Re medical services to prisoners

Correctional Medical Services, Inc., Resources

There have been 5 major exposes of the nation's largest "provider" of "medical" services to prisoners.

Riverfront Times (St. Louis, MO)

Dying to Get Out by Geri L. Dreiling Some inmates tell horror stories about healthcare at the women's prison in Vandalia. Some didn't live to tell their tales.

Update: The Oct 29, 2004 issue has a reply letter from a Sr. VP at CMS, and a supportive letter from a prison nurse.

Harpers Magazine:

Sick on the Inside: Correctional HMOs and the coming prison plague by Wil S. Hylton, Harpers Magazine August 2003, p. 43-54

Followup: The January 2004 issue of Harpers contained a letter from a Sr. VP for CMS responding to the Harpers article and a reply from author Wil Hylton (pages6-8).

Unfortunately, that important exchange is not available online. In CMS's letter, they cite to a detailed response to the article on their website.

Columbia (Missouri) Tribune:

Dying to Get Out. Mike Fuhrman of The Columbia Tribune spent six months examining the care that inmates receive, the deaths of more than 300 inmates and allegations of neglect. The results of that investigation are outlined in this 3 day, 14-story series. (September 29 to October 1, 2002).

Journal of the American Medical Association Medical News and Perspectives:
Prison Deaths Spotlight How Boards Handle Impaired, Disciplined Physicians by Andrew A. Skolnick. JAMA Medical News & Perspectives JAMA. 1998;280:1387-1390 (October 28, 1998)

"Only the Tip of the Iceberg"? By Andrew A. Skolnick. JAMA Medical News & Perspectives JAMA. 1998;280:1388-1389 (October 28, 1998)

Critics Denounce Staffing Jails and Prisons With Physicians Convicted of Misconduct by Andrew A. Skolnick. JAMA Medical News & Perspectives JAMA. 1998;280:1391-1392 (October 28, 1998)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Death, Neglect and the Bottom Line: Push to Cut Costs Poses Risks, by William Allen and Kim Bell St. Louis Post-Dispatch (September 27, 1998)

Prisoner, doctor who treated him, both had drug arrests By Andrew Skolnick Special to the Post-Dispatch and Kim Bell Of the Post-Dispatch (September 27, 1998)

Two key posts in Alabama were filled by doctors with checkered histories by Andrew Skolnick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (September 27, 1998)

Physicians with troubled pasts have found work behind bars by Andrew A. Skolnick, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (September 27, 1998)

Other documents on CMS and their competitors:

A Review of the Medical Services at the SC Department of Corrections (March 2000) by South Carolina General Assembly Legislative Audit Council

Prison Health Services: As Health Care in Jails Goes Private, 10 Days Can Be a Death Sentence, by Paul Von Zielbauer, Prison Legal News, August 2005, p.1. (A series of deaths leads to concerns over Prison Health and loss of contracts in up-state New York.)

Prison Health Services: Missed Signlas in New York Jails Open Way to Season of Suicides, by Paul Von Zielbauer, Prison Legal News, August 2005, p. 11. (Under the supervision of Prison Health Services, several suicides were committed in New York.)

Harsh medicine: A Company's Troubled Answer for Prisoners With H.I.V. (Prison Health Services in Alabama) by Paul von Zeilbauer, New York Times, August 1, 2005
Last update: November 29, 2006

Source URL: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/cms.html

UMass vs CMS

Suit: UMass cheated on bid for prison med
By Casey Ross
Boston Herald Reporter
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Top officials in the Patrick administration are facing a legal battle over alleged improprieties in the awarding of a lucrative $315 million contract to provide medical care to state prison inmates.
The lawsuit, filed by an unsuccessful bidder in Suffolk Superior Court yesterday, alleges the contract was unfairly granted to the University of Massachusetts Medical School after school officials sent an "inappropriate" letter to push their case with top administration officials.
The officials named in the suit include Public Safety Secretary Kevin Burke, acting Corrrection Commissioner James Bender and UMass President Jack Wilson.
"The facts of the case create a very strong inference of improper influence," said attorney Dean Richlin, who represents Correctional Medical Services, a St. Louis-based competitor for the prison contract. "This process was fair and open to a point, and then it took a 180-degree turn."
The contract, among the largest prison medical contracts in the nation, was awarded to UMass Medical despite an evaluation by state officials that found that Correctional Medical Services would provide the "best value" to the state.
It also came after a top official at the Department of Correction wrote an e-mail stating that UMass violated procurement terms by sending a May 17 memo to Patrick administration officials to make their case for the contract.
The lawsuit charges that the memo, which was copied to Gov. Deval Patrick and Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, was based on confidential documents improperly obtained by the medical school.
But state officials noted that Correctional Medical Services has filed similar protests before.
"Following a fair and open procurement process, the Department of Correction awarded the contract to the vendor whom it determined would provide the best value for the commonwealth," DOC spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said.
Officials at UMass Medical School, which has held the medical services contract since 2002, said in a statement, "We take with more than a grain of salt the comments of an out-of-state . . . unsuccessful bidder that seeks, at the eleventh hour, to challenge the commitment of UMass Medical School to our mission."

When one's life isn't worth the trouble

When one's life isn't worth the trouble

Immigrants have died while in U.S. custody, some because jailers denied them medical treatment.

Even hardliners who wish to round up all 12 million illegal immigrants and ship them back from where they came wouldn't, we hope, want to kill any in the process.

Yet immigrants have died in administrative custody because their jailers failed to provide medication or doctors. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently disclosed 62 people have died in the past three years, far more than the 20 previously known deaths.

While ICE hasn't released information about the deaths, The New York Times learned the circumstances of three of the people -- two of whom perished in Virginia prisons.

Neither Sandra M. Kenley nor Abdolai Sall represent the stereotypes that spring to mind when people talk about illegals. Kenley, a legal permanent resident for 30 years, was detained after returning to the U.S. from a visit to Barbados on two old drug-related convictions that made her subject to exclusion. Sall was arrested during an immigration interview because of an old paperwork snafu.

Both told authorities they had serious health problems and pleaded for their medication.

Deaths from medical neglect aren't supposed to occur in U.S. prisons.

In fact, ICE detention standards state that detainees will undergo a medical exam soon after arrest. Only no one checks to see if the mosaic of public and private jails, prisons and detention centers follow the suggested guidelines.

The Senate, faced with mounting reports of deaths and abuses of detainees, unanimously agreed to amend the current immigration bill and establish an office of detention oversight within the Department of Homeland Security.

Now even that paltry gesture is as dead as the immigration bill and as dead as Kenley and Sall.

This country, under President Bush, has ceded its long-held moral high ground on human rights, a trade-off the administration was willing to accept in its ill-fought "war on terror."

Once one category of people is considered unworthy of humane treatment, it becomes easier to devalue the next group and ignore Sandra Kenley's pleas for her blood pressure medication. She was, after all, an immigrant, even if a legal one.

Who's next?

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-123425

OR - Prison suicides linked to isolation

ALAN GUSTAFSON
Statesman Journal

July 8, 2007

Aaron Munoz seethed with anger, masking the shame that engulfed him after he was sexually abused by his juvenile parole officer.

Stanley Reger stood 6-foot-8 and weighed 250 pounds, but he cowered behind prison bars when paranoid schizophrenia filled his mind with imaginary enemies.

Jeremy Ayala was haunted by memories of his pregnant girlfriend's death. He told family members that he was going crazy.

All three men took the same drastic step to end their misery -- suicide by hanging. They became part of a troubling chain of suicides during the past decade in Oregon's prison system.

Since August 1998, 25 inmates have killed themselves. In 2001-02, a two-year period studied by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Oregon's prison suicide rate was nearly double the national average.

A Statesman Journal review of the 25 deaths found common links:

Hanging was by far the most common method of suicide; 22 inmates hanged themselves. Most used bed sheets attached to cell bars, metal grates, vents and other fixtures.

Male inmates accounted for 23 suicides.

Fifteen had known psychiatric problems, ranging from chronic mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

At least 14 killed themselves in the Disciplinary Segregation Unit or the Intensive Management Unit where inmates are confined to their cells for at least 23 hours per day.

Family members of inmates, attorneys and other inmate advocates say the death toll illustrates why prisoners with mental-health problems shouldn't be placed in extreme isolation for violating prison rules.

"Prisons respond to disciplinary issues by segregating people. If a person has a psychotic disorder, that may be the worst thing to do with him," said Robert Joondeph, the executive director of the Oregon Advocacy Center, which has represented inmates in civil rights lawsuits.

Frank Colistro, a Portland psychologist who has worked in Oregon's prison system for 28 years as a private consultant and contractor, said it's no mystery why the majority of prison suicides here and across the country occur in disciplinary segregation units.

"Segregation is to prison kind of what jail is to your community, so you're going to expect more psychopathology," he said. "You can expect that probably 75 percent of them are going to be anti-social personality types, which means among other things that they're going to be impulsive, and impulsivity is a major risk factor for suicide."

The number of suicides hasn't gone unnoticed by the Oregon Department of Corrections.

As early as 1999, prison officials sought expert advice for curbing suicides.

At that time, the DOC contracted with Lindsay Hayes, a nationally recognized suicide expert, to review five suicides clustered within a six-month period. Four of the five suicides happened in disciplinary segregation cells.

In May 1999, Hayes issued a package of recommendations, including increased suicide-prevention training for prison staff members and enhanced screening measures to identify inmates for suicide risks. He also advised against placing suicidal inmates in isolation cells.

"The use of isolation not only escalates the inmate's sense of alienation, but also further serves to remove the individual from proper staff supervision," Hayes warned.

Oregon's prison system has taken many steps recommended by Hayes in 1999 and in a more recent report, officials said.

"We're doing an increased amount of training," said Jana Russell, the prison system's new administrator of Counseling and Treatment Services. "We're really in a much better position to work together to solve this problem. It's not one of those things that is hidden anymore."

Russell formerly was in charge of mental health programs at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, which has not experienced a suicide since it opened in April 2002.

She recently replaced Arthur Tolan as head of mental health services for the entire 13,500-inmate prison system. Tolan became clinical director at the Oregon State Hospital.

Russell said her experience with prison officials and staffers who have dealt with suicides tells her that they don't take it lightly.

"It's the phone call nobody ever wants to get. I'm talking about staff, as well as the (inmate's) family," she said. "We hurt when that happens, and you start to do all the second guessing about what could have been done differently to prevent it. It's downright painful. I always think, 'What if it was my child?'"

Anguished letter to family

Jeremy Ayala wrote an anguished note to family members before he killed himself in May, becoming the 25th suicide victim since August
1998.

"Every day is hell for me," he wrote from the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem. "I just want it to stop."

His letter arrived at his parents' Salem home on May 9. Mary Ayala felt a wave of fear as she read her son's scrawled note.

The letter made her nervous, she said, because he had tried to kill himself in the state penitentiary's Intensive Management Unit in October and intentionally cut himself in his OSCI cell in early May.

Hoping to alert prison officials to her concerns about the letter, Mary Ayala made several calls to OSCI.

However, she quickly became frustrated when her calls hit voice-mail messages. She hung up, not knowing that pressing "0" would have summoned a real person at the prison. She told herself that she would try again the next day.

It couldn't wait. Late that night, Jeremy Ayala tied a bed sheet to the bars of his cell, twisted it around his neck and hanged himself.

A pre-dawn phone call from a prison chaplain awakened the Ayalas to the saddest day of their lives: Their son had been transported to Salem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:41 a.m. May 10.

Since her son's funeral, Mary Ayala has wrestled with conflicted feelings of anger, sorrow and guilt.

"Who do I blame?" she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "A little of everybody. Me for not getting hold of anyone at the prison. Him for doing it. And them for not keeping an eye on him."

Oregon State Police are conducting an investigation into Ayala's death, a standard procedure after a prisoner suicide. The inquiry has not been completed, officials said.

Previous suicide attempt

Ayala was a repeat offender who told his mother that he wanted to turn around his life. He planned to enroll at Chemeketa Community College in Salem and become a drug and alcohol counselor or a gang counselor, she said.

Drugs, crime and tragedy demolished his good intentions.

In July 2006, his pregnant girlfriend, Haley Fitch, 28, died from a drug overdose in Hood River.

"She OD'd and died in his arms," Mary Ayala said.

In August, Ayala returned to prison to serve a 15-month sentence for being a felon in possession of a weapon. His mother said the gun charge stemmed from her son's anger over Fitch's fatal overdose and his desire to exact revenge on the alleged drug dealer. Ultimately, he didn't use a gun, but he was sent back to prison for having it.

Memories of his girlfriend's death brought nightmares and bouts of deep depression for her son, Mary Ayala said.

Anti-depression medication failed to ease his torment: "It made it worse. He kept saying his medication was making him crazy," she said.

Prison officials would not discuss Ayala's mental health history or treatment, citing confidentiality. Prison reports confirmed that Ayala tried to kill himself in October.

At that time, he was housed in the IMU, the penitentiary's top-security unit.

After midnight on Oct. 14, reports say, Ayala draped a sheet across the front of his single cell and disobeyed officer orders to take it down.

Two officers made a cell check shortly before 1 a.m. They found Ayala slumped on the floor and unconscious. A sheet was wrapped around his neck. Several empty aspirin packages were found on the floor. Officers estimated that Ayala had swallowed 50 to 60 tablets.

Ayala was carried out of his cell and placed on his side "in a recovery position." Medical personnel arrived about 1 a.m. Ayala was transported to Salem Hospital for treatment and observation.

'Time to go'

In the wake of his attempted suicide, Ayala was admitted to the Special Management Unit, a 40-bed psychiatric unit within the 2,300-inmate penitentiary.

His admitting form indicates that he was placed on a suicide watch.

Ayala stayed in SMU for five months. In mid-March, he was transferred into the general population at OSCI, a medium-security prison in southeast Salem that doesn't have a psychiatric unit.

During his last two months of tumult, Ayala bounced back to the penitentiary's psych unit for another stint of treatment, then was returned to OSCI's mainstream population. Family members said his condition deteriorated.

"He kept hearing voices," Mary Ayala said. "He imagined that people were yelling at him. He said he was going crazy."

On May 2, Ayala wound up in disciplinary segregation -- inmates call it the hole or the bucket -- for breaking two rules: possessing contraband (radio earbuds) and assaulting a fellow inmate.

A prison hearings officer sentenced Ayala to 84 days in segregation for the assault and seven days for the contraband violation.

Confined to his disciplinary cell for 23 hours a day, Ayala drew staff attention by cutting himself, records show.

"I asked Inmate Ayala if he could give me his word that he would not try to harm himself again," a corrections sergeant wrote. "Inmate Ayala said: 'You got my word, I'm all done with that.'"

At some point, Ayala scrawled his final letter to family members:

"I don't know what to do anymore. I can't fight this s--- no more. Every day is hell for me. I just want it to stop. ... I go out of my way to stay out of trouble and look what happens. ... I'm tired of being a f---up. And it's time for me to go."

Suicide linked to abuse

Shortly before 9 p.m. Jan. 28, 2005, Aaron Munoz hanged himself with a bed sheet attached to a vent in the back corner of his segregation cell in the penitentiary's Intensive Management Unit.

The 21-year-old inmate was about a week away from his prison release date.

Kelly Ann Mills of Portland, who raised Munoz from infancy, said her nephew killed himself because he was embarrassed about being sexually abused by Michael Boyles, his juvenile parole and probation officer, and because he dreaded being labeled as a snitch for testifying against him.

"One of the things he said to me is, I don't want to be known as a snitch, and I don't want to be known as a homosexual," Mills said. "In his circle, in his group, you didn't rat somebody out."

Boyles was arrested in February 2004 and charged with numerous counts of sodomy, abuse and misconduct against five boys he supervised in the 1990s.

Munoz reportedly met Boyles when he was 13 and accused of shoplifting and breaking into a state-owned car. Eventually, he was placed under Boyles' supervision for four years until 2001, when he was sent to prison for third-degree assault.

Angry and defiant, Munoz landed in the penitentiary's Intensive Management Unit, housed among the worst of the worst convicts in Oregon's prison system.

The Intensive Management Unit operates as a rigidly controlled mini-prison within the prison. High-risk prisoners are confined for more than 23 hours a day in electronically controlled cells.

When an inmate leaves his cell, usually to shower or exercise, he is handcuffed, tethered with a leash and escorted by two officers.

Mills said she thinks that keeping Munoz in extreme isolation amounted to state-sponsored abuse.

"In that kind of environment, you have no real communication with anybody," she said, "and it just gave him too much time to think. Here's this kid that pretty much got the raw end of the deal and took what he figured was his only way out."

Mills visited Munoz on the day he killed himself. She said he was in a foul mood, despite his looming release date.

"I had never seen him that angry," she said. "There really was no talking to him."

After Munoz killed himself, prosecutors dropped about 20 charges against Boyles, all connected to his alleged sexual abuse of Munoz. Prosecution of the parole officer continued, however.

In October 2005, nine months after Munoz committed suicide, Boyles was sentenced to 80 years in prison for sexually abusing four other teenage boys he supervised in the 1990s.

Wrongful death lawsuit

Oregon State Police denied the newspaper's request to release the agency's investigative report on Munoz's suicide, citing pending litigation.

A wrongful death lawsuit was brought against the state this year in connection with Munoz's suicide.

The lawsuit, filed in Marion County Circuit Court on behalf of Munoz's relatives, alleged that the penitentiary failed to provide him with adequate supervision and mental health care.

Prison officials "knew or should have known that depression can lead to suicide and that Munoz was depressed," according to the suit.

"Defendant State of Oregon also knew or should have known that Munoz had post- traumatic stress disorder as a result of his sexual abuse as a minor by a State of Oregon juvenile parole and probation officer," the suit said, "and that Munoz had, at the time of his suicide, been participating in the investigation and prosecution of his abuser which caused Munoz significant anxiety."

The suit also claimed that prison officers and managers failed to conduct sufficient checks of his cell, failed to meet staffing requirements for the Intensive Management Unit and permitted staff to "work for such extended periods of time that their effectiveness was compromised."

Mediation aimed at settling the suit is nearing conclusion, officials in the state Department of Justice said. They said no details would be made public until the case is resolved.

Prisons bulge with mentally ill

Roughly 40 percent of Oregon's 13,500 prison inmates need mental-health care, but many don't receive services, according to corrections department reports.

Most worrisome are the 11 percent known to suffer from severe and persistent mental illnesses, such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

That's nearly 1,500 inmates -- twice the number of patients housed at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, the state's largest psychiatric facility.

Reasons given for influxes of mentally ill prisoners range from surging numbers of methamphetamine-addicted criminals to gaping holes in community mental-health care for poor and low-income Oregonians.

Corrections officers and prison managers face clashing demands of tight security and treatment as they try to keep the peace in a packed prison system.

While critics say prison mental-health care is deficient, others describe it as more than adequate.

"If you want to compare it to mental health care in the community, it's way better in prison because many people in the community don't have any care other than using the ER," Colistro said.

DOC reports point to numerous shortcomings in prison mental health care. Among the problems cited by a 2004 task force appointed by Corrections Director Max Williams:

Mental-health care wasn't being provided to more than 2,000 inmates identified as being in need of such care.

With 72 psychiatric beds in the entire prison system, Oregon ranked 49th in the nation for the number of such beds.

Forty percent of all inmates in disciplinary segregation cells were mentally ill, and they were being supervised by staff members who had no mental-health training.

Mentally ill inmates frequently were moved without regard for their treatment.

Prison officials said gaps in mental-health services are being plugged with upgrades.

For example, the 2007 Legislature, which recently approved spending a record $1.3 billion on the prison system over the next two years, allocated funding to add 25 to 30 more psychiatric beds.

That infusion will raise to about 110 the total number of prison beds available for psychiatric crises, far below the 360 called for by the 2004 task force.

Suicide chain unfolds

Nearly a decade after her son Stanley Reger hanged himself at the penitentiary in Salem, Joan Nemchick of Stayton was surprised to hear about 24 ensuing suicides.

After a moment of reflection, she changed her mind.

"So many of them have mental illness, and that gets to them when they don't have any way to cope," she said. "So I guess maybe I'm not surprised."

When Reger skipped his psychiatric medication, symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia filled his brain with terrorizing delusions. He perceived enemies bent on his destruction.

On Aug. 30, 1998, the huge inmate hanged himself with a bed sheet in his general population cell at the state penitentiary. He was 50 years old.

For Reger, the penitentiary's psychiatric unit was "the one sanctuary that he had," Nemchick said. He couldn't handle regular prison routines.

His suicide came less than two weeks after he graduated from a six-month program designed to help mentally ill inmates live in the general prison population.

"He came back, and he was afraid to go to the pill line, so of course, he wasn't taking his medication and he decompensated very quickly," Nemchick said.

After her son died, Nemchick received a letter he had mailed from the penitentiary. Reger described being terrified in his general population cell, on the penitentiary's D Block.

"I'm still pretty scared, and they are still yelling at me the word, 'RAT,' and threatening to kill me -- so I'm not dead yet," he wrote.

He hanged himself the day after he wrote the letter.

agustafs@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6709

Number of US prisoners has biggest rise in 6 years

By James Vicini Wed Jun 27, 12:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, which has the most prisoners of any country in the world, last year recorded the largest increase in the number of people in prisons and jails since 2000, the Justice Department reported on Wednesday.

It said the nation's prison and jail populations increased by more than 62,000 inmates, or 2.8 percent, to about 2,245,000 inmates in the 12-month period that ended on June 30, 2006. It was the biggest jump in numbers and percentage change in six years.

Criminal justice experts have attributed the record U.S. prison population to tough sentencing laws, record numbers of drug offenders and high crimes rates.

State or federal prisons held two-thirds of the nation's incarcerated population while local jails held the rest, according to the report by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The number of inmates in state prisons rose by 3 percent, the report said. That growth mainly reflected rising prison admissions, which have been going up faster than the number of released prisoners. Also, more parole violators have returned to prison, the report said.

Forty-two states and the federal system all had more inmates in June last year than the previous year. The number of jail inmates increased by 2.5 percent during the same 12-month period, the report said.

The report on U.S. prison numbers is issued every six months.

Jason Ziedenberg of the Justice Policy Institute, a group that seeks alternatives to incarceration, said the new numbers showed an "alarming growth" in an already overburdened prison system.

"Billions of public safety dollars are absorbed by prison expansion and limits the nation's ability to focus on more effective strategies to promote public safety," he said.

Officials at the Drug Policy Alliance, another group opposed to long prison sentences for drug offenders, said the drug policies of the past 30 years have been a major contributor to the U.S. prison population explosion.

According to the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College in London, the United States has long had the world's largest prison population, followed by China at 1.5 million and Russia at 885,670.

Laurie Hoover
Vice Chairman
Ohio-CURE
complex22222@yahoo.com
Advocacy and justice for Ohio prisoners' and their families.

MA prison guard gets workers comp; had been accused of throwing feces; alleged emotional stress

From: paul wright
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 11:31 PM
Subject: [PRUP] MA prison guard gets workers comp; had been accused of throwing feces; alleged emotional stress

Prisoners who throw feces at guards get decades in prison, guards who throw feces at prisoners get workers comp.

Massachusetts Prison Guard Nuts Up, Gets Workers' Comp After Negative Publicity

MASSACHUSETTS -- A corrections officer accused by prisoners and later the media of throwing feces in the cell of pedophile priest John Geoghan was entitled to workers' compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder, the Department of Industrial Accidents Reviewing Board has decided. The Department of Correction argued that the officer's emotional problems were not caused during the course of his employment.

But, in a case of first impression, a majority of the review board disagreed and upheld an administrative judge's decision, which found that the officer was entitled to workers' compensation benefits.

"It is indisputable that had the employee's injury arisen predominately out of threats made by inmates in the prison, his resulting incapacity would have been compensable," said Judge Mark D. Horan, writing on behalf of the board.

He added: "Does the fact that the predominant cause of the employee's incapacity was his reaction to newspaper articles, essentially carrying out the inmates' threats, mandate a different finding? We think not.

"The 12-page decision is In Re: Bisazza, Lawyers Weekly No. 25-034-07.Precedent-setterAlthough the issue had been decided in other jurisdictions, Louis C. deBenedicts of Boston, who represented the officer, said there were no cases in Massachusetts answering the question of whether negative publicity arising out of the workplace could serve as grounds for a workers' compensation claim."

The precedent that now exists as a result of this case is that if bad publicity coming out of the workplace causes someone to suffer from stress, then they are entitled to compensation," he said.

The lawyer added that the claims in his client's case were covered since all of the media accounts written about the incident, as well as other abuse the officer suffered, were the result of events that took place while he was working at the prison.

"If the negative publicity can be traced back to the actual workplace, then the bottom line now is that they're going to have a compensable case," said deBenedicts.

He said that one of the prison's reasons for fighting the case was to avoid responsibility and place the blame for his client's condition on the media outlets that reported on the Geoghan incident.

"The Department of Correction was worried that, every time a major newspaper would write a story about one of the guards, it would open the flood gates for them to file these stress claims, and I think that was a major reason they were fighting this," he said. "What we now have is a great end result, which sets a good precedent."

Joyce E. Davis, a Newton-based workers' compensation and disability lawyer who reviewed the Bisazza decision, said the Department of Industrial Accidents Reviewing Board focused on the fact that there was a significant relationship between the officer's harm and the workplace.

"I think that in Bisazza, the reviewing board's analysis regarding causation may well be broader than that [previously] propounded by the Supreme Judicial Court," she said.

Davis noted that in the 1965 Collier Case, the court had found that the causal chain was broken where an hour had elapsed between a waitress' refusal to serve a customer liquor and his attack on her as she was walking home.

"By contrast, in Bisazza, the reviewing board indicated that a judge's decision finding compensability will be upheld where there is a direct connection between the employee's work and the resulting harm," she said.

Vincent F. Massey of the Department of Correction could not be reached for comment prior to deadline.Taunting, threats beginThe employee, Cosmo Bisazza, worked as a corrections officer at MCI-Concord in a housing unit that held sex offenders, pedophiles, murderers and gang members who were segregated from the general prison population.

In March 2002, the officer discovered feces in the cell of John Geoghan, a convicted pedophile who was assigned there. Although Geoghan claimed the officer put the feces there, an internal investigation found his allegations to be unsubstantiated.

In April 2003, Geoghan was transferred to a prison in Shirley, where he was eventually murdered by a fellow inmate.

Immediately after the murder, inmates in the officer's unit began taunting and threatening to "get" him. They also specifically threatened to alert the media about the feces incident.

Within a few days, newspaper articles reported that unnamed officers had harassed Geoghan and thrown feces at him, which caused Bisazza to feel stressed. In September 2003, articles identified him by name as one of the people who had abused Geoghan.

A short time later, the officer's anxiety worsened, which prevented him from eating or sleeping and caused him to experience stomach pains. As a result, he stopped working and began seeing a psychiatrist.During a hearing related to his request for workers' comp based on a mental or emotional disability, he presented a board-certified psychiatrist who diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder, which was a direct result of trauma suffered at work. That trauma consisted of harassment and humiliation by the inmates, as well as the negative publicity he had received.The judge ruled that the combination of the negative newspaper articles and the inmates' harassment in the days following Geoghan's murder had caused his disability. He awarded the officer compensation, finding that that the negative publicity, not the inmate harassment, was the predominant cause of his disability.

Direct connection

In affirming the lower court's decision, Horan said the officer's emotional injury clearly originated with the threats and taunts of the inmates he was overseeing at the prison.

"The evidence supports the judge's finding that the employee's emotional disability, insofar as it was triggered by his reaction to the newspaper articles, is compensable under our act because 'it can be seen that the whole affair had its origin in the nature and conditions of the employment, so that the employment bore to it the relation of cause to effect,'" he said.

Horan noted that in cases like the officer's, where there was a direct connection between a person's work and the resulting harm, an administrative judge's finding of compensability will be affirmed.

"The judge made explicit findings that the employee's emotional disability, insofar as it began with the inmates' threats and continued with the newspaper articles containing the misconduct allegations, arose both out of and in the course of the employee's employment," Horan observed.

Source URL: http://www.badcopnews.com/2007/07/03/massachusetts-prison-guard-nuts-up-gets-workers-comp-after-negative-publicity/

Fourth Friday Event for July

From: Arnie King

Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 12:01 PM
Subject: Fourth Friday Event for July

Greetings!

For our next 4^th Friday event, we would like to invite you to request poems (or brief stories) from friends and family members of yours who are in Massachusetts prisons. You or another person will read your loved one's submission at the July 4^th Friday event. Send poems/stories to:

Community Church
565 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
Attn: Through Barbed Wire

Thank you!

AZ Group to use $1 mil grant to help ex-cons find jobs

By Audrie Garrison
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 4, 2007 12:00 AM

PHOENIX - An Arizona non-profit organization focused on helping women find employment was awarded a $1 million federal grant Tuesday.

Arizona Women's Education and Employment Inc. will use the money from the U.S. Department of Labor to help men and women between the ages of 18 and 29 who have been in prison find employment. The group was one of five agencies across the country to receive a grant.

"Our goal is to keep people out of prison with this program," said Marie Sullivan, its president and CEO.

Sullivan said the non-profit already does some work with ex-offenders, but that this program will incorporate other faith-based and community organizations. She said the group will provide guidance, technical assistance and money to its partners in the project.

Rhonda Bannard, a spokeswoman for the non-profit, said the U.S. Department of Labor said that the target group of 18- to 29-year-old ex-offenders is an important pool of laborers.

"What they did is they identified this group and said they weren't really being served, and yet, they're a key group," Bannard said. "With the slowing down of the workforce opportunities, they really need to be tapped into."

Sullivan said the program will be target toward Maricopa County residents. She said it will reach out to members through the Department of Corrections and parole officers, as well as the community and faith-based groups they will be partnering with.

Sullivan said the organization helps ex-offenders find jobs both by coaching them in resume-writing and interviewing and by identifying employers who can and will hire people who have spent time in prison.

"We'll work with employers, but we don't actually hand someone a job," she said.

The other grant recipients were Colorado's Department of Labor and Employment, the City of Chicago, the Indianapolis Private Industry Council Inc. and the Director's Council of Des Moines, Iowa.

All five entities will do some sort of project that will help 18- to 29-year-old ex-offenders find jobs.

Excessive Sentences

LIFE SENTENCE "My son Jimmy was given a life sentence for possessing two ounces of medical marijuana to treat his pain and muscle spasms. As a religious woman, I am heartbroken that organized religion is silent on the need to stop this cruel war. Would you please help us?" -- Thelma Montgomery-Farris, Sentinel, Oklahoma

SHOT DEAD BY POLICE On March 16, Patrick Dorismond was approached by an undercover New York City police officer attempting to buy some marijuana. Dorismond, a law-abiding citizen, expressed his resentment at being mistaken for a drug dealer, which then caused a scuffle. Moments later, the officer's back-up arrived and shot Dorismond dead.

1.5 million people are arrested every year for drug-law violations -- 75% for possession (not sale or manufacture). 600,000 of these arrests are for possessing marijuana for personal use. African-Americans comprise nearly 60% of the people in state prisons for drug felonies. Due largely to the War on Drugs, one in three Black men between the ages of 20 and 29 is in prison, on probation, or on parole -- even though their drug usage rates are the same as other Americans'. Indeed, 14% of the nation's Black men have lost their right to vote due to felony convictions! A majority of women in federal prison are there for drug law violations; 70% are first-time offenders. Many are incarcerated on "conspiracy" charges, such as taking phone messages for a live-in boyfriend who sells drugs. More than 75% of female prisoners are mothers of small children; many will be raped or otherwise abused by male prison guards. Nearly 40% of the AIDS cases reported in the United States have been linked to illicit drug injection. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services determined that needle-exchange programs reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use -- yet the federal government refuses to fund these programs.

Civil liberties violations are a routine part of drug-law enforcement; e.g., drug dogs, urine tests, phone taps, paid confidential informants, entrapment, curbside garbage searches, military helicopters, infrared heat detectors, no-knock warrants, and stop-and-frisk searches of minorities and young people. Mandatory minimum prison sentences have removed the discretion that judges have over sentencing, resulting in excessive sentences for first-time, nonviolent drug offenders. Property forfeiture laws allow police to take someone's property even without a criminal conviction! The War on Drugs costs taxpayers more than $40 billion per year -- two-thirds of which is spent on enforcement, court and prison expenses, while only one-third is spent on education and treatment. Tens of millions of Americans -- including children and adolescents -- still use or abuse illegal drugs. Indeed, nearly 90% of high school seniors consider marijuana "easy" to obtain ... even easier than beer. The War on Drugs has failed to accomplish its stated goal of a "drug-free America." In fact, teen drug use increased throughout the 1990s.

http://www.uudpr.org/casualties.htm

Two Kansas representatives call for more funding for federal prisons

By DAWN BORMANN
The Kansas City Star

U.S. Reps. Dennis Moore and Nancy Boyda rallied support today in Leavenworth for an $837 million increase in federal prison funding.

The Kansas Democrats say the country's federal prison system has become overcrowded, which poses dangerous conditions for corrections officers and inmates.

The two privately toured the U.S. Penitentiary in the afternoon and held a press conference to call for more funding for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The press conference follows up on a letter signed by Boyda, Moore and others to leadership of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science and Related Agencies.

The letter urges the subcommittee to provide a $427 million funding increase for salaries and expenses and a $410 million increase for buildings and facilities in order to ease overcrowding issues at some facilities.

"The BOP is simultaneously experiencing record lows in staffing and record highs in overcrowding. This is dangerous combination that creates a situation that is simply not safe for our correctional officers or federal inmates," the letter said.

"We can't claim to be tough on crime and ignore our prisons," Boyda said today at the press conference in Leavenworth.

Boyda and Moore acknowledge that the Leavenworth facility appears to be adequately staffed. However, the two said this is a national issue that needs to be addressed long before it becomes a crisis.

"This is about our prison system nationwide," Moore said.

To reach Dawn Bormann, call 816-234-5992 or send e-mail to dbormann@kcstar.com.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/176136.html

News from the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons

One year ago, members of Vera's Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation on our then-newly published report, Confronting Confinement.

This June, on the first anniversary of that Senate hearing, Senators Richard Durbin and Tom Coburn, M.D., sent a letter to their colleagues urging them to re-read our report, saying, "the information and recommendations of the Commission are no less relevant than at their release." You can read their entire letter here.

Today, the Commission is continuing to assist government leaders, corrections administrators, and advocates in taking steps to improve the lives of those who work and live in correctional facilities across the nation.

Here are some highlights of recent developments:

• Citing the Commission's recommendations, the New Mexico House passed a memorial directing the state's attorney general to convene a task force to consider the creation of an independent entity to oversee the status and conditions of New Mexico's correctional facilities.
  
  
• Three Commissioners testified in April before the Pennsylvania House & Senate Judiciary Committees about the importance of creating safe and healthy correctional facilities.
  
  
• The Commission submitted a letter in support of a bill to create an Office of Corrections Ombudsman in the Washington State Senate.
  
  
• The Commission sponsored two roundtable discussions in Washington, DC, focusing on strategies for implementing the Commission's recommendation to extend Medicaid and Medicare to eligible prisoners, and on the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
  
  
• In April, the Commission's final report, Confronting Confinement, was favorably reviewed by the New York Review of Books.
  

What was true last year remains true today: what happens in jail and prison doesn't stay there. It is in the interest of everyone's safety and health—not only those who work in prisons, but also those who are sent to prison and the communities they return to upon release—that we continue to present these important issues and recommendations to decision makers in Washington, DC, and around the country.

Thank you for your support—past, present, and future—which helps to make this possible.

Sincerely,


Alexander Busansky
Executive Director, Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons
Director, Washington DC Office, Vera Institute of Justice

Confronting Confinement is available at the Commission's web site, www.prisoncommission.org.

City Budget Update: Why Councillors Arroyo, Yoon, Turner & Yancey voted no.

Contacts:
Danielle Williams (Arroyo), (617) 635-3115
Mary Grissom (Yoon), (617) 635-4217
Ken Yarbrough (Yancey), (617) 635-3131
Lorraine Fowlkes (Turner), (617) 635-3510

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
6-27-07

Four Councillors Oppose FY08 City Operating Budget (Boston, MA) Today, Boston City Councillors Felix D. Arroyo, Sam Yoon, Charles Yancey and Chuck Turner voted "No" on the proposed Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2008 in the City of Boston.

The Councillors voted "No" because the proposed operating budget only included short-term funding and support for youth opportunity programs and combating the youth violence crisis. The Councillors detailed their top priorities as follows:

1) Summer jobs - The FY08 operating budget included slightly more than $4 million in city operating funding for 2007 summer jobs. With summer already upon us, the Youth Fund infrastructure limits the City's ability to significantly expand the summer jobs program for this year. However, the Councillors asked for a commitment to increase city operating support for summer jobs by $3 million for FY09, bringing the total city commitment next year to $7.3 million. They also asked the City to extend summer job eligibility to 14-year olds for next summer. These requests were rejected by Mayor Menino and his Administration. "Although government cannot do this alone, we feel the city should be a primary guarantor of summer youth employment. We must commit to erasing the gap between the number of jobs available and the number of young people who want and are eligible for a summer job," said Councillor Chuck Turner

2) Year-round/school-year jobs - $400,000 has already been committed by a private foundation this fiscal year for year-round/school-year jobs. This amount of funding will provide for approximately 150 of these jobs this year. The Councillors asked the Administration to commit to providing 350 additional year-round/school-year jobs beginning this September and ending in June 2009. This would have required an increase in the FY08 budget of $920,000 for the Youth Fund. As with the summer job program, the Councillors sought future growth in this program including a commitment of $2.7 million in FY09 to fund 1000 year-round/school-year jobs. These requests were also rejected. "It is essential that we provide school-year and year-round jobs to supplement the summer jobs program if we truly want to reduce violence and provide real opportunities for our City's young people," said Councillor Sam Yoon.

3) Grants to Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) - Mayor Menino recently committed $300,000 of city operating funds to support CBOs for summer anti-violence programming. The Councillors acknowledged the commitment of $1.25 million in state and private funds as well. However, they sought an additional $1.2 million in city operating funds which they felt should be committed this year to support CBOs, given the essential work they are doing in the community to develop young people and to prevent violence. They asked the administration for a commitment of city operating funds, rather than a commitment to continue private fund-raising, in order to ensure predictability of funding, and therefore (as with youth employment) budgetary "institutionalization." The Councillors also asked that an additional $1.5 million in new grants be committed for FY09. This would bring the total commitment to $3 million for FY09 -- $1.5 million for continuation grants and $1.5 million in new grants. "Earlier this year, I proposed a new $5 million grant program for community based-organizations. I continue to believe that a significant level of new financial support for local organizations and their efforts is one of the best ways to provide the youth programming needed to reduce youth violence, drug abuse and suicide," said Councillor Felix D. Arroyo.

4) Street Workers - This Spring, the City Council passed a Resolution calling for hiring up to 300 additional Youth and Street Workers. The proposed FY08 operating budget included an increase of just ten new Street Worker positions, bringing the total citywide to thirty. However, the Councillors remain concerned that the Street Worker program is chronically under-funded and that morale is being impacted by the small number of Street Workers compared to the size of the population in need of their outreach. Almost 10,000 high school drop-outs, among thousands of other at-risk youth, cannot be served by such a small number of Street Workers. Therefore, the Councillors asked for at least an additional 25 Street Workers, at a cost of $1 million to be added to the FY08 budget, bringing the total to 55. They also asked for a commitment of an additional $1 million to hire an additional twenty-five Street Workers in FY09, bringing the total to 70. Finally, the Councillors asked that any additional street workers be assigned to geographical areas in our city that include the highest concentration of high-risk youth. These requests were again rejected and not included in the passed FY08 operating budget. "The effective use of street and youth workers not only prevents violence and encourages productive lifestyles, it would reduce long-term need for increase enforcement and the need for excessive police overtime, which last year cost taxpayers more than $28 million," said Councillor Yancey.

The FY08 City operating budget was approved by a vote of 9-4, with Councillors Arroyo, Yoon, Yancey and Turner voting "No." By announcing their intention to oppose the proposed operating budget, these Councillors sought additional negotiations with the Administration on the Operating Budget and inclusion of funding for these youth opportunity and youth violence reduction programs.

Item of Interest

Read Earl Ofari Hutchinson on "The War on Drugs is Still a War on Blacks":

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/the-war-on-drugs-is-still_b_54094.html

States seek alternatives to more prisons

By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer

With swelling prison populations cutting into state budgets, lawmakers are exploring ways to ease overcrowding beyond building expensive new correctional facilities.

Though the construction of prisons continues as states struggle to provide enough beds for those behind bars, legislators increasingly are looking at other ways to free up space and save money, including expanded programs to help prevent offenders from being incarcerated again, earlier release dates for low-risk inmates and sentencing revisions.

Criminal justice analysts point to Kansas and Texas as recent innovators. Both states are putting off building new prisons, focusing instead on rehabilitation and recidivism. At the same time, a new $7.7 billion prison spending plan in California – where overcrowding last year forced Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to declare a state of emergency – has met with skepticism. Critics call the plan “prison expansion, not prison reform” and say the initiative relies on impractical fixes such as shipping inmates out of state.

State spending on prisons surged 10 percent nationally last fiscal year (see graphic) and growing inmate populations played a lead role in those costs, according to an analysis by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Corrections trails only education and health care in swallowing state dollars, and experts say lawmakers are responding to the budgetary pressures by trying more cost-effective approaches.

“We’re seeing more and more states in different regions and with different political leadership tackling this issue and recognizing that the more they spend on prisons, the less they have to spend on health, education and other priorities,” said Adam Gelb, project director of the Public Safety Performance Project.

The project – which, like Stateline.org, is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts – in February forecast steep increases in incarceration rates and state spending in the next five years unless legislatures enact policy changes.Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) last month signed into law a prison plan that is winning accolades for its creativity. Among other measures, the $4.4 million package provides financial incentives to community correctional systems for reducing prisoner admissions and allows some low-risk inmates to reduce their sentences through education or counseling while behind bars.Under the plan, the state offers grants to localities for preventing “conditions violations” such as parole or probation infractions – a leading cause of prison overcrowding in Kansas and nationwide. To qualify for the grants, communities must cut recidivism rates by at least 20 percent using a variety of support tactics.

The early-release provision would cut time served by 60 days for some offenders who successfully complete programs that decrease their chances of returning to prison. Several other states, including Michigan, Nevada and Washington, recently announced plans to release some low-risk offenders early through similar initiatives, including good-time credits and expanded work-release programs.

Expectations are high in Kansas. State Rep. Pat Colloton (R), who led the push for the legislation in the House of Representatives, said she expects the plan to allow the state to postpone new prison construction until 2016 – though officials had said expansion would be necessary starting in two years.

In Texas, which houses 153,000 prisoners, the Legislature recently approved a plan that lawmakers have characterized as one of the most significant changes in corrections in a decade. The package, part of the state budget awaiting Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s approval, would divert thousands of inmates from prison to rehabilitation facilities, where beds would free up twice a year as offenders get help and re-enter society. Notably, the focus on rehabilitation would put off construction of costly new prisons.

The plan includes a new 500-bed treatment facility for those incarcerated for driving while intoxicated (DWI) – offenders who often have substance-abuse problems but receive no rehabilitation and face stiff sentences without the possibility of parole, according to one state Senate aide.

“We have changed the course of the ship substantially in the state of Texas,” said state Rep. Jerry Madden (R), chairman of the House Corrections Committee and an engineer of the prison plan.

In California, the only state with a larger prison system than Texas, Schwarzenegger this month signed a plan that calls for the construction of 53,000 new beds, with rehabilitation services to accompany the expansion.

Analysts say the plan has the potential to overhaul the state’s prison system by providing inmates new opportunities for education, job training and counseling. But they note that funding for the initiative’s rehabilitation services is far from guaranteed because the state has not yet approved its budget, and many in the corrections community are skeptical that lawmakers will follow through on their promises.

“It’s purely prison expansion. It’s just more business as usual,” said Joe Baumann, a state corrections officer who has worked for 20 years at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco.

“The thing that everybody misses is the incarceration rate per 100,000 people.”

Meanwhile, other states are revisiting their sentencing policies. Nevada, facing an explosion in its prison population, recently reinstated a commission – dormant since 2000 – that will make recommendations on changing sentencing laws to help ease overcrowding.At least 22 states revised their sentencing laws between 2004 and 2006 to ease prison overcrowding, according to a study by The Sentencing Project, a Washington., D.C.-based organization that advocates for policy changes.

[pbpboston] Prison Book Program -- July update

Prison Book Program -- July update


Hi all!

Prison Book Program will be open its regular hours for the month of July: Every Tuesday & Thursday evening from 6:30-9:00 p.m. EXCEPT, we will be CLOSED the Fourth of July week (closed Tues 7/3 and Thurs 7/5).

Also, one special Saturday in July -- 7/28 from 10am to 4pm (also, late notice, but we are also open THIS Saturday June 30th from 10am to 4pm).

So come in out of the heat to our coooool basement; bring those paperback books to donate, a couple of friends, and join us to read letters from prisoners' and make up book packages to send out. No experience nor RSVP needed!

Another important announcement:

Prison Book Program is pleased to be the recipient of a grant from the Gardner Howland Shaw Foundation. The Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation was established in 1959, and funds initiatives that demonstrate a current awareness of important problems confronting our criminal and juvenile justice systems. Thanks to the Shaw Foundation for supplying a much-needed grant to PBP for the second year running!

Thanks, as always, to YOU for your support!

Prison Book Program
c/o United First Parish Church
1306 Hancock Street, Suite 100
Quincy, MA 02169
617-423-3298 (no collect calls)
info@prisonbookprogram.org
http://www.prisonbookprogram.org

T: Red Line, Braintree - Quincy Center

We are located in the basement of the United First Parish Church. Our
entrance is on Temple St.

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who
prepare for it today" - Malcolm X

US prison population jumps by largest margin since 2000

US prison population jumps by largest margin since 2000
Jun 26, 2007, 19:07 GMT

Washington - The number of people jailed in the United States rose 2.8 per cent to more than 2.2 million in 2006, the largest climb in six years, the US Justice Department said Tuesday.
The heavy increases in prison populations since 2000, especially at state and federal levels, means many prisons are operating far over capacity, according to the department's annual report. At the end of 2005, federal prisons were operating on average 34 per cent above capacity, while state prisons were between 1 per cent below and 14 per cent above capacity, the report said. Local, state and federal prisons together held just over 2.245 million people as of June 30, 2006, up 62,000 from the same period a year earlier. The percentages continue to be skewed towards minorities. Black males made up 37 per cent of the country's prison population as of June 2006. About 4.8 per cent of all black men in the US are currently incarcerated - more than 11 per cent of those aged between 25 and 34 - compared to 1.9 per cent of Hispanic men and 0.7 per cent of white males, the report said.

© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/usa/news/article_1322790.php/US_prison_population_jumps_by_largest_margin_since_2000

Forensics chief exits as probes continue

Forensics chief exits as probes continue
Appointed in '05 to fix 2 agencies
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff June 27, 2007

The state's top forensics official resigned yesterday following a series of blunders in the State Police crime laboratory and the medical examiner's office, making her exit the most prominent in a string of high-level departures from both operations.

The resignation of LaDonna J. Hatton as undersecretary of forensic sciences comes amid four investigations into the alleged mishandling of DNA test results in about two dozen unsolved sexual assault cases at the crime lab and another inquiry into the disappearance of a body
from the medical examiner's office.

Hatton, 46, was appointed by the Romney administration in 2005 to fix the long-troubled agencies but had struggled with one crisis after another over the past six months. She will leave in August to become general counsel to the State Police.

"There is no perfect time to leave a job with as many challenges as undersecretary for forensic sciences, but I know that this is the right decision and the right time for me personally and professionally," Hatton said in a statement issued by Kevin M. Burke, public safety secretary.

The announcement follows the resignation in March of the civilian head of the crime lab, Carl Se lavka, and the suspension last month of the chief medical examiner, Dr. Mark A. Flomenbaum.

Although the upheaval put Hatton under scrutiny, Burke had vigorously defended her supervision of the lab and medical examiner's office. He told the Globe on March 15 that she had nothing to do with the problems that have roiled both operations and that she was playing a crucial role in addressing them.

"If I had four more LaDonna Hattons, I'd be very pleased," he said.

Yesterday, Burke said Hatton's work "has laid the foundation for the next phase of improvements that need to be implemented."

A spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety, Charles McDonald, said that Hatton's departure was voluntary and that Burke, a former Essex County district attorney, will consult with the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association on choosing a replacement. He gave no timetable for appointing a successor.

Hatton, who was paid $125,000 a year, was appointed by the Romney administration despite having little expertise in forensics and was reappointed by Governor Deval Patrick in January.

Burke said she was staying through July to assist with the completion of analyses of the crime lab and medical examiner's office by Vance, a Virginia-based private consulting company. Vance is scheduled to complete a $267,000 top-to-bottom review of the crime lab by Saturday. The company recently began a separate analysis of the medical examiner's office.

Hatton, a former legal counsel to Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans and Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, told the Globe yesterday morning that she would discuss her departure later in the day but did not return subsequent phone calls.

In the statement issued by Burke, she acknowledged that her resignation comes at a delicate time but said she looked forward to returning to the practice of law.

"There are still many challenges facing the [office of chief medical examiner] and crime lab, but with strong support from Governor Patrick and Secretary Burke, the important changes that have been identified will be made," she said.

Since January, the crime lab has been buffeted by disclosures about the mishandling of DNA test results, which led to investigations by the State Police, FBI, Vance, and the state inspector general's office.

All the investigations are looking into problems with evidence compiled in the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, the FBI-funded computer network that serves as the registry of 3.1 million DNA samples of convicted criminals and arrested individuals that have been collected by law enforcement nationwide. CODIS matches crime-scene DNA to genetic profiles in the database.

Robert Pino, a 23-year civilian employee of the lab who testified in more than 240 criminal cases and helped set up the state's portion of the FBI database, was fired April 13, three months after the agency suspended him for allegedly mishandling test results.

On March 9, Selavka, director of the lab since July 1998 and one of Pino's supervisors, resigned under pressure.

The State Police investigation has found several kinds of problems, including that Pino told law enforcement officials about 13 positive DNA matches in unsolved sexual assault cases after the statute of limitations had expired, too late for the cases to be prosecuted.

In another eight cases, the statute expired because the lab took too long to check DNA from the crime scenes against samples in the database, according to a State Police affidavit filed in February.

The medical examiner's office faced its own crisis in mid-March, when an increase in the number of autopsies caused unclaimed bodies to pile up in the agency's overcrowded Boston headquarters in the South End and in a refrigerated truck parked behind the building. In addition, the plumbing system had clogged, resulting in pools of blood on the autopsy room floor, and basic supplies, including body bags and toe tags, had run out periodically.

On May 3, the Patrick administration suspended Flomenbaum for the misplacement of the body of a Cape Cod man who was mistakenly buried in another man's grave and had to be exhumed

Last week, the Patrick administration restricted a longtime pathologist at the medical examiner's office, Dr. William M. Zane, from examining any potential homicide victims because he made an autopsy error that forced prosecutors to downgrade murder charges against twin brothers from Ayer, who were convicted of manslaughter.

Flomenbaum said in a phone interview from home that he was unaware of Hatton's departure and declined to comment further. Zane did not return a phone call to his office.

Geline W. Williams, executive director of the state's district attorneys association, which has pushed since at least 2000 for improving forensic services relied upon by prosecutors, said both the crime lab and medical examiner's office are victims of years of underfunding and neglect. The state only began addressing those deficiencies in the past few years, she said, and whoever succeeds Hatton will face many of the same challenges.

"The record is clear that the state's forensic services across the board were neglected for almost two decades," she said. "You can't turn that around overnight."

State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, who cochairs the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, said Hatton's new job provides a good opportunity for her and for Patrick.

"This is an important chance for the Patrick administration to take a fresh look at these two agencies that have not been without their problems," he said.

NY state to stop prison phone profiteering

NEW YORK STATE LEGISLATURE AGREES TO STOP UNJUST PRISON PHONE CONTRACT

Legislation Will Permanently Disconnect Unfair Rates

June 21, 2007, New York, NY--The New York State Senate and Assembly reached agreement at the end of this year's legislative session on legislation that would treat prison telephone service as a right, not as a revenue generator.

"Words cannot describe what this victory means to me--unless they are written on a phone bill that I can now afford to pay," said Cheri O'Donoghue, whose young son is incarcerated in New York State. "It is such a relief that I can now talk to my son more frequently without financial hardship."

For more than ten years, families of inmates have had no choice but to pay phone rates 630 percent higher than normal consumer rates to speak with their loved ones in New York State correctional facilities. In January, Governor Spitzer announced that New York State would forego its nearly 60 percent share of the obscene mark-up. But the corporate mark-up on the contract remained, still more than 200 percent higher than regular consumer rates.

In March, the contract was extended for one year as advocates continued discussions with elected officials and staff to ensure that future telephone systems focus on keeping families together, not on turning a profit. The new contract will take place on April 1, 2008.

The agreed-upon bill centers on one common theme: "that when determining the best value of such telephone service, the lowest possible cost to the telephone user shall be emphasized."

"Today, New York provided strong leadership by setting an example that every other state needs to follow," said Annette Warren Dickerson, campaign coordinator for the NY Campaign for Telephone Justice on behalf of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). "Telephone companies have to stop considering the families of prisoners as if they were captive customers. We thank the bill sponsors for passing this legislation and we thank the Governor for his continuous support."

More than 80 percent of the State's prisoners come from poor New York City neighborhoods, according to the Albany-based Center for Law and Justice. With two-thirds of the prison facilities located three hours or more from New York City, telephone calls become a critical means for families to keep in touch.

The New York Campaign for Telephone Justice works to end the kickback contract between MCI (doing business as Verizon) and the New York State Department of Correctional Services and deliver choice, affordability, and equitable service to the families and friends of those incarcerated in New York State. The campaign is a project of the Center for Constitutional Rights, in partnership with Prison Families of New York, Inc. and Prison Families Community Forum.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a nonprofit legal and educational organization dedicated to protecting and advancing the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Victims Slammed with Jail Time

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2007

CONTACT:
Lydia Lowe
Zenobia Lai
Lisette Le

COMMUNITY STUNNED BY QUINCY 4 VERDICTS

A six-person jury delivered its verdict yesterday evening in the case of the "Quincy 4," four Asian Americans charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in an incident involving the Quincy police.

One defendant, Howard Ng, was found innocent of disorderly conduct, while defendants Karen Chen, Quan Thin, and Tat Yuen were found guilty on either or both charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The four were adamant that they were falsely charged after being victims of police brutality in the early hours of April 30, 2006 in front of the Super 88 market on Hancock Street.

The case had attracted local attention when defendant Karen Chen, a former Community Organizer at the Chinese Progressive Association, and eyewitness Joanna Ng filed a complaint of police misconduct with the Quincy Police Department last year. The four defendants continued to attract strong support from the Chinese community throughout a year of pre-trial proceedings and court postponements. During this week's five-day trial, supporters had to sit outside the courtroom for hours because the courtroom was over-packed and the judge would not allow people to stand.

The jury heard from seven witnesses over the course of the five-day trial, including six law enforcement officers and one eyewitness who was a friend of the defendants. The prosecution painted a picture of a drunk and unruly mob which surged against the officers and made them fear for their lives, calling forth several police witnesses to say that the group had yelled profanities and some had swung punches. The defense pointed out inconsistencies in the officers' testimony and between their court testimony and written reports. Most had been asked to write reports after the complaint of police misconduct had been filed. A civilian eyewitness described an unprovoked attack and use of pepper spray by a Quincy police officer, followed by a brutal series of arrests which left Chen with a black eye and bruises and Yuen with a concussion. The prosecution questioned the witness' account as both biased and involving more details than her original complaint.

The racial composition of the jury was five whites and one black, but no Asian Americans, despite the rapidly expanding Asian American population in Quincy. While the four defendants never filed a civil rights complaint, most perceived the situation in racial terms. Supporters of the defendants noted that, upon entering the courtroom one day, a white audience member friendly with police officers commented about the American flag, "At least there's something American in the room."

Following the verdicts, the prosecution requested sentences of 18 months' probation for Chen and two years' probation for Thin and Yuen. Judge Mary Orfanello, instead, slapped Thin and Yuen each with a six month suspended sentence with 10 days of incarceration and two years' probation. Because witnesses had testified that Thin was drunk on the evening of the incident, she further sentenced him to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings three days per week for the entire two-year probation period. All three must pay one-time fees as well as $21 per month into the probation system. Thin and Yuen were immediately handcuffed and taken into custody, without even allowing them to say goodbye to family members present. No visitors are allowed during the 10 days. The community audience in the closely packed courtroom was visibly stunned as the judge announced the verdicts and unusually harsh sentences for what are normally considered minor offenses.

All four defendants had earlier been offered a plea bargain agreement known as pre-trial probation, in which they could have voluntarily entered probation to avoid incarceration by writing a letter of apology to the Quincy Police Department and signing an agreement not to sue the department.

"We didn't take it, because we did nothing wrong. Why should we have to apologize to the police for what they did to us?" said Karen Chen.

The defendants expressed gratitude for the community support they received during the trial. Supporters came from within the Asian American community as well as from white, African American, and other immigrant communities. Community supporters will hold a post-trial discussion today and commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who was beaten to death in Detroit by two white auto workers amid rising anti-Japanese sentiment. Chin's two killers were convicted but never served a day in jail.

New NCCD Report on Women in the Justice System

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 21, 2007

Contact: Barry Krisberg
Phone: 510-208-0500 x311

New NCCD Fact Sheet Shows Disparate Treatment of Women among States:

The Nation's Most Punitive States for Women

A new Fact Sheet from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency shows enormous disparity in the way states treat women in trouble with the law. Using the latest available data from prisons, jails, probation, and parole for adult and juvenile women, this concise report shows how differently women are treated depending on the policies and practices of their state of residence.

The disparate incarceration, probation, and parole rates do not correspond to differences in state arrest rates. The most punitive states do not enjoy less crime. In addition the US imprisons more women and girls than any other nation. And within the US, women of color are disproportionately incarcerated compared to whites. Plus the proportion of incarcerated women to men is rising.

Some of the report's main findings are as follows:

· Based on 2005 rates of incarceration in state prison or jail, the most punitive US states for women were Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, Idaho, Georgia, and Wyoming. The states with the lowest rates of incarceration were Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Hampshire.

· In a ranking of states by incarceration rates for women, the highest is Oklahoma at 1st; Texas is 3rd, Florida is 15th, California is 27th, Illinois is 43rd, and New York is 45th.

· Almost one-third of all female prisoners in the US were held in three states—California, Texas, and Florida. The states with the next largest female incarcerated population were Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. The states with the smallest female incarcerated population were Vermont, Rhode Island, North Dakota, and Maine.

· Based on 2003 rates of custody (detained or committed) per 100,000 females under 18 years of age in the general population, the most punitive US states for girls were Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana, North Dakota, and Florida. The least punitive states were Vermont, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine, Illinois, and Rhode Island.

The imprisonment of women across the United States has repercussions in every aspect of society, including the huge costs of incarceration at the local and state levels, the splitting of communities and families, the tragic disruption at crucial developmental stages in the lives of thousands of children, and the unchecked deterioration of the physical and mental health of women in prison.

This report uses data from state and federal agencies—the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Corrections, US Census Bureau, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, among others.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, founded in 1907, is a nonprofit organization which promotes effective, humane, fair, and economically sound solutions to family, community, and justice problems. NCCD conducts research, promotes reform initiatives, and seeks to work with individuals, public and private organizations, and the media to prevent and reduce crime and delinquency.

Fact Sheet: http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2007_MPS_factsheet.pdf

Indigenous Latin Americans push for change in coca policies

June 18, 2007
By Lisa Garrigues

SAN FRANCISCO - A little green leaf is causing big changes in Latin America.

To the U.S. government, the coca leaf is the central ingredient in cocaine, a dangerous and profitable drug that needs to be eradicated at its source: the coca fields of South America.

But to many Latin American indigenous people, the coca leaf is a medicine which they say should not only be allowed for traditional use, but rather promoted on the international market for its curative benefits.

Bolivia's Aymaran president, Evo Morales, has led the way in the push to return the coca leaf to its place as medicine, which it held in the Andes for thousands of years.

Since taking office, he has reversed the U.S.-backed ''zero coca'' policy and begun a new program that would eliminate cocaine production but focus on developing coca as a medicinal and nutritional product for the international market, with the goal of eventually declassifying it in the United Nations as a narcotic.

In other countries where coca has formed a part of the traditional diet and culture but is now used to feed the multi-million-dollar cocaine market, indigenous people have found themselves going up against national governments that have historically cooperated with U.S.-backed eradication policies.

In May, indigenous groups in Colombia protested the government's decision to limit the sale of legal coca products like drinks and ointments that had previously been sold in commercial outlets throughout the country to indigenous territories.

''The coca leaf and the traditional products that come from it are aligned with the ancient culture of the indigenous people of Latin America,'' healer Carlos Mamanche recently told the Venezuelan television station Telesur. The medical uses of coca, he said, ''are thousands of years old, older than Colombia, older than the United States who is behind all this.''

U.S. government officials have complained that despite Plan Colombia, more coca destined for cocaine production is being produced than ever before.

On May 14, Native groups in Argentina presented a proposal to the National Congress which would recognize coca on a national level for its ''importance in medicinal, nutritional, ritual, religious and social value.'' They claim corrupt government officials look the other way in sales of large amounts, but sellers of small amounts of coca are penalized.

In Peru, some 60,000 families depend upon coca production -much of it destined for the illegal market - for their livelihood. Efforts by President Alan Garcia to toughen coca eradication policies in April were met by resistance from coca farmers, who blocked roads in protest.

Peru, like Bolivia and Colombia, allows for the cultivation of the coca leaf for traditional and medicinal use.

A 1975 Harvard study found that coca is rich in iron, phosphorous, calcium, vitamin A and riboflavin. In 1995, the World Health Organization recommended further study of its potential health benefits.

Traditionally, coca, a mild stimulant and appetite suppressant, was one of the staples of the Incan and Aymaran culture. Spanish missionaries called the plant an agent of the devil, but Spanish landowners gave coca to the Indians they enslaved to make them work harder.

Today, indigenous people in the Andes continue to consider ''Mama Coca'' a sacred plant, a crucial part of a ceremony and ritual honoring Mother Earth and the spirits of the mountains.

Coca leaves are chewed or allowed to dissolve in the mouth, and are often combined with a mixture of an alkaline substance.

It is also used as a medicinal tea for stomach problems and altitude sickness, and as an anesthetic for wounds.

Critics of the U.S. eradication program say attempting to stop cocaine trafficking and addiction by eradicating coca is like eliminating barley or grapes to stop alcoholism. They emphasize that the coca leaf needs to be considered separately from cocaine in the international arena.

U.S. government officials disagree.

''There's really only one good use for the coca leaf in economic terms, and that's cocaine,'' the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, told The Associated Press.

On his recent visit to Colombia, President Bush promised to add billions more in coca eradication assistance to the $6 billion already spent on Plan Colombia.

The United States consumes about 50 percent of the 600 metric tons of cocaine produced annually.

Source URL: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415214&na=730

Hat's off to Drug Policy Alliance!!

6/26 ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR LOW-INCOME WOMEN?

The Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy
McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies
University of Massachusetts - Boston

And

The Massachusetts Women's Legislative Caucus


Invite You

To Attend the Release of a Research Report:

ACCESS TO EDUCATION FOR LOW-INCOME WOMEN?
A CASE-STUDY OF WELFARE RECIPIENTS IN BOSTON

June 26, 2007
State House
Boston
Room B-2
(Enter through Bowdoin Street entrance)
2:00-3:30 p.m.
(Refreshments will be provided)

The research examines the effects of changes in Massachusetts welfare policy in 2003 and 2004 that permitted welfare recipients to include education and training in their mandatory work activities.

Welfare recipients, as well as key administrators in welfare, workforce development, and education, contributed valuable information to this study.

--Presentation of Research Findings and Recommendations
--Commentary on the research from key state welfare, workforce, and education administrators
--Opportunity for audience comments and questions

Co-sponsors: Black Legislative Caucus; Boston Legislative Caucus; Support for Outreach: Survivors, Inc.

Please RSVP by June 21th to Alkia Powell, Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy, 617-287-5541 or Alkia.powell@umb.edu

Parole Board pick is under fire

Milton officer is called unqualified
By John Ellement, Globe Staff
June 13, 2007

Prisoner rights advocates are mounting a last-ditch effort to derail the nomination of a Milton police officer for a seat on the Parole Board, which critics say already has too many people with law enforcement backgrounds.

The Governor's Council is to vote today on the nomination of Mark A. Conrad, and advocates were using e-mail and telephone calls yesterday to generate opposition to the Milton resident who volunteered during the gubernatorial campaign, doing some advance work for Patrick.

"I have nothing against Mr. Conrad as a person; he sounds like a wonderful person," said Patricia Garin, a Boston lawyer who teaches a clinic on parole for convicted murderers at Northeastern University Law School. "But he does not have the education, training, and experience to do this job."

Public Safety Secretary Kevin M. Burke said Conrad's perceptive nature, experience in law enforcement, and commitment to helping youth through Morningstar Baptist Church in Mattapan make him qualified for the job. The position pays about $75,000 annually.

Burke said that Patrick, who also lives in Milton, did not promote Conrad's candidacy and that no one from Patrick's campaign organization recommended him for a seat on the seven-member parole board. Burke said that a friend of his, whom he would not identify, brought Conrad to his attention and that he had to persuade Conrad to seek the post.

"There is no campaign connection; there is no promise," Burke said. "It's just a wonderfully qualified individual . . with a gift to listen, to understand people, and to really examine their character."

According to state records and the administration, Conrad owns Wescon Personal Protection Inc., a private security firm based in Randolph. Burke said Conrad did "a small amount" of advance work for the campaign but did not provide armed protection.

Burke said that when he told Patrick about Conrad's nomination, the governor indicated he knew who Conrad was, but "it was clear they weren't close friends."

Conrad could not be reached for comment yesterday. Burke said the police officer, who testified last week at a confirmation hearing before the Governor's Council, would not talk publicly until after the panel decides today.

"He wants his testimony [at the confirmation hearing] to stand on its own two feet," Burke said. "I think that's appropriate."

Garin and Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, said the board badly needs new members with backgrounds in mental health and social services to help evaluate prisoners with emotional and psychiatric disorders. They said that the state law creating the Parole Board intends that members have expertise in behavioral sciences. "No one on the Parole Board has the knowledge to be able to assess the potential for successful reentry of a mentally ill prisoner," Walker said.

During Conrad's confirmation hearing last week, Mary-Ellen Manning, a member of the Governor's Council, said she peppered Conrad about his qualifications and the parole philosophy of the new administration.

"He kept saying to me if I just opened my heart and saw what a good person he was that I would see that he would do a good job," Manning said. "That's an unsatisfactory response when we are dealing with public safety."

Manning would not say how she would vote, but said she expects
Conrad's nomination to be approved.

4th Friday Event

Through Barbed Wire Presents:

And Still We Rise!

A compelling, theatrical telling of authentic personal stories by those directly affected by the criminal justice system


Join us and bring friends on
June 22, 2007, 7 to 9:30 pm
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston Street
Boston MA 02116
(Copley Square T Stop)

Refreshments will be available/Contributions greatly appreciated

Event information: (617) 576-5367
Website: http://www.throughbarbedwire.com/
Email: throughbarbedwire@yahoo.com
Venue information: Jason - (617) 266-6710; http://www.commchurch.org/

Please join us every fourth Friday of the month!

Through Barbed Wire was created by Arnie King to (re)establish and maintain ties to our neighborhoods and to offer and provide genuine service to society. Due to the heavy chains around our hands and feet, as well as CORI and other stigmas, such efforts face severe restrictions. These obstacles can be lessened, and eventually eliminated, with virtues of honesty, open-mindedness and willingness flowing through barbed wire into the community.

2 IMPORTANT Announcements

We have 2 very important SHaRC announcements:

1. Testimony by SHaRC members and others supporting HB1723 (the Moratorium Bill) is now available on our website: www.MassDecarcerate.org. There is a linke to the testimony information right from our homepage.

2. A location for our SHaRC meeting on 6/27 at 6:30pm has been confirmed. We will meet at the Community Church of Boston. CCB is located at 565 Boylston St. in the Copley Sq section of Boston.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

-SHaRC

Re HB1723 testimony, next SHaRC meeting

Dear friends and colleagues,

The long path we stepped onto 5 years ago--to stop the Chicopee jail for women and to reverse the trend of wasted funds and ruined lives, continues. This is a long term job. On occasion we must stop to catch our breath and then move forward again.

Within a few days testimony in support of H.B. 1723 (a truly historic step), calling for a 5 year moratorium on jail and prison construction and expansion, will be on our web site. We'll let you know when it's up.

Our next SHaRC meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 27th at 6:00 PM (tenative location Community Church of Boston - we will confirm.)

If you'd like to get a jump on getting ready to work on this campaign please see the testimony on the fabulous SHaRC web site. Feedback is appreciated.

Hope to see on June 27th.

For Justice,
SHaRC
http://www.massdecarcerate.org/
info@MassDecarcerate.org

Whittier Men's Health Center will host its annual "Healthier Families: Men's Health Summit

On Saturday, June 16th, The Whittier Men's Health Center will host its annual "Healthier Families: Men's Health Summit" at UMass Boston from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

During the event, Haywood Fennel, Sr. of the Clean Slate Project will read from his play "Lights Out" about prison and HIV.

The Summit will honor five men with the Health Champions Award for their tireless efforts to eliminate health disparities among men. This year's recipients are Councilor Chuck Turner; Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, John Auerbach; Chief Financial Officer of Whittier Street Health Center, John Reardon; McKenzie and Associates attorney and Summit Chairman, Joseph D. Feaster, Jr.; and the Mayor of Cambridge, Kenneth E. Reeves.

Workshops during the summit will include: Parenting/Fatherhood, Let's Talk About It- Prostate Cancer, HIV/AIDS Education and Discussion, The Impact of Hip-Hop Culture, Health Reform Presentation, Financial Literacy, Child Support Education and Discussion, and Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Education.