A Sobering Thought

"Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose" - Janis Joplin

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
visit our Job Search Blog at: The-Job-Specialist Blog

Courage

Courage

While there is much excitement about the many changes that are already coming out of the White House now, there is still the aftermath of what has happened over the past eight (or more) years that all of us have to contend with. Despite the near-euphoria that many of my close friends and associates are feeling about all the good things to come, there remains the reality of making a living and getting the bills paid that overshadows much of what they are doing…and trying to do. For many of them…myself included…this is a very scary time. Some of my more affluent friends are suddenly realizing that they don’t have the “safety cushion” they thought they had, and others are working rather menial jobs just to pay the utility bills…again, myself included. I understand that there is a very long waiting list just to get a job at Walmart now.

These pages of blog links and writings describe and detail many startling things about our society and what needs to be fixed, yet here we are…most of us…unsure of what lies ahead and how to pull out of the morass of social and financial upheaval in our lives. It seems daunting and even, to some, hopeless. We alone are responsible for whatever circumstances face us, and as a nation of people we are responsible for what comes of the decisions we make now…every day. We can’t blame anyone or anything else…not even people like Berny Madoff, or the idiot who jumped out of his plane in an attempt to fake his death and run off to God-knows-where with whatever money left over from having bilked his investors. They make Kenneth Lay (remember him?) and the guy from Tyco look like amateurs, in terms of living lavish lifestyles with other people’s money.

But guilty as they may be, and as outrageous as their lives may have been, they are products of our collective lifestyles. We created them, somehow, by having too long looked the other way and put into office people who not only tolerated such lunacy, they indulged themselves as well. George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and the plethora of senators, governors, big-city mayors and corporate leaders that all have come and gone now were products of our generation’s unwillingness to have the courage and the moral responsibility to do something about what’s been going on for a long time. Enron was but the tip of the iceberg…and a grim forewarning of what was yet to come. No wonder we can’t pay our utility bills, and many of us face the possibility that we might be homeless soon.

So, what can we do? How do we pull out of this? We’ve managed to elect a new President who seems to have the right attitude and willingness to do what needs to be done to make things right…but he has the equivalent of a national 9/11 to clean up, and he can not do it without every one of us being willing to take steps in our own backyards and in our neighborhoods and in our families and within ourselves to make the difference. We need to suspend disbelief and distrust, and we need to have the courage to own what is our responsibility for loss and damages in our lives. We cannot waste another hour worrying about what went wrong or what is bad in the world, and just focus on our individual lives…to clean up our own messes.

I’m not an economist, but I’m going to accept the fact that the only thing that stands between us and another real Depression is the extent to which we are willing to stop pointing fingers and blaming others for our problems, and have the courage to step up and do what is right in our lives to set things straight. We need to hear each other, and be willing to help…even if it’s only to care a bit more about others than we do about ourselves. That’s what brought us out of the last Depression, and a World War that makes what we’re going through now pale by comparison.

We’re on a global Titanic, folks, and we’re in the midst of huge icebergs. We need to apply what we’ve learned about the disasters of the past, and stop arguing over who did what and why, and look around us. We have great resources all around us…and we are they. It takes courage and compassion…and truth. That’s what all this is about. We’ve lived too long in denial, greed and avarice of our own, and collectively we have created the mess we’re in by either having supported the fools and the crooks we’ve put in office or have supported in business, or by having looked the other way and never took action to change things.

The time is now for each of us to buckle up, suit up and go to work. Obama and his team will do what needs to be done. Now, we need to do what needs to be done in our own backyards. That will take more courage and willingness to be clean and clear in all we do and say than we’ve known or done probably in our lifetimes. However, it really won’t take long to change things for the better…and in those lifetimes we can yet see and experience what the human spirit, and God, is capable of achieving.


Don Kirchner

War on Drugs an Economic Disaster for America

Re-entry Programs: an Idea whose Time is Now

About thirty-five years ago, Richard Nixon declared war on drugs. Since then, we've spent more money on that war than in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been 37 million arrests for nonviolent drug crimes. Prisons are America's fastest growing industry, with 2.2 million Americans currently locked up. We're making 1.9 million arrests and spending $70 billion on drug crimes every year, yet drugs are cheaper, more potent, and far more available than ever before. What is the solution?

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."

-Abraham Lincoln

A Rand Corporation study conducted fifteen years ago resulted in a team of mathematicians calculating the most cost effective tactics: law enforcement, interdiction, foreign aid, treatment, and prevention. They found that only treatment was effective.

The hard evidence they presented has had no impact on drug policies that have failed to reduce drug addiction, crime, and/or juvenile drug use. The drug war continues and each of these problems continues to increase.

During alcohol prohibition, murder went up 13% and robbery, 83%. Prohibition ended in 1933, and violent crimes returned to their pre-prohibition levels by 1937. It is estimated that 80 percent of felonies are drug related. One of the drug war's hypocrisies is that its purpose is to prevent harm to users. While drug addicts do serious damage to their lives, the drug war destroys those lives.

The number of Americans behind bars for drug offenses, mostly nonviolent, has increased by 1,200 percent since 1980. Legendary NYPD crusader, Frank Serpico, describes the prison system as an industry. "They run it like real estate. They have so many rooms, they have to rent them out, and the police fill them."

READ COMPLETE ARTICLE

As states across the country confront historic budget shortfalls, more and more politicians are looking toward long-overdue criminal justice reform as a way to cut spending. Suddenly, the money local governments stand to save by slowing down incarceration rates is trumping the political costs traditionally associated with it. Good news. The nation's prisons have been dysfunctional and overcrowded for ages, reaching emergency levels in recent years. Around this time last year, a study released by the Pew Center found that 1 in 100 Americans was behind bars.

The cost of locking up parole violators has been a major drain on states' resources -- and no state knows this better than California. In 2002, a study by the Justice Policy Center calculated that the Golden State -- which leads the country in the size of its parole population and recidivism rates -- spent some $900 million a year to keep parole violators (who spend an average of five months in prison) incarcerated. That year, according to the same study, nearly 1 in 5 parolees lived in California.

President Obama is on the right track as it is definitely TIME FOR A CHANGE, and aftercare and re-entry programs are the solution.

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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Obama Plans Support for Ex-Offenders

President Barack Obama

Taking off at a blinding pace to overturn many of the antiquated policies of the Bush administration, President Barack Obama set forth his current agenda including many new policies aimed at improving our criminal justice system. "

The teenagers and college students who left their homes to march in the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery; the mothers who walked instead of taking the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry and cleaning somebody else's kitchen -- they didn't brave fire hoses and Billy clubs so that their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren would still wonder at the beginning of the 21st century whether their vote would be counted; whether their civil rights would be protected by their government; whether justice would be equal and opportunity would be theirs.... We have more work to do."

-- Barack Obama, Speech at Howard University, September 28, 2007

President Barack Obama has spent much of his career fighting to strengthen civil rights as a civil rights attorney, community organizer, Illinois State Senator, U.S. Senator, and now as President. Whether promoting economic opportunity, working to improve our nation's education and health system, or protecting the right to vote, President Obama has been a powerful advocate for our civil rights. Included in his agenda are the following:

Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: President Obama and Vice President Biden will strengthen federal hate crimes legislation, expand hate crimes protection by passing the Matthew Shepard Act, and reinvigorate enforcement at the Department of Justice's Criminal Section.

End Deceptive Voting Practices: President Obama will sign into law his legislation that establishes harsh penalties for those who have engaged in voter fraud and provides voters who have been misinformed with accurate and full information so they can vote.

End Racial Profiling: President Obama and Vice President Biden will ban racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies and provide federal incentives to state and local police departments to prohibit the practice.

Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Support: President Obama and Vice President Biden will provide job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling to ex-offenders, so that they are successfully re-integrated into society. Obama and Biden will also create a prison-to-work incentive program to improve ex-offender employment and job retention rates.

Eliminate Sentencing Disparities: President Obama and Vice President Biden believe the disparity between sentencing crack and powder-based cocaine is wrong and should be completely eliminated.

Expand Use of Drug Courts: President Obama and Vice President Biden will give first-time, non-violent offenders a chance to serve their sentence, where appropriate, in the type of drug rehabilitation programs that have proven to work better than a prison term in changing bad behavior.

Click to read his entire Agenda on Civil Rights

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
visit our Job Search Blog at: The-Job-Specialist Blog

Heroes

We so often hear about, or talk about, "making a difference." How does one go about "making a difference," and what sort of "difference" will that be? Do you stop and think about that at all whenever you say it or hear it, or is it just something that feels important but doesn't really go anywhere? What does that really mean?

To me, making a real difference in the world is to say something or do something that changes others' perspectives enough to have a positive impact on their lives, and one that is lasting enough to change a habit or a behavior pattern. God knows we can all use some of that in our lives, no matter who we are. What's amazing about that is that it doesn't even take that much. The late Leo Buscaglia, who wrote and lectured extensively on the subject of Love, and having an impact on others' lives, once wrote "For most of us, there will be no ticker-tape parades, no awards banquets or medals handed out. But if we only knew the good that can be done, and the ripple effect that can happen with the simplest act of kindness...even sometimes just a hug or a smile at the right time...we would all be heroes."

As I travel around the country and speak to various groups about "making a difference," I am always taken with the great amount of exuberance displayed by people when I talk about how powerful acts of kindness and compassion can be, yet I'm also stunned by how gripped with fear people are. Fear of failure, fear of sickness, fear of financial loss, of strangers or what might happen or not happen, etc., etc. We learn much of our fears from childhood, then magnify and increase them with everything negative that happens to us...compounded by the nightly news about the terrible things that happen to everyone else. Before long, we're so caught up in the negative things and the problems in the world, there's no room in our heads for anything positive. If anything positive manages to make it in there, it's quickly overshadowed by all the negative things that intimidate us and cause us to shrink back and believe that we can't make a difference in the world...or even in our neighborhood or home.

But that's not true. We can make a difference. We just did, in fact. We spoke out in the election with a very loud voice that we want to see and experience something different...not just different faces and different names but something that will go deep and overcome and transform the doubts, fears and resistance we've allowed to diminish the hopes, promises and dreams of our childhood. We lost all that...if we had it at all...because it became easier to believe the bad things.

Learning to be positive in a negative world isn't easy. It runs against the grain of the majority thinking, and few people want to be seen as someone running against the majority in anything. Yet, on the other hand, we all admire the hero that shows up in the nick of time and causes us to think about or to see things differently. Well, it's time to quit waiting for and hoping that that hero will show up. We can't put it on Barack Obama to be that hero for us. We each have to start being heroes in our own lives...one little bit at a time. We do that by deciding right here and right now that we're going to start being the hero we're looking for. In order to do that, we need to start telling the truth, being more accountable and setting the right example. If we really want to make a difference in the world, we need to be the difference we want to see in others. If enough of us do that, like we did in this election, think of the difference we might make in the world...really.

King's Legacy Demands Criminal Justice System Reforms

For the last three years, I've celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Ryan Correctional Facility, a guest of prison members of the NAACP. It seems right to commemorate the holiday with some of the 2.3 million Americans locked up.

If King were alive, he would understand, as Malcolm X certainly would, that mass incarceration has become an economic, social and human rights problem the nation can ignore no longer. This year, Monday's event at the east-side Detroit prison took on deeper meaning. Even inside the walls, President-elect Barack Obama has sparked hope and joy. "People around the world are rejoicing," inmate Kenneth Foster-Bey, 55 and serving a life sentence, told nearly 100 other prisoners during a program of singing and speeches. "They can't wait until tomorrow." A nation where millions of African Americans couldn't vote 50 years ago has elected its first black president and embraced the change he represents. Still, King's dream of racial equality remains unfulfilled.

The world's most powerful democracy is also its leading incarcerator. African Americans -- 13% of the population -- make up nearly half of all those in jail or prison. The nation that elected its first black president also has 1 million black men behind bars. America's criminal justice system is a political land mine, but Obama will have some cover if he dares to step across it.

U.S. Sen. James Webb, D-Va., a decorated Marine who served as Navy secretary under President Ronald Reagan, plans to push national prison reform. He has spoken with surprising candor about class, race and the criminal justice system, and the soft-on-crime tag won't work on him. With government budgets busting at all levels, the time is right. The country cannot afford a $60-billion growth industry that has ripped urban communities and failed to make us safe. Michigan now spends more on prisons -- $2 billion a year -- than on higher education.

U.S. prison populations have increased nearly eightfold over the past 35 years, while crime rates, like gas prices, have gone up and down. Recent crime rates are similar to what they were in 1970, before the prison-building boom started. Harsh drug sentences that have hit African Americans especially hard have fueled much of the race to incarcerate. One study showed that African Americans make up an estimated 13% of drug users, while accounting for 74% of all prison sentences for drug possession. More than one in 100 Americans are now locked up, and more than 95% of them will get out.

Mass incarceration actually increases crime by severing social networks, leaving one in 14 black children with a parent in prison, and creating lifelong barriers to employment. The collateral consequences of criminal convictions affect a big chunk of the population. In Michigan, one out of every six adults is a felon.

Even so, mainstream civil rights organizations remain relatively quiet about the human and economic costs of a criminal justice system that affects mainly poor people. "I think it is a class issue," ex-inmate Joseph Williams told me. "A lot of these leaders are more focused on the middle class." Williams, 55, earned two college degrees after getting out of prison in 1975 and now runs prisoner re-entry and other programs as the CEO of New Creations Community Outreach. When I think of Williams and other ex-inmates I've written about, like Raphael B. Johnson, 33, who spent 12 years in prison for second-degree murder, I understand why we shouldn't give up on people. After his release from prison 3 1/2 years ago, Johnson earned a master's degree, started a family and a business, and gained national attention for his work with ex-prisoners and young people.

No doubt, we need prisons. But when too many young men grow up in neighborhoods where most of their peers go to prison or jail, it's time to consider where the get-tough policies of the last 35 years have taken us. Getting the number of incarcerated to a rational level will take more than re-entry and training programs. It will take serious reforms in sentencing. Figuring out who should go to prison -- and for how long -- and who should not, must become part of a new urban and civil rights agenda, backed by the nation's leader. Obama's election tapped the pride and hope of millions of Americans. We've come a long way. But with one in nine young black men behind bars, we've got a long way to go.

BY JEFF GERRITT FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER
JEFF GERRITT is a Free Press editorial writer.
Contact him at gerritt@freepress.com or 313-222-6585.

Correctional Officer Imprisoned for Assaulting Inmate

A former jail guard has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for violating the civil rights of a man in custody, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

On June 25, 2006, Jarrod Anthony Yates, while working for the Sequoyah County Jail in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, reportedly kneed, stomped and punched arrestee Donald Gene Allen resulting in serious injuries including a fractured eye socket and severe lacerations that required facial surgery. Yates was suspended while the FBI's Oklahoma City Field Office investigated the case. He was indicted on April 17, 2008, later to plead guilty on October 2, 2008. He faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The case was prosecuted by First Assistant US Attorney Doug Horn and Trial Attorneys Roy Conn and Michael Khoury from the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

"While we all appreciate corrections officers have dangerous jobs, that doesn't give them license to abuse their authority with this kind of physical violence," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker on Wednesday. "The vast majority exercise appropriate restraint, and because the rule of law is paramount in our society, we have an obligation to prosecute those who clearly don't."

SOURCE: RAWSTORY.COM

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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Obama Ready to Close Guantanamo Prison

President-elect Barack Obama will order the closing of the Guantanamo Bay US military prison, his advisers say, according to Lara Jakes of The Associated Press: That executive order is expected during Obama's first week on the job — and possibly on his first day, according to two transition team advisers. Both spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Obama's order will direct his administration to figure out what to do with the estimated 250 al-Qaida and Taliban suspects and potential witnesses who are being held at Guantanamo.

It's still unlikely the prison would be closed any time soon. Obama last weekend said it would be "a challenge" to close it even within the first 100 days of his administration.

CLICK TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE


Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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UPDATE

The number of inmates on hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility has risen sharply to 42 -- eight more than last week, officials said Monday at the US-run "war-on-terror" prison.

"We have 42 hunger strikers," said Captain Pauline Storum, spokesperson for the facility, who said the figure includes 31 detainees being force-fed. There are roughly 250 inmates detained at Guantanamo. Last Friday there were just 34 inmates who refused food, of whom 25 were forcibly fed.

Officials at Guantanamo said a detainee is classified as being on hunger strike after going for three consecutive days without eating.

National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC)

PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT ON CRIME

Arlington, VA – The economic downturn, home foreclosures, and major cuts to law enforcement and crime prevention budgets have led President and CEO Alfonso Lenhardt of the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) to call upon President-elect Barack Obama to commit to a national agenda to renew crime prevention resources and support local law enforcement across the country.

“Waves of local crime are breaking out in communities all across the country. It is imperative that our new president enact a strategy to stem the rising tide of crime,” said Lenhardt. “Many of us have become complacent with constant reports of a record 30-year decline in crime rates.”

Lenhardt continued by saying that part of the economic crisis is the very real risk of crime escalating. Last year 1.7 million violent crimes occurred. What are we doing about those victimized or those we want to prevent becoming the next victims? While Wall Street grapples with its financial storm, main street America is dealing with a potential perfect storm of crime. Communities confronting the home foreclosure crisis are seeing an increase in crime. Tight budgets for public safety services mean fewer resources to combat crime at the local level. Reduced services and a bleak economic future can make people resort to crime just to make ends meet.

Recently, 45 cities in a survey conducted by the Police Executive Research Forum reported a 12 percent increase in robberies over the last two years and an increase of nearly 10 percent in aggravated assaults with a firearm. Furthermore, a recent report stated nearly 30 percent of U.S. cities reported an increase in vandalism and burglary from foreclosed properties and nationally, one in 33 homeowners expect to be in foreclosure in the next two years, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

If America wants to stop the rising crime in our hardest hit communities and keep crime at bay in others, we must invest in comprehensive approaches to fighting crime. Together we can establish cost-effective prevention strategies and initiatives to help encourage Americans of all ages to do their part.

NCPC is calling for a five-step agenda to prevent crime.

1. Restore funding to local law enforcement and public safety services with emphasis on bringing crime prevention education services back to local police departments across the country.

2. Create a movement to prevent crime in America. Call upon all citizens to become actively engaged in the effort to reduce crime and get involved in prevention activities that create safer, more caring communities.

3. Support crime prevention education initiatives and programs that work to build better citizens who work to prevent crime in communities hardest hit by current spikes in crime.

4. Establish a crime prevention organization in every state whose responsibility is to engage all levels of the community in prevention strategies and to work with local law enforcement to find solutions to local crime problems.

5. Reduce the rate of recidivism by providing reentry programs, crime prevention education, and job opportunities for the more than 650,000 prisoners returning to their communities each year.

The National Crime Prevention Council believes crime prevention is everyone’s business. We know how to make our communities safer by investing in the programs that work and supporting our law enforcement partners across the country.

In conclusion, NCPC President and CEO Lenhardt had one light-hearted offer for President-elect Obama. “If it helps with the new puppy talk at the White House, NCPC is happy to lend our beloved icon, McGruff the Crime Dog, to keep things safe and sound.”

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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About the National Crime Prevention Council

The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) is a private, nonprofit organization whose primary mission is to be the nation’s leader in helping people keep themselves, their families, and their communities safe from crime. NCPC manages public service advertising under the National Citizens’ Crime Prevention Campaign—symbolized by McGruff the Crime Dog® and his “Take A Bite Out Of Crime®” slogan—and acts as secretariat for the Crime Prevention Coalition of America, more than 400 national, federal, state, and local organizations representing thousands of constituents who are committed to preventing crime. NCPC is funded through a variety of government agencies, corporate and private foundations, and donations from private individuals.

Further Information:
Michelle Boykins
202-261-4184
mboykins@ncpc.org

Prison Reform Talking Points

Prison Reform Talking Points - Our Challenge

1. The conditions of prisons are inhumane. In many prisons, inmates are victims of physical abuse and excessive disciplinary action. Overcrowding and double-bunking are widespread. At the same time, many "supermax" prisons subject inmates to prolonged isolation in tiny cells, which frequently fosters mental illness. Prisoners also tend to have inadequate access to physical and mental healthcare.

2. Prisons are "crime factories." Instead of curbing criminal tendencies, prisons encourage them. Violent and aggressive behavior is standard and even rewarded. It's clear that time served in such conditions regularly creates violent criminals from nonviolent ones.

3. Recidivism rates are exceedingly high. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than two-thirds of released prisoners are re-arrested within three years. These figures underline the ineffectiveness of prison as a deterrent and a reformer. They also lead to a related criticism of prison trends: Increasingly, people are re-arrested on technical parole violations, such as missing an appointment with a parole officer, and returned to the system more quickly than in the past.

4. Prisons are expensive. According to CBS News, taxpayers are paying an estimated $40 billion a year for prisons. Feeding and caring for an inmate costs about $20,000 a year on average, and construction costs are about $100,000 per cell. The demand to build more prisons has often siphoned funds from the few existing treatment and education programs, leading to a vicious circle in which more prisons are needed because, partly due to the lack of these programs, more prisoners continue to come back.

5. Most of the growth in prison population has been for nonviolent offenders, especially those convicted on drug charges. Because of mandatory sentencing laws, over half of today's inmates are incarcerated on drug charges, despite evidence that treatment programs are much more effective at preventing future drug offenses.

6. The combined effects of disenfranchisement laws, inmate population trends and economic realities perpetuate a racial divide in society. Prisoners are disproportionately from minority communities. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, based on current rates of incarceration an estimated 32 percent of black males will enter prison during their lifetime, compared with 17 percent of Hispanic males and 5.9 percent of white males. Once released, many prisoners lack job skills and face employer suspicion. In most states convicted felons are not allowed to vote from prison; in twelve states, felons are disenfranchised for life. These factors contribute to widespread unemployment in minority communities as well as disproportionately meager electoral representation.

7. Under draconian laws, people can end up in jail for life for nonviolent crimes. Because of the ascendancy of "three strikes" laws, for example in California, it is increasingly common for people to receive life sentences for offenses such as drug possession and welfare fraud.

8. Most prisoners will be released into society, and are not prepared by prisons to participate productively. The culture of parole has changed dramatically over the past generation. Now there is much less individualized consideration of how well prepared an inmate is to leave prison. Less help is provided to facilitate that preparation, and fewer parole officers are available to ease the transition back into the community. Such trends are especially dangerous in light of the mental illness and violent tendencies that result from prison conditions.

SOURCE: THE NATION
By Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE.


Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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Destiny vs Fate

"The times are hard," is an expression we are hearing more and more these days. While that may be true to a large extent, it's no basis or justification for allowing yourself to be diverted from or detracted in any way from accomplishing what you know in your heart and mind is right for you to do. The fact is, that in order for any meaningful change to take place in your life, home, region, nation or worldwide, the challenges have to be powerful enough for you (and the rest of us), to reach way down deep inside and get a firm grip on who you are and what you were destined to do when you first stepped foot on this ground called Earth.

Perhaps you feel that you didn't have a particular destiny. Maybe you think things are "fated" to be certain ways, and that you don't really have much to say about anything. If so, ask the voters in Minnesota...or Florida or Michigan, for that matter...a ridiculously small number of whom recently decided the "fate" of a new and old senator...and eight years ago a President of the United States who has taken the entire planet on a roller coaster ride the likes of which have not been experienced in modern history.

These are indeed "hard" times...but as Charles Dickens wrote in his classic A Tale of Two Cities, they are also the best of times. We have an opportunity now to gather our wits about us and find a purpose in life besides just getting through each day safely. We have a chance to "re-design" ourselves, our families, our homes, our government and our nation, and that takes only courage and openness to see things (and each other) for what they are. With every challenge, problem or adversity, there is opportunity for change, and a gift. That "gift" is new insight and the chance to back up enough to see the bigger picture. No matter what the adversity or abberation, there is always a balancing force in motion somewhere. Always.

Ask Nelson Mandela, Lee Ioccoca, Lance Armstrong, Stephen Hawking or hundreds of cancer survivors who have faced adversity way beyond anything most of us now face or will likely ever face, and they will tell you that there is always something for which to be thankful. Anyone exiting prisons with any degree of integrity left in them (which are many more than you might be willing to believe), will tell you of renewed faith, hope and promise that there was a reason for surviving the ordeal, and that was to come out and make a difference in the world...even if it's just in their own lives.

We have an opportunity now to go beyond the greatest achievements of the "Greatest Generation," who turned WWII into the greatest "boom" era in our history. We can learn from them and from all the adversity in the world now to individually and collectively tear down what doesn't work and build upon what does. In the end, all that really matters is our God-given human spirit that can overcome any adversity. To that end, I offer a quote from a high school literature class something that has haunted me to this day, from "Invictus," by William Henley: "We are the captains of our fates; the masters of our souls."

We all have a certain fate, but that fate is determined by our attitude and by the choices we make every day to do what we can to push through to something beyond the hurdles just in front of us. If we're willing to see the bigger picture, and work humanely and cooperatively toward making things better for all, we go beyond just a fate. We have a destiny that we mold and shape in the process. We become masters...of our destinies.

Sheriff Jailed for Starving Inmates

DECATUR, Ala. - A federal judge ordered an Alabama sheriff locked up in his own jail Wednesday after holding him in contempt for failing to adequately feed inmates while profiting from the skimpy meals.  U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon had court security arrest Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett at the end of a hearing that produced dramatic testimony from skinny prisoners about paper-thin bologna and cold grits.  The sheriff, who showed no emotion when his arrest was ordered, had testified that he legally pocketed about $212,000 over three years with surplus meal money but denied that inmates were improperly fed.

Sheriff needs plans to get out of jail

Clemon, however, said the sheriff would be jailed until he comes up with a plan to provide the 300 jail inmates with nutritionally adequate meals, as required by a 2001 court order. Rhea said a plan may be drawn up Wednesday night and sent to the judge.

Clemon said the Alabama law allowing sheriffs to take home surplus meal money is "probably unconstitutional," but his ruling was limited to the finding that the court order was violated. It didn't address whether the law should be overturned.

"He makes money by failing to spend the allocated funds for food for inmates," Clemon said.

An attorney representing the inmates, Melanie Velez of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, called Clemon's order to take the sheriff into custody "extraordinary." She said she was shocked to learn how much meal money Bartlett was taking home.

Sheriffs in 55 of Alabama's 67 counties operate under the system allowing them to make money operating their jail kitchens. The law pays sheriffs $1.75 a day for each prisoner they house and lets the elected officers pocket any profit they can generate.

The law doesn't require the money to be spent at the jail or within the department; sheriffs can keep it as personal income. They historically have provided little information about profits, so the hearing offered a rare look into a practice that dates back to the Depression.

The sheriff, who showed no emotion when his arrest was ordered, had testified that he legally pocketed about $212,000 over three years with surplus meal money but denied that inmates were improperly fed.

Forced to buy snacks

One after another, 10 prisoners told Clemon about receiving meals that are so small they are forced to buy additional snacks from a for-profit store jailers operated inside the lockup. Most of the inmates appeared thin, with baggy jail coveralls hanging off their frames.

Some prisoners testified they spent hundreds of dollars a month at the store, which Bartlett said generates profits used by the jail for training and equipment.

Inmates told of getting half an egg, a spoonful of oatmeal and one piece of toast most days for breakfast, served at 3 a.m. daily. Lunch is usually a handful of chips and two sandwiches with barely enough peanut butter to taste.

"It looks like it was sprayed on with an aerosol can," testified Demetrius Hines, who said he has lost at least 35 pounds in five months since his arrest on drug charges.

Most prisoners said they supplement the sparse meals by spending $20 a week or more on chips, oatmeal pies and other junk food at the jailhouse store. Some said they buy extra goodies for other prisoners to prevent fights over food. Prisoners said they never received milk until last week, when attorneys from a human rights center began asking about meals in the jail.

 

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Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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A Criminal Justice Program That Works!

Free at Last

TRANSITIONAL CENTERS REALLY WORK

Criminal rehabilitation in prison has a lousy record, so when a rehab program works, it deserves all the encouragement it can get - and so it is with the Augusta Transitional Center, and other such centers around the state and nation.

Basically, the centers reduce the number of discharged inmates who commit new crimes and have to be re-incarcerated. This is because the transition centers provide a period of time, from six months to three years, for the men to readjust to life on the outside and to prepare themselves to stay on the outside. The centers are a kind of halfway house where offenders acquire job training, assistance with job placement, cognitive programming, and related support systems such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

"Years ago we would just lock them up and throw away the key," says Superintendent Ronald Brawner, who's been at the Augusta facility for the seven years it's been open. "Now these guys want a fresh start... Without having some sort of transition, they leave the prison without having tools to stay out of trouble".

He's right, of course. Those who have a place to stay and to learn a trade are less likely to commit crimes.

Candidates for the re-entry program must be physically and mentally able to work and have a clean disciplinary record three months before they're released. Nearly 9 million inmates cycle in and out of state and federal transitional facilities each year and only 19 percent of them return to prison, compared to 29 percent that return who don't transition.

Moreover, the re-entry program saves taxpayers money on two counts: first because more ex-inmates are out and working instead of returning to prison and, second, those who get to take advantage of the transition contribute to paying for their own room, board and toiletries.

This is win-win for everybody which is why legislatures in Georgia and elsewhere should allocate more of their criminal justice budgets to transitional centers. They really work. Our state plans to increase the number of transitional center beds by 30 percent over the next year, says the Department of Corrections, which is a good start, but more facilities would be even better.

The Corrections Department budget, like any bureaucracy, should be encouraged to spend its money on programs that work and rid itself of the programs that don't.

From the Friday, January 02, 2009 edition of the Augusta Chronicle

Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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From The Bottom

In reading the comments regarding how "no one is hiring," I find it difficult not to be moved by the most common dilemma facing newly released offenders and even former military veterans who are "guilty" of nothing but having served their country. Interesting that these two elements of our society face nearly identical circumstances when it comes to jobs. Having been both at different times in my life, I can speak with some degree of authority...added to which much of the time in the years after both "tours of duty," I was also a single father of three children, all of whom chose to live with me.

Having said that, I want to say emphatically that there are always "jobs" out there, and several million illegal immigrants can attest to the fact. They may not be the most desirable jobs, but they are at least a place to start until one has proven him or herself to be willing to do whatever it takes–honorably–to get through the maze and to at least establish some degree of cashflow. Everything follows from there. In the year and half right after my release from federal prison, I threw newspapers from 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM, came home and got my kids ready for school, then worked at an art gallery until 5:00. Three nights a week I waited tables...and the combination of the three jobs kept us going until I was able to secure a "real" job, and eventually to get stable enough to start my own business.

Such is the course one sets for him or herself once one has ventured into the minefield of either incarceration or serving in the military, and either way one has only to set one's mind and heart on the goals with no concern for how others may view it. Ultimately, whatever works, so long as it is honorable and trustworthy, is regarded as one of the most noble things one can do. Doors of opportunity open for such a person that one might never have thought possible before, but they don't do so easily...until one reaches a point of reliability and steadfastness that other people take notice and are compelled not only to assist, but to change their own lives, too.

These are the times we live in now...times of accountability and virtue. Image alone is no longer of value or substance. There must be meaningful and consistent effort, respect and compassion...on both sides of the walls and the uniforms. We are all human beings, and as such must act with caring and respect for one another. AND, we must be willing to work and be productive. In like manner, if we're in business and are in a position to hire others, it is imperative that we consider hiring someone who has faced challenges in their lives

Out of Jail -- Nobody is Hiring

Ex-Felons Can't Get Jobs After Convictions Years Ago.

Today I came across a very disturbing article related to prisoner re-entry programs and the hurdles they face in returning former prisoners to the job market.

"It took Vikki Hankins 18 years to get out of prison. It's her bad luck she got out during a recession. For an ex-felon in Florida to find a job these days is tough — nearly impossible.

"Basically, nobody will hire you," said Stephanie Porta, spokeswoman for Orlando ACORN, a community-based advocacy organization that works with ex-felons looking for employment. "Even people with little felonies are not finding jobs."

Hankins, 40, released eight months ago from a federal prison in Florida, is living in an International Drive motel paid for by Advocate4Justice, a group that promotes prison reform. She has been turned down for jobs at Denny's, McDonald's, Golden Corral, Walmart, Home Depot, Ramada Inn, Hess and 7-Eleven.

Hankins was sentenced to 23 years for possession of 22 grams of cocaine, but the mark of her conviction is something she will carry the rest of her life.

"There are people who paid the penalty for their mistakes. Inside the soul and the heart, they have changed completely," said Hankins, who was convicted under the alias Vanessa Wade. "For those people, do you continue to punish them by holding them to the fire for the rest of their lives?"

"Florida, home to more than 600,000 released felons, should follow the lead of other states that offer employers tax incentives to hire them", said state Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando. "And it needs to revisit a bill that stalled in the Florida Senate", he said. "That legislation would have made it easier for released felons to have their criminal records expunged", Siplin said. "Such a move would allow them to legally say on an application form that they have not been convicted of a felony".

"A person who hasn't committed a crime in 10 or 15 years, they should be able to resume their lives," Siplin said.

The bill to make it easier for records to be expunged died after opposition from employers who said they need to know the criminal backgrounds of job applicants. Others say criminal records might continue to exist in various databases, even after their official removal.

source: SunSentine.com
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Senator Jim Webb Calls for Prison Reform

Outlook Best in Years for True Prison Reform

This country puts too many people behind bars for too long. Most elected officials, afraid of being tarred as soft on crime, ignore these problems. Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat of Virginia, is now courageously stepping into the void, calling for a national commission to re-assess criminal justice policy. Other members of Congress should show the same courage and rally to the cause.

The United States has the world’s highest reported incarceration rate. Although it has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, it has almost one-quarter of the world’s prisoners. And for the first time in history, more than 1 in 100 American adults are behind bars.

Many inmates are serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes, including minor drug offenses. It also is extraordinarily expensive. Billions of dollars now being spent on prisons each year could be used in far more socially productive ways.

Senator Webb — a former Marine and secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration — is in many ways an unlikely person to champion criminal justice reform. But his background makes him an especially effective advocate for a cause that has often been associated with liberals and academics.

In his two years in the Senate, Mr. Webb has held hearings on the cost of mass incarceration and on the criminal justice system’s response to the problems of illegal drugs. He also has called attention to the challenges of prisoner re-entry and of the need to provide released inmates, who have paid their debts to society, more help getting jobs and resuming productive lives.

Mr. Webb says he intends to introduce legislation to create a national commission to investigate these issues. With Barack Obama in the White House, and strong Democratic majorities in Congress, the political climate should be more favorable than it has been in years. And the economic downturn should make both federal and state lawmakers receptive to the idea of reforming a prison system that is as wasteful as it is inhumane.

SOURCE: NEW YORK TIMES

Who is Jim Webb?

# Senator from Virginia
# Former Secretary of the Navy
# Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs
# Platoon leader with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Vietnam
# Awarded the Navy Cross
# Awarded a Silver Star
# Awarded two Bronze Stars
# Awarded two Purple Hearts
# Emmy Award winning war reporter
# Author of six best selling novels

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THE NEW GUY IN PRISON - Video

When Don Kirchner was first imprisoned -- he stuck out like a sore thumb. He didn't look like the other prisoners, he didn't talk like them, he didn't have the tattoos or the swagger -- he was clearly a fish out of water. While we wait for Don's movie to be produced, this video will have to keep his fans satisfied. It describes the similar experience of a new prisoner, unfamiliar with the workings or politics of his environment, and trying to impress the guards on his first day of incarceration. Fortunately, Don was a little more hip.



Posted By: The Candid Blogger
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