Oversight Hearings on Prison Suicide and Prison Mental Health
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 1:00 PM, Room B-1
Testimony of the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition
1. Introduction
Reading: The Pain of the Soul – letter from prisoner Billy S.
Hello, we are members of the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition. As a grassroots group of family and friends of prisoners, we have a perspective, grounded in experience over many years, that legislators and policy makers lack access to. It is good to be here today. We think the General Court's understanding of suicide and the problems of those deemed mentally ill in Massachusetts prisons has been framed too narrowly, and we fear the proposed solutions will not work. We have an alternative perspective and set of solutions to offer.
As of today there are close to 2,300,000 people in prison. The individuals we are talking about today, those who have purportedly committed suicide, have family and friends standing behind them, and we, as SHaRC members, will be here to continuously remind everyone of this. As we look around this room it is apparent that the greatest experts on the issues of suicide in prison are not here--the prisoners themselves! It is essential that any review take into account the voices of those who have been silenced far too long. As the reading we began with stated, these suicides will continue until individuals can have have a sense of empowerment and hope.
2. Role of Prison Conditions in Generating Hopelessness
The current discussion around suicide within the DOC is too narrowly defined. Some suicides will likely prove to be murders. As well, DOC policy and practice creates the conditions which incite and assist suicide. For the record, SHaRC does not believe that all those said to have killed themselves did nor that all deaths as a result of state sanctioned violence have been reported. Further, why does the panel assume that all people who committed suicide were mentally ill?
Psychology and criminal justice point to character to explain why people go to prison and their behavior inside. Rather, it is institutions that shape individuals. Intended as a two week simulation of prison life, the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment "had to be ended prematurely after only six days because, as experiment leader Philip Zimbardo writes, "our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress." This Experiment also illustrates how the "culture of cruelty" --endemic in youth detention centers, mental institutions, jails and prisons--is perpetuated.
While we acknowledge that some behaviors may be diagnosed mental illness, designating and placing the focus on "mentally ill" prisoners allows administrators, guards and staff to evade responsibility for the cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions to which suicidal and other prisoners react. Further, labeling people as "mentally ill" masks "disablement" caused by child abuse, poverty, racism, sexism, etc.. Coping responses to inequality and unhealthy and unsafe conditions must be differentiated from mental illness. Counterproductive measures meted out for such coping responses punishes individuals unfairly for the harms we have inflicted upon them. Vitally important questions are not asked such as why so many are diagnosed mentally ill and how do we restore social policies and practices to alleviate disability while fulfilling human rights obligations, reducing crime rates and ultimately, prisoner suicides.
The International Convention Against Torture governing imprisonment has been ratified by the U.S. From the extremes of sensory deprivation to seemingly mundane daily occurances, prison policy and practice violates human rights. In addition to concerns about our international obligations these violations of rights mean that many leave prison worse off than when they went in. Post Incarceration Syndrome (PICS) is caused by incarceration. 60% of prisoners have been in prison before. They are at even greater risk for further harm, again subjected to "environments of punishment with few opportunities for education, job training, or rehabilitation. The symptoms are most severe in prisoners subjected to prolonged solitary confinement and severe institutional abuse."
With regard to the recent investigations into DOC suicides, we must ask if it is advisable to believe that DOC administrators, staff and guards are always truthful? In our experience, collusion among is common in falsifying reports to shift responsibility onto prisoners for DOC wrongdoing. We do not believe that all recent mortality reviews provided to Mr. Hayes are truthful and are dismayed by the lack of skepticism by legislators.
Will the DOC satisfactorily implement whatever recommendations are ultimately settled upon? "Spinning" an allowed gathering as a riot, in direct contradiction to one Harshbarger commission recommendation, the warden of Shirley Medium effectively raised the security classification level 3/4 to 5/6. Prisoner's are now allowed out of double bunk cells for only 1 and 1/2 hours per day. Imagine living with another person, locked in a space the size of your bathroom for 22 and 1/2 hours a day. We have included in our written testimony letters on this subject to various legislators, including Senator Barrios. We learned later that other wardens also effectively raised security levels in this manner. Nothing was done to rectify this disregard of just one recommendation paid for by Massachusetts taxpayers. We also believe that the added duress has contributed to prisoner suicide.
Public servants, including DOC staff and guards, take every opportunity to spin issues, including suicide, for their desired result. Even should we agree that Mr. Hayes' recommendations would solve the problem, which we do not, there would be more than enough available for programs by reallocating funds within the DOC.
With the loss of most programs and privileges during this "tough on crime" era, the DOC, using increasingly punative procedures now has near total control over prisoners. However, labor costs have gone up, as Massachusetts now has one guard for every two prisoners, more than every state but one. Meanwhile, due to the large numbers of non-violent drug war prisoners, the population is less dangerous. It is the violence done and allowed by the Commonwealth which has worsened.
Enforcement of increasingly restrictive policies prohibiting prisoners from suicide, which are the centerpiece of the Hayes report, will only replace symptoms of a failed system with others. More "suicide-resistant" Residential Treatment Units, increased observation of those on suicide watch and pre-service and in-service training time will do nothing to address the causes of prison suicides, some of which we have touched on above.
3. Some Recommendations and Conclusions
We do not believe the prison system can be reformed. Evidence based analysis has led us to conclude that locking people away from their communities causes more harm than it cures. Therefore, we are prison abolitionists.
While we are idealistic, we are also pragmatists. We realize that while we work to make the prison industrial complex unnecessary, we must ensure the safety and well being of those who were sent by society to prison as punishment, not for punishment. Therefore, we recommend a few practical steps to take us all in a new direction.
We call for a 5 year moratorium on prison and jail construction and expansion in Massachusetts, and the establishment of a commission to study and recommend rights affirming changes in policy and practice to eradicate overcrowding, including ending mandatory minimums, as outlined in House bill 1723, the text of which you will find in our supporting documents.
We call for citizen oversight of the Department of Correction, Parole Board, and county houses of correction to ensure accountability and transparency. There must be public oversight of the boards and committees that review disciplinary cases of prisoners or guards, classification of prisoners, sentencing calculations, and parole and probation.
We call for the implementation of the rights affirming recommendations of the 2004 Harshbarger Commission Report, in particular the step-down model of classification to successively lower prison security levels and, and restoration of programs, including education, job training, and work release. We also want to see opportunities for civic engagement.
We call for the immediate closure of Departmental Disciplinary Units, Secured Housing Units, and other forms of isolation and sensory deprivation, including supermax prisons. Under international standards for human rights, extended isolation is banned as a form of torture. (see Kammel and Kerness: "The Prison Inside the Prison").
While we support some of the recommendations of the Hayes report for managing suicidal situations, we also criticize the report for viewing the problem of suicide with such a narrow lens, as indicated earlier.
We reitierate, while a large percentage of prisoners enter prison disabled, many diagnosed "mentally ill", the prison system itself manufactures disability and mental illness. Therefore, in addition to eradicating the harmful "culture of cruelty" inside confining institutions, community harms causing disability must also be discerned and addressed. Yes, prisoners need better care. But so do the communities they come from. Addressing the harms of physical, psychological and sexual abuse by changing harmful relationship models, starting with those between government parties and the people, is essential. To remediate the current harms we must make significant investments in forming caring communities with safe living conditions, single payer healthcare, treatment on demand, individual and group therapy, where basic human needs, which are human rights, are met. We must reduce the over-reliance on medications, many of which also cause harm. With proper allocation of funds and proper citizen oversight, these remedies can become realities for prisoners and our communities. There is absolutely no need, if root causes are addressed, for building costly special residential treatment units or more jails and prisons.
As our final and most important recommendation, we ask that you listen to the real experts on prison suicide, mental health, and safety—the prisoners and ex-prisoners themselves.
In closing, we repeat that our primary goal is to end the abuse of power exercised by the administrators, guards and staff in the DOC and the county "correctional" system. To end this abuse, we want meaningful consequences and effective remedies to put an end to continued rights violations. If all of us are serious about ending this epidemic, we must eradicate every policy and practice that engenders the hopelessness and despair driving prisoners and others to suicide.
[Closing poem by prisoner]
The Cemetery of the Living
The cemetery of the living, this I call the place;
Where my heart beats, my blood flows, yet it has no one to embrace.
Many have visited, not everyone survives;
It's not a horror story, and now I'll tell you why:
Time is hard, lonely, and unforgetful;
The dead rest in peace, but this rest is painful.
I had many by my side, upon entering these walls;
The ones I called my friends were the first who I lost.
My Baby's Mother took my daughter away, I ask why?
Every night I ask God to watch over her, as I cry.
Mom and dad, even they fell apart,
How much more can one take to the heart?
I live but I'm dead, and in this casket I lie.
In prison, the cemetery, I speak of today,
I guarantee my soul will never stay!!
C.T.
March 9, 2005
Bay State Correctional Center
Suicides, late releases among prisons' problems
By KEN MAGUIRE - Associated Press writer
BOSTON--The health care provider for Massachusetts prison inmates acknowledged Tuesday it failed to identify the suicidal history of an inmate when he was given a mental health screening before being sent to a segregation cell, where he killed himself.
There have been 10 suicides, including several in segregation cells, in the past 17 months in the state prison system, which is accused in a lawsuit of inadequate oversight of inmates with mental illnesses.
"There was a medical record that was not reviewed in its entirety, and in that medical record there was reference to suicidal gesturing .. in the past, which would have been information that would have been helpful," Patti Onorato, executive director of UMass Correctional Health, said of one inmate, not identified by name, who committed suicide.
The testimony came Tuesday at a Statehouse hearing examining problems within the Department of Correction, which oversees about 11,000 inmates in 17 facilities.
Gov. Deval Patrick's administration is replacing the DOC commissioner, and is reviewing policies ranging from sentencing to post-release, said Mary Elizabeth Heffernan, undersecretary for Criminal Justice.
"The status quo is unacceptable to this administration," she said. "There's a whole array of things that need to be looked at that we are absolutely having conversations about."
Patrick's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 includes a $34 million increase for the department, most of which will pay for an expanded health care services contract.
DOC Associate Commissioner Veronica Madden said the expanded contract will allow for the creation of a behavioral management unit for maximum-security inmates; the establishment of a residential treatment unit for inmates with mental illnesses; and weeknight and weekend coverage by mental health professionals.
Those changes should reduce the number of suicide attempts, she said.
In addition, a new policy requires that every inmate recommended for segregation--because of violent behavior in the general population--will be screened "to determine if their mental illness impacts segregation.
Fixing the system will be among the priorities for the next department commissioner. The Patrick administration ousted Commissioner Kathleen Dennehy, and named her deputy, James Bender, as acting commissioner. Dennehy has taken a job with the Bristol County sheriff's department.
A federal lawsuit filed in March claims Massachusetts inmates with mental illnesses get inadequate oversight, contributing to an increase in suicide attempts.
The latest suicide was Jarred Aranda, a 27-year-old who was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. He hung himself in a shower room in March.
That death was the third suicide in Massachusetts state prisons this year, after seven last year. Those are up from one suicide in 2004 and four in 2005.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the Disability Law Center Inc. claims one-quarter of the 11,000 inmates in the state prison system are mentally ill, and criticizes the DOC for keeping hundreds of inmates in isolation for too long.
The state's inmate suicide rate was about 27 per 100,000 inmates during the 10-year-period that ended in 2006, according to a state-commissioned report issued in February. That was nearly twice the rate nationally, according to data for 2002, the report said.
That's not the only problem. The DOC is overhauling the system it uses for tracking sentences following revelations that 14 inmates were confined even after their sentences had been completed.
The department blamed the errors on the complexity of cou! rt decis ions governing the terms of sentences, and refused to say whether any employees had been fired or otherwise disciplined because of the errors, The Boston Globe reported.
Better prison mental health care sought
Cost estimated in the millions
By Beth Healy and Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff, May 2, 2007
State legislators, reacting to the recent spate of suicides in Massachusetts prisons, sought assurances from prison officials yesterday that they were taking greater precautions with mentally ill inmates to prevent further deaths.
But public safety officials, who promised more training and better equipped units, acknowledged those changes will cost millions and that money has yet to be approved.
One concrete change for troubled inmates: Those who hurt themselves or try to commit suicide are no longer punished with a disciplinary report in addition to being moved to segregation. In the past, those inmates have been denied telephone calls to family, contact with lawyers, outdoor time, and even clothing and showers.
In segregation, "Almost all prisoners were stripped of their clothing . . . and issued a safety smock," said Lindsay M. Hayes, the author of a suicide study commissioned by the state last year, during testimony yesterday.
Now, mental health clinicians will judge whether each suicidal inmate in segregation can have those rights, Veronica Madden , associate commissioner at the state Department of Correction , told members of the joint committees on Public Safety and Homeland Security and Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
Madden said the department is adopting virtually all the recommendations in the Hayes report. But the biggest change -- the establishment of residential treatment units, or alternative housing units for mentally ill inmates -- can come only if the Legislature approves millions of dollars in its 2008 capital budget to build them. The Correction Department wants to create more than 140 beds for inmates with serious mental illnesses and behavioral problems.
James R. Pingeon , litigation director for Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, which represents inmates, said residential treatment units have been proposed before but haven't materialized. The current conditions in segregation, he said, are contributing to the state's high suicide rate.
"Segregation is in itself an extreme stressor that makes it more likely there will be suicides," Pingeon said. Of the 15 suicides in the state over the past three years, he said, seven inmates were in segregation, and five were in cells with segregation-like conditions.
Dr. David G. Power , a Cambridge psychologist who has consulted to the state, described some segregation cells as "gothic" and said mental health watch cells were in "alarmingly poor condition," often dirty, overheated, and with poor ventilation.
"It's difficult to walk through Cedar Junction and not feel like you've descended into Dante's Inferno," he said.
Mary Beth Heffernan , undersecretary for criminal justice in the state's Executive Office of Public Safety, which oversees the Correction Department, tried to assure lawmakers yesterday that $30 million in new funding in the governor's proposed budget would help improve inmate healthcare, including mental health services.
Part of the funding is to go to better training of correction officers, as called for by Hayes, and for overtime. The latest class of officers, which graduated last Friday, received eight hours of training on dealing with mentally ill prisoners, up from four hours in the past, according to Madden. Those officers will be part of a new protocol to check on suicidal inmates every 15 minutes, instead of every half hour, she said.
State Representative Michael A. Costello, cochairman of the Public Safety Committee, asked whether the department would stick to its promises of more training. "I'm hoping that we don't hear back from the DOC that we cut back on training due to financial considerations," he said.
Heffernan pledged that that would not happen.
But the problems of handling mentally ill inmates are deep and extend to the UMass Correctional Health Program, which provides mental health care in state prisons and is bidding to renew its contract. Hayes said, during his investigation, clinicians told him they often had no choice but to approve inmates for segregation -- even those at risk -- because there was nowhere else for them to go.
"Few if any inmates were ever diverted from segregation, because there were no alternative housing options," Hayes said.
When asked by a legislator whether the state has stopped segregating inmates with serious mental illnesses for months and years at a time, Madden said the practice had not stopped.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
New research
Contacts between Police and the Public, 2005 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2007
"In 2005 police searched 9.5 percent of stopped blacks and 8.8 percent of stopped Hispanics, compared to 3.6 percent of white motorists."
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cpp05.htm
~ ~ ~
The Consequences Aren't Minor: The Impact of Trying Youth as Adults and Strategies for Reform by Campaign for Youth Justice, March, 2007
"Despite the data, surveys report that the public believes the juvenile crime rate is increasing and that youth account for a large proportion of overall crime. In reality, national statistics show that more than 80% of all crimes are committed by adults."
("The report urges policy makers to take advantage of the shift in public opinion and new adolescent brain development research that inspired the Supreme Court to end the death penalty for minors.")
http://www.campaign4youthjustice.org/Downloads/NEWS/National_Report_consequences.pdf
~ ~ ~
U. S. Sentencing Commission 2006 Annual Report by United States Setencing Commission, 2006
"During 2006, the racial/ethnic composition (of federal offenders sentenced) was - White 29.1 percent; Black 23.8 percent; and Hispanic 43.1 percent."
http://www.ussc.gov/ANNRPT/2006/ar06toc.htm
~ ~ ~
The Housing Landscape for Returning Prisoners in the District by Urban Institute, March, 2007 "This report examines the housing landscape of prisoner reentry in the District of Columbia through an analysis of neighborhoods that had high rates of returning prisoners and a survey of housing-related providers."
http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=411433
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Changing Direction? State Sentencing Reforms 2004-2006 by The Sentencing Project, March, 2007
"The report... identifies that the most popular approach for reducing prison crowding -- implemented by 13 states -- was the diversion of low-level drug offenders from prison to drug treatment programs."
http://sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/sentencingreformforweb.pdf
~ ~ ~
Impact and Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Maryland Reentry Partnership Initiative by Urban Institute, February, 2007
"This study evaluates the impact of the Maryland Reentry Partnership Initiative (REP) on crime in Baltimore between 2001 and 2005."
http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=311421
~ ~ ~
Informing and Engaging Communities Through Reentry Mapping by Urban Institute, January, 2007
"This brief is designed to equip organizations with strategies for effectively disseminating local reentry-related mapping and analysis findings and engaging community members on the topic of reentry."
http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=311411
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Breaking the Barriers for Women on Parole by Little Hoover Commission, December, 2004
"At the time of their arrest, half of these women were taking care of their children; two-thirds of those women were single parents."
(This report looks at incarceration patterns for women in California and proposes solutions for the problems identified.)
http://www.lhc.ca.gov/lhcdir/report177.html
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Crime and the Nation's Households, 2005 by Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 2007
"Households in the West were more likely to experience one or more crimes compared to households in other regions."
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cnh05.htm
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Barriers to Employment: Prison Time by Employment and Training Institute, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2007
"The stigma of being an ex-inmate alone and the limitations it places on those released and expected to become gainfully employed are compounded by further legal sanctions placed on those who have spent time in correctional facilities."
http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/ETI/barriers/MilwaukeePrisonStudy.pdf
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The high cost of denying parole: an analysis of prisoners eligible for release by Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, November, 2003
"Although other important factors exist, the single biggest reason for prison growth has been changed parole practices. Far more people who have served their minimum sentences and are, by law, eligible for release, are being denied parole."
http://www.capps-mi.org/pdfdocs/fulldatareport.pdf
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No way out Michigan's parole board redefines the meaning of "life" by Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, September, 2004
(When judges imposed a life sentence, they assumed that the prisoner would be parolled in 10-15 years, but in the 1990's the parol board started denying parol, in effect changing the sentence, contributing to overcrowding and increasing costs of prisons.)
http://www.capps-mi.org/pdfdocs/fullliferreport.pdf
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Penny-Wise & Pound-Foolish: Assaultive offender programming and Michigan's prison costs
by Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending and American Friends Service Committee, Criminal Justice Program, April, 2005
(Michigan Department of Corrections offers assaultive offender programming for people in prison for assault, the report examines the administrative shortfalls of this program and proposes solutions.)
http://www.capps-mi.org/pdfdocs/AOP%20Report/Penny%20Wise%20Report%20for%20Web.pdf
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Foreign nationals in Michigan prisons: examining the costs by Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, April, 2006
"Michigan prisons currently house hundreds of people who are citizens of other countries at a cost of $30,000 each."
http://www.capps-mi.org/pdfdocs/Foreign%20nationals.pdf
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When "life" did not mean life A Historical Analysis of Life Sentences Imposed in Michigan Since 1900 by Citizens Alliance on Prisons & Public Spending, September, 20
"The historical record makes it indisputably clear that a life sentence in Michigan did not always mean "no release.""
http://www.capps-mi.org/pdfdocs/When%20life%20did%20not%20mean%20life%20for%20web.pdf
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One Year Out: Experiences of Prisoners Returning to Cleveland by Urban Institute, April, 2007
"[D]escribes the lives of nearly 300 former prisoners at least [1 year] after release, including their ability to find stable housing and reunite with family, and identifies factors associated with
getting a job, and avoiding substance use and [recidivism]"
http://www.urban.org/publications/311445.html
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New fact sheets:
Three trends in New York that require a changed Census PDF
Prison Policy Initiative. 03/2007
Discusses changes in New York State's demographics and prison policies that require a change in how the Census Bureau counts people in prison.
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/threetrends.pdf
(added: 11-Mar-2007)
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Redistricting Matters: Small changes in the boundary lines mean huge electoral effects PDF
Prison Policy Initiative. 03/2007
Uses some simple illustrations to demonstrate why redistricting matters.
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/redistrictingmatters.pdf
(added: 11-Mar-2007)
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How prisons alter the one-person one-vote principle PDF
Prison Policy Initiative. 03/2007
Uses a New York district to show how including prison populations changes the shape of prison districts.
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/prisonsalter.pdf
(added: 11-Mar-2007)
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Concerns Over Rising Crime in Context PDF
Justice Policy Institute. 03/2007
This factsheet is intended to put the 24-month trend of rising crime in 56 jurisdictions in context for people concerned about juvenile justice policy.
http://www.justicepolicy.org/fact_sheet_jl/facts_crimeincontext_031507.pdf
(added: 17-Mar-2007)
Sentence tracking system is tossed out
By Thomas Farragher, Boston Globe
Staff May 1, 2007
The state Department of Correction, staggered by a string of disclosures about its wrongful confinement of at least 14 inmates, said yesterday it is scrapping its system for calculating inmate sentences and is devising new methods to make sure prisoners serve only their legal terms.
At the same time the department also revealed that an inmate previously described to the Globe as having been held 34 days too long was actually released more than two years -- 790 days -- after he should have been.
Lawrence R. Burhoe of Charlestown, who served time for armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, learned of the mistake yesterday.
"How could they do that?" said Burhoe, who was released from prison last April. "I'm kind of overwhelmed. I had told them, 'I don't owe you any more time. My time is up.' "
The acknowledgement that the sentencing system will be overhauled comes eight days after Public Safety Secretary Kevin M. Burke said he was ordering a sweeping review of state prison operations after a Globe Spotlight Team report revealed a series of sentence miscalculations -- errors Burke called inexcusable.
One former inmate, Rommel Jones, was held more than four years after he should have been set free, the Globe reported. The department never informed Jones of the error or apologized for it; he learned of the years he had lost from a Globe reporter.
"The Rommel Jones incident has caused the DOC to examine the way sentence computation is done," the Correction Department said in a prepared statement. "Each facility had been preparing its own date calculation computation for submission to central classification. As of May 10, the DOC will implement a central system."
Asked whether any manager had been fired or demoted because of the errors, the department said it would not discuss "personnel issues." It has blamed the errors on the complexity of court decisions governing the terms of sentences.
"A team approach to review all date computation makes sense at this time," the department's statement said.
Diane Wiffin, a department spokeswoman, said she did not know precise details about how the new system would work or how much manpower would be devoted to it. "We're working on the plan now," she said.
The department expects to have the new system in place by July 1, with staff to be drawn "from those with expertise in the facilities."
Outgoing Correction Commissioner Kathleen M. Dennehy , who was asked to leave her post by the Patrick administration, will be replaced by a commissioner who, Burke said, will be responsible for making sure any sentence computation errors are corrected and not repeated.
Dennehy's deputy, James R. Bender, was named acting commissioner last week.
The late inmate releases are expected to be a focus of a legislative hearing this afternoon on Beacon Hill. Committees focused on public safety and mental health had scheduled a session to look into a spike in inmate suicide, which has plagued the correction department for more than a year. Lawmakers said the issue of wrongful imprisonment also will be examined.
Dennehy, who Wiffin said was not available for comment yesterday, is taking a job with the Bristol County sheriff's office.
In a mid-April memo to Burke, Dennehy explained that former inmate Jones, who was wrongfully imprisoned four years too long when he was released last July, was affected by a court decision whose terms were not obeyed by prison officials.
Jones went to prison on consecutive sentences, a 20-year term to be followed by another 10-year sentence. The 1995 court decision said that when an inmate is out on parole -- as Jones was three times -- the two sentences must run concurrently. The department did not take that into account.
After the Globe's initial inquiries, Dennehy, who said Jones would still be unaware of the error if the Globe had not called attention to it, said 13 other inmates had been imprisoned beyond their release dates.
They were notified about the mistakes in letters that were mailed late last month. In those 13 cases, the length of time of the wrongful confinement ranged from one day to 515 days.
James R. Pingeon, the director of litigation for Massachusetts Correctional Legal Service who is representing Jones, said he was contacted by Burhoe last week, days after he was informed that he had been kept in prison 34 days too long.
But late yesterday afternoon, Burhoe said he received a call from Carol Mici, the department's director of classification, who he said told him he was actually held 790 days too long.
"This was the result of a transcription error, not a date calculation error," the department said in a statement. "Nevertheless, a major error did take place again with regard to the information provided to this former inmate."
Like Jones, Burhoe said he had written to prison officials to complain about his sentence calculation. "I said I'm supposed to be getting out and [a prison staffer] said, 'No, you've got another 18 months.' I said I don't believe that. My time's supposed to be up."
When the initial error was discovered, Burhoe said his jailers at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley were eager to let him go. "When they released me, they said, 'We've got to get you out of here today.' I was just happy to leave after 25 years," he said.
Thomas Farragher can be reached at farragher@globe.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Arpaio's singing contest - prisoners sing to get better food
http://www.youtube.
Paul Wright, Editor
Prison Legal News
802-257-1342
Prison Legal News
206-246-1022
For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail
SANTA ANA, Calif., April 25 — Anyone convicted of a crime knows a debt to society often must be paid in jail. But a slice of Californians willing to supplement that debt with cash (no personal checks, please) are finding that the time can be almost bearable.
For offenders whose crimes are usually relatively minor (carjackers should not bother) and whose bank accounts remain lofty, a dozen or so city jails across the state offer pay-to-stay upgrades. Theirs are a clean, quiet, if not exactly recherché alternative to the standard county jails, where the walls are bars, the fellow inmates are hardened and privileges are few.
Many of the self-pay jails operate like the secret velvet-roped nightclubs of the corrections world. You have to be in the know to even apply for entry, and even if the court approves your sentence there, jail administrators can operate like bouncers, rejecting anyone they wish.
"I am aware that this is considered to be a five-star Hilton," said Nicole Brockett, 22, who was recently booked into one of the jails, here in Orange County about 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and paid $82 a day to complete a 21-day sentence for a drunken driving conviction.
Ms. Brockett, who in her oversized orange T-shirt and flip-flops looked more like a contestant on "The Real World" than inmate, shopped around for the best accommodations, travel-ocity.
"It's clean here," she said, perched in a jail day room on the sort of couch found in a hospital emergency room. "It's safe and everyone here is really nice. I haven't had a problem with any of the other girls. They give me shampoo."
For roughly $75 to $127 a day, these convicts — who are known in the self-pay parlance as "clients" — get a small cell behind a regular door, distance of some amplitude from violent offenders and, in some cases, the right to bring an iPod or computer on which to compose a novel, or perhaps a song.
Many of the overnighters are granted work furlough, enabling them to do most of their time on the job, returning to the jail simply to go to bed (often following a strip search, which granted is not so five-star).
The clients usually share a cell, but otherwise mix little with the ordinary nonpaying inmates, who tend to be people arrested and awaiting arraignment, or federal prisoners on trial or awaiting deportation and simply passing through.
The pay-to-stay programs have existed for years, but recently attracted some attention when prosecutors balked at a jail in Fullerton that they said would offer computer and cellphone use to George Jaramillo, a former Orange County assistant sheriff who pleaded no contest to perjury and misuse of public funds, including the unauthorized use of a county helicopter. Mr. Jaramillo was booked into the self-pay program in Montebello, near Los Angeles, instead.
"We certainly didn't envision a jail with cellphone and laptop capabilities where his family could bring him three hot meals," said Susan Kang Schroeder, the public affairs counsel for the Orange County district attorney. "We felt that the use of the computer was part of the instrumentality of his crime, and that is another reason we objected to that."
A spokesman for the Fullerton jail said cellphones but not laptops were allowed.
While jails in other states may offer pay-to-stay programs, numerous jail experts said they did not know of any.
"I have never run into this," said Ken Kerle, managing editor of the publication American Jail Association and author of two books on jails. "But the rest of the country doesn't have Hollywood either. Most of the people who go to jail are economically disadvantaged, often mentally ill, with alcohol and drug problems and are functionally illiterate. They don't have $80 a day for jail."
The California prison system, severely overcrowded, teeming with violence and infectious diseases and so dysfunctional that much of it is under court supervision, is one that anyone with the slightest means would most likely pay to avoid.
"The benefits are that you are isolated and you don't have to expose yourself to the traditional county system," said Christine Parker, a spokeswoman for CSI, a national provider of jails that runs three in Orange County with pay-to-stay programs. "You can avoid gang issues. You are restricted in terms of the number of people you are encountering and they are a similar persuasion such as you."
Most of the programs — which offer 10 to 30 beds — stay full enough that marketing is not necessary, though that was not always the case. The Pasadena jail, for instance, tried to create a little buzz for its program when it was started in the early 1990s.
"Our sales pitch at the time was, 'Bad things happen to good people,' " said Janet Givens, a spokeswoman for the Pasadena Police Department. Jail representatives used Rotary Clubs and other such venues as their potential marketplace for "fee-paying inmate workers" who are charged $127 a day (payment upfront required).
"People might have brothers, sisters, cousins, etc., who might have had a lapse in judgment and do not want to go to county jail," Ms. Givens said.
The typical pay-to-stay client, jail representatives agreed, is a man in his late 30s who has been convicted of driving while intoxicated and sentenced to a month or two in jail.
But there are single-night guests, and those who linger well over a year.
"One individual wanted to do four years here," said Christina Holland, a correctional manager of the Santa Ana jail.
Inmates in Santa Ana who have been approved for pay to stay by the courts and have coughed up a hefty deposit for their stay, enter the jail through a lobby and not the driveway reserved for the arrival of other prisoners. They are strip searched when they return from work each day because the biggest problem they pose is the smuggling of contraband, generally cigarettes, for nonpaying inmates.
Most of the jailers require the inmates to do chores around the jails, even if they work elsewhere during the day.
I try real hard to keep them in custody for 12 hours," Ms. Holland said. "Because I think that's fair."
Critics argue that the systems create inherent injustices, offering cleaner, safer alternatives to those who can pay.
"It seems to be to be a little unfair," said Mike Jackson, the training manager of the National Sheriff's Association. "Two people come in, have the same offense, and the guy who has money gets to pay to stay and the other doesn't. The system is supposed to be equitable."
But cities argue that the paying inmates generate cash, often hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — enabling them to better afford their other taxpayer-financed operations — and are generally easy to deal with.
"We never had a problem with self pay," said Steve Lechuga, the operations manager for CSI. "I haven't seen any fights in years. We had a really good success rate with them."
Stanley Goldman, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, has recommended the program to former clients.
"The prisoners who are charged with nonviolent crimes and typically have no record are not in the best position to handle themselves in the general county facility," Professor Goldman said.
Still, no doubt about it, the self-pay jails are not to be confused with Canyon Ranch.
The cells at Santa Ana are roughly the size of a custodial closet, and share its smell and ambience. Most have little more than a pink bottle of jail-issue moisturizer and a book borrowed from the day room. Lockdown can occur for hours at a time, and just feet away other prisoners sit with their faces pressed against cell windows, looking menacing.
Ms. Brockett, who normally works as a bartender in Los Angeles, said the experience was one she never cared to repeat.
"It does look decent," she said, "but you still feel exactly where you are."
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Healing the Wounded Hearts-Mother's Day Walk
May 10th CORI forum at the Boston Foundation
Join us on May 10th when City Mission Society's Public Voice Project will be represented at a Boston Foundation Forum on Criminal Justice.
CORI: Opening Doors of Opportunity A Workforce and Public Safety Imperative
Welcoming Remarks:
Paul S. Grogan, President & CEO, The Boston Foundation
Elyse Clawson, Executive Director, The Crime and Justice Institute
Presentation of Task Force Findings and Recommendations:
Elizabeth Pattullo, President & CEO, Beacon Health Strategies, LLC;
Co-chair, Task Force on CORI Employer Guidelines
The Economics of CORI: The Labor Supply and Our Economic Future
Andrew Sum, Director, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern
University
Remarks:
Kevin M. Burke, Secretary of Public Safety, Commonwealth of
Massachusetts
Panel Discussion
Moderator:
Bob Gittens, Vice President for Public Affairs, Northeastern
University; Co-chair, Task Force on CORI Employer Guidelines
Panelists:
The Honorable Byron Rushing, Second Assistant Majority Leader,
Massachusetts House of Representatives
Ben Thompson, Executive Director, STRIVE
Maureen Walsh, Chair, Massachusetts Parole Board; Member, Criminal
History Systems Board
Fay White, City Mission Society, Public Voice Project
THURSDAY, MAY 10th, 2007
8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Continental Breakfast served at 8:00 a.m.
The Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington Street, 10th Floor, Boston, MA
To reserve a seat, please call 617-338-4390 or email rsvp@tbf.org by MAY 4th. Seating is limited and may be cut off before the RSVP deadline if capacity is reached.
The Understanding Boston forum is supported in part by the Civic Leadership Fund of the Boston Foundation. This is a public forum. The Boston Foundation will be photographing and videotaping this event for archival, informational and educational purposes.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
WASHINGTON – ACLU Releases Crack Cocaine Report
"This anniversary marks two decades of a tragic mistake, when lawmakers allowed emotion to overtake reason." said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "The result is a drug policy that makes a false distinction between powdered and crack cocaine and perpetuates a racial caste system when it comes to our criminal justice system."
One of the report's key findings indicates that sentencing policies, particularly the mandatory minimum for low-level crack offenses, subject people who are low-level participants to the same or harsher sentences as major dealers. As law enforcement focused its efforts on crack offenses, a dramatic shift occurred in the incarceration trends for African Americans, relative to the rest of the nation. This trend effectively transformed federal prisons into institutions increasingly dedicated to incarcerating African Americans.
The report also explains that there is no rational medical reason for the 100-to-1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine, and instead causes an unjustified racial disparity in our penal system.
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, passed during the media frenzy following the death of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, established mandatory minimum sentences for possession of specific amounts of cocaine. However, it also established a 100-to-1 disparity between distribution of powder and crack cocaine. For example, distributing just five grams of crack carries a minimum five-year federal prison sentence, while distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. The discrepancy remains despite repeated recommendations by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to Congress to reconsider the penalties.
Because of its relative low cost, crack cocaine is more accessible to poor people, many of whom are African Americans. Conversely, powder cocaine is much more expensive and tends to be used by more affluent white Americans.
The report includes recent data that indicates that African Americans make up 15 percent of the country's drug users, yet they make up 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, 59 percent of those convicted, and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. More than 80 percent of the defendants sentenced for crack offenses are African American, despite the fact that more than 66 percent of crack users are white or Hispanic.
Prior to the enactment of federal mandatory minimum sentencing for crack cocaine offenses in 1986, the average federal drug sentence for African Americans was 11 percent higher than for whites. Four years later, the average federal drug sentence for African Americans was 49 percent higher.
"The law's goal of targeting high-level drug traffickers failed," Fredrickson added. "Congress made it clear that by passing the current mandatory minimum penalties for crack cocaine, it intended to target major drug traffickers. The opposite is true: mandatory penalties for crack cocaine offenses apply most often to offenders who are low-level participants in the drug trade. For example, data from the Sentencing Commission shows that 73 percent of crack defendants have only low-level involvement in drug activity, such as street-level dealers, couriers or lookouts."
The report, authored by Deborah J. Vagins, Policy Counsel for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Jesselyn McCurdy, Legislative Counsel, makes the following policy recommendations. The quantities of crack cocaine that trigger federal prosecution and sentencing must be equalized with, and increased to, the current levels of powder cocaine. Federal prosecutions should focus on high-level traffickers of both crack and powder cocaine. And mandatory minimums for crack and powder offenses, especially the mandatory minimum for simple possession, should be eliminated.
The ACLU's report, "Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of the Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law," is available at: http://www.aclu.
Report: http://www.aclu.
Unfinished justice
By Brian McGrory, Globe Columnist February 23, 2007
What goes on in the corridors of government that our leaders so rarely, too rarely, own up to their mistakes?
No, not Deval Patrick and his car again. He admitted fault. Well, he tried. The topic today is the city of Boston and what it did to a young man named Shawn Drumgold by sending him to prison for 15 years on ridiculously flawed evidence and by refusing to make good to him ever since.
Drumgold, people may recall, was convicted of the 1988 slaying of Darlene Tiffany Moore, the 12-year-old girl felled by a stray bullet as she sat on a mailbox in the middle of a gang-infested section of Roxbury. Her death came to represent the lawlessness that existed on the streets at the time, marked by shootouts between rival gangs of drug dealers.
Some 14 years after Drumgold's conviction, the Globe's Dick Lehr wrote a 5,000-word story that made a veritable mockery of the police and prosecutors' case. One key eyewitness was suffering from a brain tumor that caused severe memory loss, a fact never reported to the defense. Another witness said she was pressured by police to place Drumgold at the scene of the crime.
A crucial eyewitness, a homeless teenager, told Lehr that police gave him months of free housing, food, and walking-around money, and wiped clean his criminal record, to testify against Drumgold. He told the Globe and a judge that his testimony was a bunch of lies.
Local residents told Lehr that they could confirm Drumgold's alibi that he was a couple of blocks away at the time of the shooting, but were afraid to tell police at the time.
Six months after the 2003 Globe story, the Suffolk district attorney issued a report saying that in the interests of justice, the conviction should be overturned. The DA said he had no plans to retry Drumgold, who was set free.
The only issue remaining is what the city owes a man for taking away 15 years of his life. Drumgold filed a federal civil rights suit in 2004, so it's up to the city to make a nice offer and make the whole thing go away. Right?
Wrong again. Here's what the city has done instead: It has gone out and hired a battery of law firms that have rung up legal bills that officials said totaled $250,000, but that Drumgold's appellate lawyer, Rosemary Scapicchio, estimated at closer to $1.5 million. In defending the city against Drumgold's suit, the city's lawyers are insisting that Drumgold was guilty of a crime that the district attorney himself won't touch. Very cute.
The city has deposed virtually everybody involved in the old case, packing conference rooms with high-priced private sector lawyers getting paid by you and me. It gets worse. The city is trying to depose Scapicchio on some seemingly Hail Mary argument that she personally persuaded witnesses to change their stories and is withholding documents. The obvious goal: Force her off the case and gut Drumgold's suit.
In the city's eyes, his conviction was everybody's fault but its own, never mind the fact that a few rogue cops paid off one witness and bullied others. No settlement offer has been made.
"I took Shawn's case on for nothing," Scapicchio said yesterday. "I worked on it forever. I thought what happened to him was outrageous. They're saying that I did something wrong, which is so incredibly obnoxious they shouldn't be able to get away with it. I didn't do anything but work as hard as I possibly could to get this guy out from a conviction of a crime I didn't think he did."
Drumgold's life is spiraling. He was laid off from his foreman's job with a construction company. He has a wife and a couple of children, and they've gone from a two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom to a homeless shelter. He faced a recent drug charge.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino declined to comment, though his spokeswoman said he has asked his Law Department to "expedite" the case.
It's a little late for that. The city has dragged its feet. It rings up huge legal bills. And a man's life gets further trampled by the day.
Brian McGrory is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at mailto:mcgrory%40globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/02/23/
War on Drugs
http://www.stats.org/stories/2007/lou_dobbs_drugs_mar02_07.htm
Another tragic death
By ROB MARGETTA
Standard-Times staff writer
April 18, 2007 6:00 AM
NEW BEDFORD - A woman held at the Ash Street Jail on a drug charge was found dead Monday morning, according to the Bristol County Sheriff's Department, which manages the facility.
Francelina Soares Furtado, 41, of New Bedford, was brought to Ash Street by New Beford police Saturday, at 10:30 p.m., on a charge of possession of a Class C substance, the Sheriff's Office said. She was held in lieu of $1,500 cash bail.
Bernard Sullivan, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said workers at the jail found Ms. Furtado slumped in her cell Monday morning when they brought her a dose of the prescription medicine she was receiving.
She was found unresponsive at 9:11 a.m., with no signs of suicide or foul play.
Mr. Sullivan said jail staff administered CPR and called an ambulance. Ms. Furtado was taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead just after 9:30 a.m.
"As in any death of that sort, the District Attorney's Office is handling the investigation," Mr. Sullivan said.
A spokesperson for the DA said the state Medical Examiner's Office is performing an autopsy.
Psychological Torture
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11313
Human Rights and the Drug War
at http://www.hr95.org/.
5/1 Prison Suicides - State House Hearing
STOP DOC AND GUARD BRUTALITY
State House, Room B-1
Hearing on Prison Suicides
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
1:00 p.m.
Support HB1723 for a moratorium on jail and prison construction/expansion
Read the bill, sign the petition: http://www.MassDecarcerate.org/
WE DEMAND: QUALITY SCHOOLS--not jails. HOUSING--not jails. JOBS--not jails. HEALTH CARE--not jails. MONEY FOR DRUG TREATMENT--not jails. A LIVING WAGE--not jails. AFFORDABLE HIGHER EDUCATION--not jails. AN END TO CORI--not jails!
Stop Violence Against Indigenous Women
April 24, 2007
"Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA": A Summary of Amnesty International's Findings
Sexual violence against Indigenous women in the USA is widespread -- and especially brutal. According to US government statistics, Native American and Alaska Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than other women in the USA. Some Indigenous women interviewed by Amnesty International said they didn't know anyone in their community who had not experienced sexual violence. Though rape is always an act of violence, there is evidence that Indigenous women are more like than other women to suffer additional violence at the hands of their attackers. According to the US Department of Justice, in at least 86 per cent of the reported cases of rape or sexual assault against American Indian and Alaska Native women, survivors report that the perpetrators are non-Native men.
Sexual violence against Indigenous women is the result of a number of factors including a history of widespread and egregious human rights violations against Indigenous peoples in the USA. Indigenous women were raped by settlers and soldiers in many infamous episodes including during the Trail of Tears and the Long Walk.
Such attacks were not random or individual; they were tools of conquest and colonization. The underlying attitudes towards Indigenous peoples that supported these human rights violations committed against them continue to be present in society and culture in the USA. They contribute to the present high rates of sexual violence perpetrated against Indigenous women and help to shield their attackers from justice.
Treaties, the US Constitution and federal law affirm a unique political and legal relationship between federally recognized tribal nations and the federal government. There are more than 550 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes in the USA. Federally recognized Indian tribes are sovereign under US law, with jurisdiction over their citizens and land and maintaining government to government relationships with each other and with the US federal government. The federal government has a legal responsibility to ensure protection of the rights and wellbeing of Native American and Alaska Native peoples. The federal government has a unique legal relationship to the tribal nations that includes a trust responsibility to assist tribal governments in safeguarding the lives of Indian women.
Tribal law enforcement agencies are chronically under-funded - federal and state governments provide significantly fewer resources for law enforcement on tribal land than are provided for comparable non-Native communities. The lack of appropriate training in all police forces -- federal, state and tribal -- also undermines survivors' right to justice. Many officers don't have the skills to ensure a full and accurate crime report. Survivors of sexual violence are not guaranteed access to adequate and timely sexual assault forensic examinations which is caused in part by the federal government's severe under-funding of the Indian Health Service.
The Federal Government has also undermined the authority of tribal governments to respond to crimes committed on tribal land. Women who come forward to report sexual violence are caught in a jurisdictional maze that federal, state and tribal police often cannot quickly sort out. Three justice systems -- tribal, state and federal -- are potentially involved in responding to sexual violence against Indigenous women. Three main factors determine which of these justice systems has authority to prosecute such crimes: - whether the victim is a member of a federally recognized tribe or not; - whether the accused is a member of a federally recognized tribe or not; and - whether the offence took place on tribal land or not.
The answers to these questions are often not self-evident and there can be significant delays while police, lawyers and courts establish who has jurisdiction over a particular crime. The result can be such confusion and uncertainty that no one intervenes and survivors of sexual violence are denied access to justice.
Tribal prosecutors cannot prosecute crimes committed by non-Native perpetrators. Tribal courts are also prohibited from passing custodial sentences that are in keeping with the seriousness of the crimes of rape or other forms of sexual violence. The maximum prison sentence tribal courts can impose for crimes, including rape, is one year. At the same time, the majority of rape cases on tribal lands that are referred to the federal courts are reportedly never brought to trial.
As a consequence Indigenous women are being denied justice. And the perpetrators are going unpunished.
In failing to protect Indigenous women from sexual violence, the USA is violating these women's human rights. Indigenous women's organizations and tribal authorities have brought forward concrete proposals to help stop sexual violence against Indigenous women - but the federal government has failed to act.
Amnesty International is calling on the US government to take the first steps to end sexual violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women:
- Work in collaboration with American Indian and Alaska Native women to obtain a clear and accurate understanding about the prevalence and nature of sexual violence against Indigenous women;
- Ensure that American Indian and Alaska Native women have access to adequate and timely sexual assault forensic examinations without charge to the survivor;
- Provide resources to Indian tribes for additional criminal justice and victim services to respond to crimes of sexual violence against Native American and Alaska Native women.
TAKE ACTION:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/activism/campaigns.html
Click on "Stop Violence Against Women" and then scroll down to "Stop Violence Against Native American & Alaska Native Women in the US".
Chicopee Women's Jail Delay
http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/117740677691960.xml&coll=1
Lethal injection is excruciating, study says
A new medical study alleging that lethal injection can cause slow, painful death was timely but possibly terrifying news for condemned killer James J. Filiaggi.
As Filiaggi, 41, awaited his execution last night in a cell yards away from the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville, a medical review concluded that lethal injection could result in slow death, possibly by suffocation, while inmates are conscious but unable to move.
Barring last minute legal intervention, Filiaggi will be lethally injected at 10 a.m. today. He was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering his ex-wife, Lisa Huff Filiaggi, on Jan. 24, 1994. He chased her to a neighbor's house where he used 9 mm Luger pistol to fatally shoot her in the shoulder and head.
Gov. Ted Strickland, in what may have been Filiaggi's last chance to avoid execution, denied a reprieve last night. Filiaggi's attorneys asked for more time to pursue litigation challenging lethal injection.
He would become the first man executed in Ohio this year, as well as the first under Strickland's administration, and the 25th to die since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. Strickland rejected clemency for Filiaggi last week, which was the unanimous recommendation of the Ohio
Parole Board.
The study was done by the Public Library of Science, an online medical journal. The organization includes heavy hitters from medicine and science, including Harold Varmus, a former director of the National Institutes of Health, a co-recipient of a Nobel prize, and president and chief executive officer of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
The team, which admitted its opposition to capital punishment, reviewed dozens of executions from North Carolina and California, plus others in Florida and Virginia. They considered the weight of prisoners, the amount of chemicals administered and the time it took them to die.
"The person would feel either asphyxiation or the burning sensation associated with the potassium, something like being put on fire," said Dr. Leonidas Koniaris, a surgeon at the University of Miami and co-author of the study.
"You wouldn't be able to use this protocol to kill a pig at the University of Miami" without more proof that it worked as intended, said Teresa Zimmers, a biologist and the study leader.
The major problem, the study concluded, was that all 37 states, including Ohio, that rely on lethal injection use the same doses of the deadly three-chemical cocktail for all prisoners, regardless of size and weight.
Filiaggi waived legal appeals to hasten his execution, but changed his mind late last week, touching off a furious 96-hour legal fight.
His attorneys fought and lost on several fronts yesterday.
First, the Ohio Supreme Court voted 5-2 against his request to stop the execution. The U.S. District Court later turned down Filiaggi's motion to be allowed to join other condemned men in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection.
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also turned down his appeal last night.
Jeff Gamso, Filiaggi's attorney, argued that lethal injection would, in effect, mean his client was "tortured to death."
State officials say the process is reliable and legal.
However, 11 of 37 states have either put lethal injection on hold or are studying its usage.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
USSC Reduces CRACK COCAINE OFFENSES up to 16 Months
News Release
U.S. Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle NE
Washington, DC 20002-8002
| For Immediate Release | Contact: Michael Courlander Public Affairs Officer (202) 502-4597 |
U.S. SENTENCING COMMISSION VOTES TO AMEND GUIDELINES
FOR TERRORISM, SEX OFFENSES,
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFENSES, AND CRACK COCAINE OFFENSES
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 27, 2007) — The United States Sentencing Commission held its final public meetings for the 2006-2007 guideline amendment cycle, promulgating amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines today and on April 18, 2007, on several important issues. Among other actions, the Commission voted to promulgate and submit to Congress sentencing guideline amendments regarding offenses that include terrorism, sex offenses, and intellectual property offenses. It also took action to address sentencing disparities resulting from federal cocaine sentencing policies.
On April 18, 2007, the Commission voted to promulgate amendments that include –
- an amendment implementing provisions of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 and the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007. The amendment establishes new guideline penalties for offenses created by the PATRIOT Reauthorization Act relating to (1) narco-terrorism, (2) smuggling of munitions or military equipment without the required validated export license, (3) mining of U.S. navigable waters, and (4) destroying or tampering with aids to maritime navigation. The amendment also addresses a new offense created by the Homeland Security Act pertaining to the construction, financing, or use of tunnels that cross the borders of the United States.
- a multi-part amendment implementing the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. The amendment establishes guideline penalties for failure to register as a sex offender and provides significant sentencing enhancements if a defendant commits certain offenses after failing to register. Further, the amendment creates another guideline provision that provides additional punishment for certain aggravated offenses related to the requirement to register as a sex offender. This additional penalty would run consecutive to any sentence imposed for the failure to register offense or any sentence imposed for an enumerated underlying offense. The amendment also implemented other provisions of the Adam Walsh Act that provided enhanced penalties for sexual offenses.
- a temporary, emergency amendment that implemented a directive in the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act regarding criminal infringement of copyright or trademark. Specifically, the amendment addresses convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 2318 (trafficking in counterfeit labels) and 18 U.S.C. § 2320 (trafficking in counterfeit goods or services). These offenses involve trafficking in counterfeit labels that are not affixed to goods. The amendment provides for increased sentences based on the retail value of the genuine good that the counterfeit label would help imitate if the label's use would lead a reasonably informed purchaser to believe that the counterfeit good was an identifiable, genuine good. The amendment also provides increased sentences for cases involving use of a circumvention device under 7 U.S.C. §§ 1201 and 1204. Circumvention devices would include "mod" chips that allow game consoles to play pirated games. The amendment includes a specific sentencing enhancement for trafficking in such items.
- emergency and permanent amendments implementing a directive in the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006. This Act creates a new offense at 18 U.S.C. § 1039 making it a crime to knowingly and falsely obtain confidential telephone records. The Commission implemented the directive by incorporating this new offense into an existing guideline covering other private or protected information (§2H3.1).
- revisions to how a defendant's criminal history score is computed for certain minor offenses.
- guidance on motions by the Bureau of Prisons for reductions in sentence pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)
At its April 18, 2007, public meeting, the Commission also announced its intention to form a standing victims advisory group to provide the Commission with input regarding federal crime victimization.
In addition to those earlier actions, the Commission unanimously announced today that it will submit to Congress on or before May 15, 2007, a report on federal cocaine sentencing policy. The report will set forth current data and information that continue to support the Commission's consistently held position that the 100-to-1 crack-powder drug quantity ratio significantly undermines various congressional objectives set forth in the Sentencing Reform Act and elsewhere. The Commission also will make recommendations to Congress in the report for modifications to the statutory penalties for crack cocaine offenses. At today's meeting, the Commission expressed its firm desire that this report will facilitate prompt congressional action addressing the 100-to-1 crack-powder drug quantity ratio.
The Commission also voted today to promulgate an amendment that modifies the penalties for crack cocaine offenses. The Commission described the problems associated with the 100-to-1 drug quantity ratio as so urgent and compelling that it promulgated the guideline amendment as a measure to alleviate some of those problems.
The statutory penalties for crack cocaine offenses require a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for a first-time trafficking offense involving 5 grams or more of crack cocaine, and a ten-year mandatory minimum penalty for a first-time trafficking offense involving 50 grams or more of crack cocaine. When Congress established these penalties in 1986, the Commission responded by incorporating the statutory mandatory minimum sentences into the guidelines to provide guideline sentencing ranges that are above the statutory mandatory minimum penalties. First-time offenses involving 5 grams or more of crack cocaine receive a sentencing guideline range of 63 to 78 months, and first-time offenses involving 50 grams or more of crack cocaine receive a sentencing guideline range of 121 to 151 months, before accounting for other relevant factors under the guidelines.
The Commission's amendment modifies the guideline drug quantity thresholds to provide guideline sentencing ranges that include the statutory mandatory minimum penalties for crack cocaine offenses. Accordingly, under the amendment, a first-time trafficking offense involving 5 grams of crack cocaine will receive a guideline sentencing range of 51 to 63 months, and a first-time trafficking offense involving 50 grams or more of crack cocaine will receive a guideline sentencing range of 97 to 121 months, before accounting for other relevant factors under the guidelines. Under the statutory mandatory minimum penalties, however, a five- and ten-year sentence will still be required, respectively. As a result, the Commission's amendment provides some relief to crack cocaine offenders impacted by the disparity created by federal cocaine sentencing policy.
The Commission emphasized and expressed its strong view that the amendment is only a partial solution to some of the problems associated with the 100-to-1 drug quantity ratio. Any comprehensive solution to the 100-to-1 drug quantity ratio would require appropriate legislative action by Congress.
The text of the Commission's amendments and its accompanying 2007 report to Congress, Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy, will be available in the coming weeks on the Commission's website, www.ussc.gov.
The Commission was established by Congress in 1985 to develop national sentencing guidelines for the federal courts. Any amendments made by the Commission to the guidelines must be submitted to Congress on or before May 1 of each year and become effective on November 1 if not disapproved by Congress.
Hard time for state prisons
The following appeared on Boston.com:
Headline: Hard time for state prisons
Date: April 24, 2007
"OUTGOING Correction commissioner Kathleen Dennehy confronted a culture of secrecy, tolerance of inmate abuse, and rigidity when she took control of the state prison system in 2003 after the ouster of her predecessor by then-Governor Romney. But now it is the reform-minded Dennehy who is under a cloud, and who has been asked to leave her post by Governor Patrick, ..."
Saturday, January 13, 2007
A New Identity
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Saga Continues
Last week's respite (placement in single cell) was short-lived. Tod has asked for our help again. I called Supt. Bernard Brady's office this morning (Dep. Sup. Mark Powers whom I usually speak with is on vacation--which may partially explain what happened over the weekend). The admin. Asst. took the message and urged me to put my concerns in writing and fax them to Mark Power's office at 508-279-6838. The general OCCC number is 508-279-6000.
Short version. Around 9 pm Sat. 8/5, c/o tried to move someone in with TW. The guy refused on the grounds of TW being gay. A few minutes later staff took Tod to place in with someone on A2. All kinds of strip searches ensued. TW objected to going to A2 ("no man's land") in the middle of a weekend. When no one listened he banged his head hard against the wall, creating a "bloodbath." There was so much trauma that he vomited continuously for some time. He eventually went back to A4, but to #14 instead of #23 where he'd been. (I don't think he has a cellmate there, though I'd have to re-read his tome to check for sure).
What Tod wants: first to be safe. He's not adamant about a single cell; it depends on who the other person is. He wants to transfer to A3 where he knows people and thinks he would be relatively safe. That might require a reclassification to Level 4. He has a hearing coming up so that may be a possibility. He also talks of protective custody and being moved out of state, but those, in my opinion, are not good options.
I'm well aware that Tod can be overwhelmingly demanding, but if you think you can help (phone call, letter to OCCC or to any of your contacts), please do.
Nancy Ahmadifar