| |
|---|
PRISON MINISTRY NETWORK NEWS is a service of the Prison Ministry Task Force of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. THE TASK FORCE WEB SITE contains more information and features about prison ministry, including an extensive list of local and national programs and resources in prison ministry, reentry, criminal justice reform, death penalty reform and victims/families. See also news about Camp Amazing Grace for children of the incarcerated and about a new network for camp volunteers on the Episcopal Church Jubilee page. You are invited to submit comments and information for inclusion on either site to valhymes@aol.com.
|
The Justice System Is Sending But States Seek Ways to Reverse Revolving Door
Correspondent Phil Jones visited ERIC CADORA (Director, Justice Mapping Center): The current overuse and overdependence on criminal justice is a complete failure. It’s having no impact on these issues of public safety and crime. That’s not to say there isn’t a need for a level of criminal justice. But this radical overuse is not accomplishing those goals. Cadora said he found about 150 blocks in New York City where the authorities were spending more than a million dollars a year just to send people back and forth from prisons upstate to the neighborhood than back to prison again. GREG JACKSON (Community Activist): Incarceration is not just the individual going to jail, but it’s the whole family going to jail, for Brownsville. Everybody’s suffering from it. There are no reentry programs to help them get jobs or kick drug habits or find housing -- especially when felons are not allowed to live in public housing.
Mr. CADORA: Let us take the investments that had been built up over the years from criminal justice, redirect them to investments in civil institutions in those neighborhoods — better schools, better health care, better mental health support, and so on. In many of the states where the Justice Reinvestment initiative has taken root, prison populations are either dropping or the trend line in growth has been radically reduced, and that’s from Connecticut to Kansas — liberal to conservative. In Kansas, when they found that 60-65 percent were being sent back to prison because of a parole or [probation revocation, the legislature turned it around. JONES: That was the case in Kansas, so legislators passed a new law — a new direction —committing taxpayer dollars to cities and communities that change parole and probation regulations that'll reduce the prison population by 20 percent. Mr. CALDORA: That’s kind of what the reinvestment project is about. It’s about saying, “Look, if you can reduce it, we’ll give you the money to keep reducing it.” Frank Dunbaugh, director of the, Maryland Justice Policy Institute, has been saying that for years. And he repeated it to the Maryland Secretary of Public Safety and Correctional Services Gary D. Maynard, at a meeting several early this spring. Maynard's reply was that he is putting into place a new policy. When ex-offenders violate parole or probation, they will be turned over to the Department of Parole and Probation for discipline and not sent back to the prison facilities. Sen. Webb Calls America’s Criminal Bill Calls for Commission to ‘Reshape’ System Sen. James Webb (Democrat of Virginia) has introduced the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 to “bring together the best minds in America to confer, report, and make concrete recommendations about how we can reform the process.” He said, “ America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives. “The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 will create a blue-ribbon commission to look at every aspect of our criminal justice system with an eye toward reshaping the process from top to bottom. I believe that it is time to bring together the best minds in America to confer, report, and make concrete recommendations about how we can reform the process. “Why We Urgently Need this Legislation: -- With 5% of the world's population, our country now houses 25% of the world's reported prisoners. -- Incarcerated drug offenders have soared 1200% since 1980. -- Four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals. -- Approximately 1 million gang members reside in the U.S., many of them foreign-based; and Mexican cartels operate in 230+ communities across the country. -- Post-incarceration re-entry programs are haphazard and often nonexistent, undermining public safety and making it extremely difficult for ex-offenders to become full, contributing members of society. Fact Sheet -- http://webb.senate.gov/email/incardocs/FactSheeti.pdf "WHAT'S WRONG WITH OUR PRISONS?" asks Senator Webb on the front cover of Parade Magazine March 29. The issue is worth tracking down at your library because he dominates the issue with the subject of the lead article, "Why We Must Fix Our Prisons."
www.parade.com/news/2009/03/why-we-must-fix-our-prisons.htm
Maryland Episcopal Bishop Eugene T. Sutton (second from left) joins religious leaders of all denominations and Gov. Martin O'Malley (second from right) and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (right) in a march on the State House to support a bill banning the state's death penalty. The repeal failed but severe restrictions were placed on cases involving capital punishment. Religious Community Leads Fight By Val Hymes The Episcopal Church is not only taking to the streets to fight for an end to the death penalty; it is now fighting smarter. Legislation in at least 11 states calls for a repeal of the death penalty and two others want a moratorium with a study, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Bills are moving forward in New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Montana and Nebraska. Bills also have been introduced in New Hampshire, Washington, Connecticut, Illinois and New Hampshire. Maryland’s bill was amended to restrict the use of the death penalty. Alaska, on the other hand, has a bill in to reinstate the death penalty and Georgia is trying to broaden its reach. A bill passed by the Virginia Assembly specifying additional offenses as eligible for the death penalty was recently vetoed by Gov. Timothy Kaine. In Maryland, Bishop Eugene T. Sutton marched with other religious leaders and the governor through the streets of Annapolis to the State Capitol to call on the legislature to repeal the law. The Senate, however, scratched the repeal and called for more proof of guilt for death sentences. The bishop said that will not stifle his opposition. “I vow to continue the struggle to end the death penalty without restrictions,” he said. “If the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s has taught us anything, it is that nonviolence is still the most powerful weapon that we have to deter the evil of violence and murder…more powerful than the electric chair, more effective than a lethal injection. State-sponsored killing is not going to end the cycle of violence that we all decry.”At the same time, Episcopalians were urged to contact their legislators and they are doing it across the nation. “The religious community across the board has taken up the mantle on this issue,” said Diann Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to End the Death Penalty (NCADP). “They are stepping up their moral leadership, encouraging their parishioners to put their faith in action.” It is made easy for them to contact their legislators and governors by going to the Web site of a local affiliate. In Maryland, it’s Citizens Against State Executions (CASE) and clicking on “Take Action.” In New Mexico, it’s the New Mexico Coalition to Repeal the Death Penalty (NMCADP); in Colorado, Coloradans Against the Death Penalty (CADP). NACDP has affiliates in every state and works closely with them when legislation is pending. This new bolder activism was reflected in a 2007 “Clergy Voices” survey of mainline Protestant clergy by Public Religion Research released March 6. It found that 81 percent of the Episcopal clergy surveyed supported an end to capital punishment, compared with 66 percent overall. The national church has formally opposed the death penalty for the last fifty years. The Roman Catholic Church, said Rust-Tierney, has responded with the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty. “We are using technology to make it easier” for people to speak to their lawmakers and governors. Maryland ’s bill is “a significant step,” she said. “Narrowing the death penalty is a recognition that we need to change, that it doesn’t work. It is a serious indictment of the death penalty.” As it moved – no longer a repeal -- to the Maryland House of Delegates, Bishop Sutton’s words echoed outside the State House, “I implore all of our legislators, follow your conscience.” +++ Val Hymes is coordinator of the Prison Ministry Task Force, Diocese of Maryland. To locate state affiliates: www.NCADP.org Clergy Fights Death Penalty The church waded into the death penalty issue with op-ed pieces in The Washington Post by the Bishop of Maryland, Eugene Taylor Sutton, and the Bishop of Washington, John Bryson Chane: “A Moral Test for Maryland Legislators”, and in the Baltimore Sun by the Suffragan Bishop of Maryland, John R. Rabb, and the Bishop of Easton, James “Bud” Shand.: “Execution Isn't Path to a Peaceful Society.” www.ang-md.org An interfaith group of clergy – Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Jewish -- also spoke out at a a news conference Jan. 14 and signed a letter to the governor and General Assembly urging the end of the death penalty, saying, “Common to all of us are the sanctity of life and forgiveness.” There were 37 executions in the nation last year. Live from Death Row 150 Hear Troy Davis on Georgia’s Death Row – Mike Stark of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP) writes: Last night, over 150 people turned-out at American University (AU) to hear a live phone conversation with Georgia death row prisoner, Troy Davis. The event, a stop of the "Live from Death Row" national tour organized by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty (CEDP), was locally sponsored by AU's Justice Not Jails and Black Student Alliance. It also featured in-person appearances by Troy Davis' sister Martina Corriea and former death row prisoner and Black Panther Lawrence Hayes (who later told his own story of wrongful incarceration on New York’s death row). The audience was visibly moved as Troy described his ongoing struggle for justice and the daily horrors of living in death row. "When Troy told his story, I felt I was back there with him," Lawrence said. As audience members handed around a model Troy had created of his tiny cell on death row, he described how he refused to abandon hope even during his darkest hours as he endured the macabre rituals and humiliations as he was prepared for execution on three separate occasions. He described undergoing dehumanizing medical exams and the sick-routine of having to submit details for his own funeral. Troy described how he could see the death chamber from his holding cell and during his 'final' visits with family and friends, both he and Martina recalled how correctional staff wept along with the Davis family as they gave were their final goodbyes. But far from having been beaten down by these inhuman experiences, Troy’s dignified and optimistic voice was an inspiration to everyone in the room. He was generous in his thanks to all his supporters and reminded the audience that the struggle against the death penalty went beyond the details of his own case…. "The answer [to crime] is not killing," Lawrence instructed the audience, "You need to start with human beings. When people are taken care of, the rest will take care of itself." http://nodeathpenalty.org/content/index.php
By end of 2006, one in every 31 adults: 7.2 million were in the adult correctional population;.. At the end of 2007, 5.1 million adults were out on parole or probation. Now, at the end of 2008, how many will go back inside? RTwo-thirds arfe expected to be rearrested within three years, and they will be responsibler for 10 million new crimes by 2013. In 2009, 700,000 will be released and 3.5 million will return to their communities over the next five years . http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pandp.htm WASHINGTON - The U.S. adult correctional population -- incarcerated or in the community -- reached 7.2 million men and women, an increase of 159,500 during the year(2006), the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today in a new report. About 3.2 percent of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults, was in the nation's prisons or jails or on probation or parole at the end of 2006. The number of men and women who were being supervised on probation or parole in the United States at year-end 2006 reached 5 million for the first time, an increase of 87,852 (or 1.8 percent) during the year. A separate study found that on December 31, 2006, there were 1,570,861 inmates under state and federal jurisdiction, an increase of 42,932 (or 2.8 percent) in 2006. During 2006 the number of inmates under state jurisdiction rose by 37,504 (2.8 percent). The number of prisoners under federal jurisdiction rose by 5,428 (2.9 percent). In 2006 the number of prisoners in the 10 states with the largest prison populations increased by 3.2 percent, which was more than three times the average annual growth rate (0.9 percent) in these states from 2000 through 2005. These states accounted for 65 percent of the overall increase in the U.S. prison population during 2006. The federal system remained the largest prison system with 193,046 inmates under its jurisdiction. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/p06ppus06pr.htm Collateral Consequences and Barriers: The Hamilton Project of the Brookings Institution hosted Dec. 5 at the National Press Club a policy discussion on the challenges of prisoner reentry, featuring remarks by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and a keynote address by U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.). The event also included a policy roundtable with a diverse group of experts on the need for a national prisoner reentry strategy. One idea is to put ex-offenders into a year of transitional employment in community service. http://www.brookings.edu/events/2008/1205_prison_to_work.aspx Relief from Collateral Consequences of Criminal Convictions State by State: The Sentencing Project has listed some of the consequences and how to mitigate them. Talk to your legislators about what you find in your state. http://sentencingproject.org/PublicationDetails.aspx?PublicationID=486 Reentry is spreading across the country as states recognize that the cost of corrections can exceed the cost of colleges A Google “reentry” alert in one day brought up programs in Rhode Island, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Minnesota that work to provide jobs, drug counseling, housing and mentors to ex-offenders. Federal Prisons Offer
|
Edited by Val Hymes
As the full court press for funds for the Second Chance Act came to a head, the chief sponsor, Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL), sponsored a special symposium April 1 to highlight what states and cities want to do with reentry funds if they are approved. The Second Chance State and Local Reentry Initiative Symposium on Capitol Hill focused on half a dozen state and city corrections officials and eight bipartisan congressional supporters. They planned to spell out what they believe those programs in the new reentry law can do to make corrections more efficient and less costly and neighborhoods safer if the money can be found. Attendees were also to hear from Gary Dennis, the Justice Department point man in the Bureau of Justice Assistance about fund solicitation requirements and deadlines. The Second Chance Act, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law in April 2008, authorizes $165 million for programs that will improve coordination of reentry services and policies at the state and local levels. While advocates are pressing for full funding, President Obama included $75 million in his budget for SCA. Officials taking part in the symposium were: Jerry Madden, Texas State Representative Deanne Benos, Illinois Assistant Director of Corrections, Secretary Rick Raemisch, Wisconsin Department of Correction Commissioner Martin F. Horn, New York City Department of Correction Bonnie Cosgrove, Maryland Public Safety & Correctional Services Dennis Schrantz and Michigan Deputy Director, Planning & Community Development. The new law includes a $55 million program for Adult and Juvenile Offender State and Local Reentry Demonstration Projects, which improve coordination of reentry initiatives and implement evidence-based practices. The Second Chance Act also authorizes a $15 million program for Mentoring Grants to Nonprofit Organizations, which provide mentoring and other transitional services to adult and juvenile offenders reentering the community. State and local governments and nonprofit organizations around the country are eager to launch innovative reentry programs, and families and communities are desperate to access the services the Second Chance Act will provide. Why Was the Second Chance Act So Important? Urban League Asks Obama By JESSE WASHINGTON – March 24. NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama should specifically address disparities in black unemployment, foreclosures, education and health care, the National Urban League says in its annual "State of Black America" report. Despite the progress represented by the election of the first black president, blacks are twice as likely to be unemployed, three times as likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated, says the report, which was being released Wednesday. Read the full story at http://tinyurl.com/czufd9 Shocking New Numbers 1 in 100 Adults Now in Prison New High in U. S. Prison Numbers All over the country, the report of the Pew Center on the States made the lead story. Talk about “shock and awe.” The 50 states alone spent more than $49 billion on corrections. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending. The study, done by a recognized organization, notes that the costs of corrections is now $11 billion more than it was 20 years ago, and that fact is making the states consider reentry programs despite the fear of looking “soft on crime.” Republican support of the Second Chance Act is a sign that this message of cost is a strong one. Read more: http://tinyurl.com/b2wehg
The Barriers Outside There are also “Invisible Punishments – the Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment” as spelled out by co-editor Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project in his book. The magazine notes: Some states, including New York, have laws restricting employers from considering of criminal records in hiring, but many others do not. Ex-cons are further handicapped because employers can now easily gain access to criminal offender databases when they are performing background checks. The Army, for example, found that more than 8,000 of its new recruits last year had criminal histories. It granted them waivers, but other professions are off limits to ex-cons—teaching and child-care work, of course, but also embalming, limousine driving, firefighting, and haircutting. Senator Leahy of Vermont, chief sponsor of the Second Chance Act in the Senate, is also concerned about these collateral consequences. http://tinyurl.com/atwqha Can a Parolee
|
|---|
