in Federal District Court here on Wednesday. The Los Angeles County jail system, the nation’s largest, is also the nation’s most troubled, according to lawyers, advocates and former law enforcement officials.

“This situation, the length of time it has been going on, the volume of complaints and the egregious nature are much, much worse than anything I’ve ever seen,” said Tom Parker, a retired F.B.I. official who led the agency’s Los Angeles office for years and oversaw investigations into the Rodney King beating and charges of corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department. “They are abusing inmates with impunity, and the worst part is that they think they can get away with it.”

The system has a long history of accusations of abuse and poor conditions. The A.C.L.U. filed a federal lawsuit 35 years ago, and an agreement eventually allowed the organization to place monitors inside the jails. But those monitors say that they receive six or seven complaints a week now, primarily from the two large jails in downtown Los Angeles that house thousands of men. The F.B.I. has also begun to investigate several episodes in the jails.

Sheriff Lee Baca has repeatedly dismissed any suggestion of a systemic problem in the jails, saying that all allegations of abuse are investigated and that most are unfounded.

This week, The Los Angeles Times reported that F.B.I. agents sneaked a cellphone to a prisoner as part of an investigation. Sheriff Baca reacted to the investigation angrily, saying that the agency did not know what it was doing and was putting prisoners and guards in danger.

Sheriff Baca discussed the matter with a Justice Department official in a meeting on Tuesday. Nicole Nishida, the sheriff’s spokeswoman, said that the department thoroughly investigated all complaints of abuse that it received and that most were unsubstantiated.

With California under an order from the United States Supreme Court to shed thousands of inmates from the state prisons, county jails are expected to receive many more inmates in the next year, which could aggravate overcrowding and other problems. Officials from the Sheriff’s Department have said that they will not place inmates from the state in the Men’s Central Jail, which they concede is an antiquated building.

But lawyers from the A.C.L.U. say that the Los Angeles County system is, in many ways, even worse than the state prisons that have been found unconstitutional. They say that many complaints are never properly investigated, and that often the very guards accused of abuse are in the room when an inmate is interviewed about the complaint.

In the last several months, the civil rights group has amassed 70 declarations from former prisoners and civilians who witnessed beatings. The statements suggest few patterns — the complaints span all times of day and multiple units in the jail. But, the A.C.L.U. says, the guards do seem to use the same terms repeatedly, shouting, “Stop resisting!” and “Stop fighting!” while they hit inmates, even when inmates are not moving or are in handcuffs.

Paulino Juarez, a Roman Catholic chaplain who has worked in the jail since 1998, was visiting an inmate’s cell early one morning in February 2009 when he heard several thumps and gasps in the hallway. When he moved to the cell door, he saw three deputies hitting a man and yelling, “Stop fighting!”

“But he wasn’t fighting; he wasn’t even defending himself,” Mr. Juarez said in an interview. “When they saw me, they froze. I was frozen, too. I didn’t say anything. I was too shocked, and I was terrified.”

Mr. Juarez filed a report with the Sheriff’s Department but did not hear anything about it for several months. More than two years later, during a meeting with his supervisor and Sheriff Baca, Mr. Juarez was told that the department found that the inmate had resisted going into his cell. There was no record of Mr. Juarez’s report, although a guard indicated in the file that the chaplain had exaggerated what he had witnessed. He was told that the inmate, whose name he did not know at the time, had later been released.

“I really don’t trust anymore,” Mr. Juarez said. “They always say inmates are liars and nobody believes them. But I saw them treated like this.”

While the sheriff has repeatedly dismissed complaints from prisoners, the number of civilians who have witnessed beatings has steadily increased, showing the brazenness of many of the guards in the jails, said Peter Eliasberg, legal director for the A.C.L.U. Foundation of Southern California.

This year, Esther Lim, the current monitor for the A.C.L.U., said she saw several deputies beat a man inside the Twin Towers jail, next door to Men’s Central, as if he were a “human punching bag.” The attack was widely reported in the local news media, and at the time a spokesman dismissed it, saying that Ms. Lim should have reported it sooner and that the inmate was attacking the deputies.

Mr. Eliasberg and Ms. Lim said that inmates who were beaten were routinely placed for several days afterward in isolation, known as “the hole,” and were often accused of assaulting the guards.

The A.C.L.U. plans to call for a wide-ranging federal investigation, and for Sheriff Baca to resign.

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes. The information you find here is not affiliated with Citizens for Prison Reform.

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

Restorative Justice: Working Together for a Safer Michigan

September 2011

Dear Community Leader,

Because of your public commitment to issues of justice and fairness in Michigan communities, we are informing you early about an exciting two-day conference, entitled Restorative Justice: Working Together for a Safer Michigan.   This event will be held Friday, November 4 on the UM-Dearborn campus and on Saturday, November 5 inside Ryan Correctional facility in Detroit.  The conference is being organized by the Theory Group, a discussion and outreach group composed of incarcerated men and alumni of the University of Michigan-Dearborn Inside Out Prison Exchange Program taught by sociology professors Lora Lempert and Paul Draus.  The Theory Group has two primary objectives: 1) to pursue in-depth study and discussion of scholarly literature pertaining to issues of crime, justice, punishment and rehabilitation; and 2) to promote greater understanding of the experience and consequences of incarceration through development of educational events and programs.

Through several successful outreach initiatives – Confined Minds: Incarceration – Education – Transformation  Conference in April 2010, a 60 plus person workshop entitled Restorative Justice: From Theory to Practice in February 2011, and the first ever National Regional Training of Inside Out Instructors in May 2011— the Theory Group has established a reputation as a facilitator of meaningful public dialogue on pressing issues of crime, justice, education, and personal and social transformation. 

For each of these events, a diverse group of outside guests: judges and attorneys, legislators, academics, prison officials, parole board members, community members, clergy, social service providers, and representatives of the local media, came together inside the prison to learn from each other about higher education in prison, restorative justice, and the possibility of their applications in a variety of settings. 

The Restorative Justice: Working Together for a Safer Michigan Conference is intended as a follow-up to those initial, meaningful discussions. As you know, advocates of restorative justice seek ways for offenders to make positive restitution to victims, when possible, and to bring about healing and reconciliation for communities.  This conference will specifically focus on helping attendees build coalitions to develop implementation strategies for restorative justice practices throughout the state of Michigan. 

The on-campus day of the conference will include presentations/discussions by leading Restorative Justice advocates and practitioners, who have initiated, or developed successful programs in Michigan and neighboring states.  Our keynote speaker for this event is Sister Helen Prejean, perhaps most famous as the author of Dead Man Walking.  On Saturday, conference participants will spend the day (9:00 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.) inside Ryan Correctional working with Theory Group members on ways that people inside can assist in the development of RJ practices and policies in the State of Michigan.

Your presence and participation is central to our success.  Please reserve the dates – November 4-5, 2011

Contact informtion to follow

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes. The information you find here is not affiliated with Citizens for Prison Reform.

Citizens for Prison Reform"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

Facilitating a Restorative Justice Conferencing Training

From Tabitha, Michigan Restorative Justive

Facilitating a Restorative Justice Conferencing training is scheduled for
October 13 & 14,2011, 9-4:00 PM.  $115. (includes lunch)

A Peacemaking Circle Training is scheduled for October 19, 2011, 8:30-3:30
PM.  $70. (Includes lunch)

Trainer: Bill Sower


Both are held at Wayne RESA, 33500 Van Born Rd., Wayne, MI 48184. (Annex Rm. 2.)

To register:  http://www.resa.net/, Professional Development, Safe & Healthy Schools.

I have some partial scholarship money available through my peace organization,
"Citizens for Peace".   If interested, please give me a call at 248-476-0791. (Rosemary Doyle)

I found this training to be very effective in helping me understand Restorative Justice and Restorative Practice.  While it may be focused on schools, the  skills are very transferable.

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes. The information you find here is not affiliated with Citizens for Prison Reform.

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

Severely mentally ill need preventive care

From AZ Daily News:  http://azdailysun.com/news/opinion/editorial/severely-mentally-ill-need-preventive-care/article_788cb3d0-eea0-592e-9391-92be932b8323.html

Severely mentally ill need preventive care

Think of it like forest management: You can spend a little money over a long time on fire prevention, or a lot of money in a short time putting out massive wildfires and rebuilding communities and their local economies devastated by the blazes.

Only, we're not talking about trees. The severely mentally ill live among us. They are members of our families and some are our co-workers and friends. Do we stabilize them and attempt to integrate them with society over the long run, or wait until they deteriorate and "flame" out, then pay for the crises that often result?
State lawmakers had some choices last year when facing a budget shortfall. They continually cited the three biggest drawdowns on the state treasury -- education, health and corrections -- as the only places to go in the budget for significant savings.

So they took a combined $1.1 billion from education and health.

And increased the corrections budget by $10 million.

MORE BREAKDOWNS AND ARRESTS

Now, the results of those choices are starting to become obvious, starting with the chronically mentally ill. As the Daily Sun reported last Sunday:

--More patients being admitted to Flagstaff Medical Center need psychological evaluations -- the numbers are up 69 percent this past summer.

-- Police are seeking more court-ordered psychiatric evaluations of arrestees.

--The county jail is filling up fast, with many more of the new inmates than usual needing psychiatric care.

Meanwhile, because of state budget cuts in health care to the indigent mentally ill, case workers at local mental health agencies are being laid off, with more cutbacks anticipated.

And that's just in the Flagstaff region. The Arizona Republic launched its own series of stories this past week on the crisis in mental health care and came up with similar findings. Emergency rooms are seeing more suicidal patients, acute psychiatric hospital wings have waiting lists, more of the seriously mentally ill are winding up in jail, and hundreds of case workers have been laid off across the Valley.

CASE MANAGERS KEY

It's not as if lawmakers didn't know this would be coming. Mental health professionals warned them that switching to cheaper medications, ending regular visits to case managers, closing group homes and cutting funds to job training programs for the mentally ill and disabled would almost immediately result in individual crises. And when multiplied by thousands of patients, the crisis intervention system statewide would become overwhelmed.

Some lawmakers might have thought they were addressing just another chronic health problem like diabetes or heart disease, where self-help such as exercise, a healthier diet and smoking cessation can have a big impact. So they kept some funds for the emergency medical needs of poor, childless adults but cut off eligibility for most preventive care.

The severely mentally ill, however, need constant medical maintenance before they can participate in their own recovery. That was the bargain struck back in the 1960s and '70s, when hospitals for the chronically mentally ill all across the country were shuttered and patients were released to community health centers. "Deinstitutionalization," as it was called, would restore human dignity to the hundreds of thousands of patients incarcerated against their will and even save taxpayers some money -- assuming the health care system provided outpatient services. And if the mentally ill could be stabilized enough to hold down jobs, the taxpayers might even come out ahead.

TEXAS LEADS WAY

But if we allow these patients to spiral back down into debilitating crises that land them in emergency rooms, psychiatric wings and jail, we've not only broken our word to them but broken our budgets, too. The New Republic magazine reports that Texas did a study of its mental health system and found that the average daily cost of community services was $12 vs. $137 a day in jail for a mentally ill inmate, $407 a day in a mental hospital and $986 a day in an emergency room bed.

The study was in connection with a proposed overhaul of the state's criminal justice system. Texas, hardly a bleeding-heart liberal state, faced much the same budget choices as Arizona but instead included its correctional system in the mix of cuts. Instead of paying private companies to build more prisons, as Arizona is doing, Texas ramped up probation services so that qualified prisoners could be released earlier, with a net savings to the state budget. As a result, not only did a projected need for 17,000 more beds not materialize but Texas has been able to close a prison.

The jury is still out on what effect the Texas reforms, similar to those in California, will have on crime rates, recidivism and substance abuse (the last is the main contributing factor to crime and incarceration.) But if those two states can not only have that conversation about prison reform but actually take action, it's time Arizona's leaders got the ball rolling. The silence among elected officials on what should be an obvious budget discussion topic while a billion dollars is cut from education and health care is political cowardice.

JAIL NOT TREATMENT

Instead, to justify withdrawing funds for basic care for the severely mentally ill. the governor and legislative leaders contend there is simply no more money available Their excuse that they will care for this vulnerable population anyway when a crisis occurs borders on medical and financial malpractice -- these are people, not trees in the forest. They will suffer, and the care for that suffering will inevitably be more expensive than if it never had to happen.

Unless we are prepared to return the mentally ill to mental hospitals (and we aren't), then we are obligated as a society to adequately fund community mental health care at pre-psychiatric crisis levels. Jailing them is not treatment, nor is it cost-effective. The Legislature and the governor took a wrong turn on this issue last year. But do they have the political courage to admit it and get back on track?


Read more: http://azdailysun.com/news/opinion/editorial/severely-mentally-ill-need-preventive-care/article_788cb3d0-eea0-592e-9391-92be932b8323.html#ixzz1Z37gO9WC

 

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes. The information you find here is not affiliated with Citizens for Prison Reform.

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

 

 

Is It Time to Ban Solitary Confinement?

From Prison Legal News:  https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/(S(fcnzfdb51joguv3yn002s155))/displayArticle.aspx?articleid=21835&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

Is It Time to Ban Solitary Confinement?

By Julia Dahl (The Crime Report)

Some call it torture, some call it proper punishment. But in Maine, long-term solitary confinement may soon be illegal.

Last week’s episode of Law & Order: SVU centered around a man who, after assaulting a police officer, used an unusual defense to stave off prison time: solitary confinement made me crazy. The character, named Callum Donovan, had spent 14 years in what is commonly called “the hole,” a bathroom-sized prison cell where he had no human contact for 23 hours a day.

When Donovan first floats the notion, the cops and prosecutors turn up their noses.

“Were you beaten? Water torture?” asks ADA Sonja Paxton, played by Christine Lahti.

“No,” says Donovan, “but what they did to me was just as bad.”

For many who observe and report on the criminal justice system, Donovan’s assessment of his time in solitary confinement comes as no surprise.

“The kind of torture that goes on in many supermax prisons is worse than Guantanamo,” says Lance Tapley, an investigative journalist who has spent the past four years exposing abuses inside the “supermax” unit of the Maine State Prison for The Phoenix newspapers.

Tapley uses interviews with current and former prisoners to document life in “the hole.” He focuses on issues ranging from violent cell extraction and filthy conditions to suicides and fatal beatings. Several of his portraits are of prisoners who were mentally ill before being thrown in what is referred to in Maine as the Special Management Unit, or SMU.

Tapley claims his articles spurred some improvements in conditions. But he notes the basic issue of whether long-term solitary confinement constitutes torture (or cruel and unusual punishment) has, politically, been a kind of third-rail.

Until now.

Last month, Maine State Rep. James Schatz proposed a bill that would limit solitary confinement in Maine to 45 days unless it can be shown at a hearing that the prisoner committed one of several listed infractions, such as sexual or injury-inducing assault. The bill also mandates that prisoners be allowed counsel and the opportunity to call witnesses at the hearing.

Schatz collaborated with the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition to write the bill, which must be approved before being presented before the legislature’s second session. The state’s Legislative Council is set to make a decision October 15. If the council approves and the legislature passes the bill, Maine would be the first state to specifically limit solitary confinement for all prisoners and to provide inmates with a transparent process for getting in—and getting out—of the hole.

Inside “The Hole”

Although solitary confinement in the United States pre-dates the explosion of so-called supermax prisons in the past thirty years, the practice of isolating troublesome prisoners in 23-hour lock-down for years at a time, by many accounts, has grown with the number of isolation cells. Inmates are sent to these units not for crimes they have been convicted of, but for acting up in prison. According to a 2006 report written by Daniel P. Mears of The Urban Institute, as of 2004 there were 44 states with supermax facilities. As prisons have become more crowded, Tapley says, it behooves corrections officials to move people out of the general population and into “these expensive cells.”

Originally, supermax facilities like Illinois’ Marion or California’s Pelican Bay, were erected to house “the worst of the worst:” gang members and those so violent they cannot be contained in the general population. But Mears’ report found that the “logic by which supermax prisons achieve each of a range of goals remains largely unclear.” According to Tapley, who has been reporting on Maine prisons since 2005, prisoners in the state can be thrown into the hole indefinitely for infractions ranging from assault on guards to possession of marijuana. And, as the language of Schatz’s bill indicates, there is no standard process for a prisoner to “earn” his way out.

Maine’s Associate Commissioner of Corrections, Denise Lord, did not respond to requests for details about the average length of stay in solitary or guidelines for such punishment, but did tell The Crime Report that only 27 of Maine’s 2263 prisoners are currently confined this way. [Correction: According to Lance Tapley, the actual number of Maine prisoners in solitary confinement is 100. -- PLN staff].

“They’re stripped of any contact with the outside world. After just a brief time of that you start breaking down,” says Judy Garvey, founder of a group of volunteers who conduct literacy, art and computer classes at Maine’s Hancock County Jail. “Most will get out of prison and not be in great shape. We know it’s not healthy.”

According to Tapley’s reporting, prisoners in Maine’s supermax are locked in bathroom-sized cells 23 hours a day, with one hour of outdoor time, weather permitting (a dubious distinction in Maine ), five days a week. They have no access to radios or television (a fact that has prompted several hunger strikes) and have to shower wearing handcuffs and leg irons.

“You put mentally ill people in this environment and they go berserk,” says Tapley. “They become much more ill and start to throw feces, cut themselves or attempt suicide—which gets them more time on their sentence. It’s insanity.”

Jesenia Pizarro, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University who has written about supermax prisons, says that national data on who is segregated, for how long, and whether the segregation works to decrease violence in prisons or tame unruly inmates is woefully inadequate.

“We spend so much money on these prisons, but we don’t know if they work,” says Pizarro. “Wardens and corrections officials swear by it, but no one has actually done a comprehensive study.”

A Fringe Movement Goes Mainstream

Until recently, the movement to limit solitary confinement was mostly focused on keeping the mentally ill out of isolation.

“The mentally ill are disproportionately represented among prisoners in segregation,” reads “Ill-Equipped” a 2003 report by Human Rights Watch. Pizarro agrees. “This notion of ‘the worst of the worst,’ it’s not really true,” she says. “Many of these people are the mentally ill who corrections officers can’t handle.”

Intuitively, it’s easy to understand why the mentally ill—who often end up in prison because their communities lack social services to help them manage their illness—would have trouble, especially without consistent mental health care (which many prisons lack) following the strict and sometimes arbitrary rules involved in life behind bars. And the more you break the rules, the more likely you are to get thrown in the hole.

“The mentally ill are ill-equipped for prison and prison is ill-equipped for the mentally ill,” says Jamie Fellner, a senior counsel with Human Rights Watch.

Early last year, New York passed a law limiting solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners, and Illinois State Rep. Julie Hamos recently proposed similarly legislation. Rep. Schatz’s bill, which Feller calls “unique,” would be the first not specifically tailored to the mentally ill.

The conversation about isolation began to change as the country learned of abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Suddenly, the American public was chattering about whether long-term isolation was torture, and the outrage both encouraged and frustrated the activists who’ve been fighting solitary stateside.

“For those of us who understand American prisons, [the response was] ‘what else is new?’ says Garvey. And then in March of this year, The New Yorker magazine published an article by Atul Gawande, an author, surgeon and professor at Harvard, called “Hellhole.” The subhead read: “The United States holds tens of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture?”

“’Hellhole’ had a lot of influence giving credibility to the people who see the insanity of the system; he has the weight of science behind him,” says Tapley.

Prior to Gawande’s comparison of the experience of American prisoners enduring long-term isolation to the experience of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, the struggle to reveal what they see as the unacceptable psychological toll that solitary can take on an individual was mostly left to reporters, academics and groups like the American Friends Service Committee and Human Rights Watch. In fact, Tapley says some of the best research on the subject has been done by the inauspiciously named Maoist International Ministry of Prisons.

While many people seem open to the idea that solitary confinement of the mentally ill may constitute something akin to cruel and unusual, the jury is still out on whether prolonged isolation can actually cause mental illness.

“Gawande’s article was good for galvanizing people, but I don’t think you can compare Terry Anderson to an American prisoner,” says Fellner, who points to the fact that Anderson (the American journalist who was kidnapped by Hezbollah and held in confinement in Lebanon for seven years), lived in constant fear of being killed by his captors and was unaware of where he was being held.

“Solitary confinement in the U.S. is more banal and less horrifying – but it’s still a terrible thing to impose on someone without a damn good reason,” she continues. “To make his point, I think Gawande overstates the point. Many more people don’t go crazy in solitary, but they still suffer.”

If Gawande’s New Yorker article introduced the notion of solitary confinement as torture to the nation’s chattering class, and Rep. Schatz to lawmakers, the issue’s appearance on the Law & Order franchise marks its official entrance into the national conversation. In last week’s episode, entitled, “Solitary,” the show’s main character, Detective Elliot Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni, elects to have himself locked in “the hole” to test the theory himself.

In the language of television, Stabler’s experience is clear: First he does sit-ups, then push-ups, then he lays down and sleeps. He is awaken by a plate of food sliding in. What time is it, he asks. No answer. More push-ups, more sleep. Soon he starts to look nervous, then vigilant, then completely paranoid. He begins hearing things. He goes back to sit-ups. He paces. He befriends a cockroach. Finally, he begins muttering to himself.

When the guard comes to rescue him from his experiment, Stabler lunges at the man, shouting, I said three days, not a week! It was three days, says the guard.

Though Stabler is convinced, at the end of the show, Donovan’s defense doesn’t work, and when the jury reads the “guilty” verdict, he bends over and knocks his head on a table. Then he jumps up, rolls up his sleeve and begs the judge for the needle.

“Put me out of my misery,” he cries. “You’d do it to a dog — do it for me.”

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes. The information you find here is not affiliated with Citizens for Prison Reform.

Our answer to this question...ABSOLUTELY!!! 

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

Inmate Death in Maryland - Murder of state prison inmate being investigated

From ABC News: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/state/murder-of-state-prison-inmatebeing-investigated-

Posted: 09/24/2011
Last Updated: 19 hours and 32 minutes ago

CRESPATOWN, Md. - Maryland State Police homicide detectives are investigating the murder of a state prison inmate Thursday night in Allegany County.

The victim Saleem N. Abdullah, 53, was an inmate at the Western Correctional Institution in Cresaptown. A preliminary report from the medical examiners office indicates the victim’s manner of death was homicide and the cause of death was asphyxiation. Additional forensic tests are being conducted.

A suspect in the murder is being held, but is not being identified at this time because he has not been charged. The suspect is an inmate at the same prison.

Maryland State Police Homicide Unit investigators responded to the Western Correctional Institution Thursday night after they were notified by corrections officials that an inmate had been found dead in the prison. State Police homicide investigators are being assisted by investigators from the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Internal Investigative Unit.

According to officials, just before 8:30 p.m. Friday, a correctional officer was delivering mail to cells in Housing Unit 4, which is a segregation unit at the prison. The officer approached the victim’s cell and called for him to respond to the door to collect mail. The victim did not respond, but instead, his cellmate came to the door.

The officer called for assistance and officers entered the cell to check on the victim. Abdullah was found lying on his bunk and was unresponsive. Efforts by officers and a nurse to revive him were unsuccessful. He was transported by a Cresaptown ambulance to the Cumberland Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Upon completion of the investigation, the case will be presented to the Allegany County State’s Attorney’s Office for review and the determination of criminal charges. No charges have been filed at this time. The investigation is continuing.

Read more: http://www.abc2news.com/dpp/news/state/murder-of-state-prison-inmatebeing-investigated-#ixzz1YyHLpqzM

**This information is being shared by Citizens for Prison Reform for purely informational purposes. The information you find here is not affiliated with Citizens for Prison Reform.

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634

Citizens for Prison Reform Hosting October 15th Meeting for Prisoner Families and Loved Ones

CITIZENS FOR PRISON REFORM IS HOSTING:

A meeting for prisoner families, loved ones and individuals interested in working to reform Michigan’s prison system.

Date: Saturday October 15th, 2011

Temporary Location:  West Lansing Church of Christ 

                   5505 W St. Joseph Hwy                    

                   Lansing, MI 48917    

Time: Registration/Sign‐in at 10:15 a.m. (Park and enter at the back side of Church)

               Meeting from 10:30 a.m. ‐12:30 p.m. 

Topic: Preparing for Legislative Day-  We will be preparing for our upcoming Legislative Day  Luncheon on October 26^th that will be held at the Capitol Building from 11:30-1:00.  If you are unable to attend the 26^th, you will be able to utilize this session to prepare for future educational meetings with your personal Senator or Representative as to the need for prison reform.  

12:30 ‐Lunch following for those who wish to join at the R-Club 6509 Centurion Dr.

              (Off of Creyts Rd-where St. Joe and Creyts meet, parking in back)

             ** If you would like to be involved in the Legislative Day but cannot attend  this meeting, please email or call the number below.  We need your voice that day! 

To attend the Legislative Day on October 26^th,   RSVP  by October 17^th.  You need to call and schedule time for a training session.

Questions: Contact 269-339-0606 or citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

RSVP for the upcoming meeting by:  Wednesday Oct 12^th, at the above contacts.

Citizens for Prison Reform
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

-Martin Luther King

Email:  citizensforprisonreform@yahoo.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Citizens-for-Prison-Reform/171253319587634