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
visit our Job Search Blog at: The-Job-Specialist Blog

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.

 

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE STORY

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

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
visit our Job Search Blog at: The-Job-Specialist Blog

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
CLICK TO READ COMPLETE ARTICLE.


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

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

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

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
visit our Job Search Blog at: The-Job-Specialist Blog

Christmas in Prison

John Prine's Classic performed by James Humphries

CHRISTMAS IN PRISON

It was Christmas in prison
And the food was real good
We had turkey and pistols
Carved out of wood
And I dream of her always
Even when I dont dream
Her names on my tongue
And her bloods in my stream.

Chorus:
Wait awhile eternity
Old mother natures got nothing on me
Come to me
Run to me
Come to me, now
Were rolling
My sweetheart
Were flowing
By god!

She reminds me of a chess game
With someone I admire
Or a picnic in the rain
After a prairie fire
Her heart is as big
As this whole goddamn jail
And shes sweeter than saccharine
At a drug store sale.

Chorus:

The search light in the big yard
Swings round with the gun
And spotlights the snowflakes
Like the dust in the sun
Its Christmas in prison
There'll be music tonight
Ill probably get homesick
I love you. goodnight.

Posted by: The Candid Blogger

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Model Re-entry Program Paying Big Dividends

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections provides public safety by not only ensuring secure confinement but by delivering evidenced-based treatment, education and an array of re-entry services for those returning to communities from confinement. Evidenced-based supervision and services are also provided for those under community supervision. Investment in Oklahoma’s most valuable asset, its citizens, is as paramount an investment as infrastructure such as bridges and roads.

The state has achieved outstanding results with its approach to re-entry. The Bill Johnson Correctional Center in Alva is a prison-based drug treatment therapeutic community that received the American Correctional Association’s prestigious Exemplary Offender Program Award. Offenders who graduate from the program have an amazing 85% survival rate once they return home. There have been 14,341 offenders sentenced to the Community Sentencing Program since its inception in March 2000. The survival rate of graduates is 88%, which is one of the best rates of any community-based alternative program in the country.

Oklahoma discharges over 8,000 prisoners from its prison system each year and has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the nation at 27.8 percent. Their efforts to reduce recidivism are an enhancement to public safety by providing a returning citizen who will remain crime free, thereby reducing future victimization. At an over 70% success rate, that means that over 6,000 prisoners per year are being released that will not return to the prison system. Even though prevention is always a better investment in addressing social illnesses such as substance abuse and a multitude of other contributors to crime, successful re-entry to communities is an investment that pays dividends to many aspects of our communities to include the No. 1 service — public safety.

Click to read FULL ARTICLE.

Posted by: The Candid Blogger