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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. You are invited to submit comments and information for inclusion on either site to valhymes@aol.com.
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President Signs Second Chance Act into Law; President Bush signed into law the Second Chance Act April 9, making it official – that criminal justice corrections as we know it, should be changed dramatically. A bipartisan, broadly supported coalition of politicians, prosecutors, law enforcers, public defenders, organizations and faith groups pushed steadily for four years to change the high recidivism statistics; to lower the billions in costs and return ex-offenders permanently to their families and communities. As he signed the bill, the president said, “The Second Chance Act says we’re standing with you, not against you.” In the room with him was a man named Thomas Boyd, 53, who volunteered for the Jericho Program in Baltimore, operated by the Episcopal Community Services of Maryland associated with the Diocese of Maryland with a faith-based grant from the Department of Labor. The ex-offenders must volunteer themselves to be considered for the reentry program. Read or hear the speech; see photos: www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080409-2.html The focus now turns back to Congress, which must appropriate funds to pay for the many programs included in the law. It is critically important to push hard for funding with those serving on appropriations subcommittees. Senate: Mikulski (D-MD), Chair; Inouye (D-HI); Leahy (D-VT); Kohl (D-WI); Harkin (D-IA); Dorgan (D-ND); Feinstein (D-CA); Reed (D-RI); Lautenberg (D-NJ); Shelby (R-AL), Ranking Member; Gregg (R-NH); Stevens (R-AL); Domenici (R-NM); McConnell (R-KY); Hutchison (R-TX); Brownback (R-KS); Alexander (R-TN) Phone: 202-224-3121 House: Mollohan (D-WV), Chair; Kennedy (D-RI); Fattah (D-PA); Ruppersberger (D-MD); Schiff (D-CA); Honda (D-CA); DeLauro (D-CT); Price (D-NC); Frelinghuysen (R-NJ), Ranking Member; Culberson (R-TX); Rogers (R-KY); Latham (R-IA); Aderholt (R-AL). Phone: 202-225-3121 Personal contact with the Member of Congress by calling is the most effective way to reach them; the next is a letter faxed to the congressional office. If you know supporters of the Second Chance Act in the states or districts of those subcommittees, ask them to contact that member to urge support. The Second Chance Act includes key elements of President Bush's Prisoner Reentry Initiative, announced in the 2004 State of the Union address, which provides for community and faith-based organizations to deliver mentoring and transitional services. The bill will also help connect people released from prison and jail to mental health and substance abuse treatment, expand job training and placement services, and facilitate transitional housing and case management services. Why is the Second Chance Act so important? Read about it here. Read this New York Times Editorial A Second Chance With prison costs soaring, many states are understandably desperate for ways to cut recidivism and increase the chances that newly released prisoners build viable lives. The Second Chance Act, signed into law by President Bush last month, would galvanize the re-entry effort, providing the states with money and guidance. Now Congress must appropriate the promised dollars. Some states are already leading the way. In Illinois — where the inmate population has doubled since the late 1980s — Gov. Rod Blagojevich has begun a promising re-entry program that could become a national model. The comprehensive plan includes drug treatment, job training and placement and a variety of community-based initiatives designed to help newly released inmates forge successful postprison lives. Illinois is also revamping its parole system by hiring more parole officers and changing regulations so that parolees who commit lesser violations are dealt with in their community — with counseling, drug treatment or more vigilant monitoring — rather than being reflexively sent back to prison. The state is working with Chicago’s Safer Foundation to provide job training and placement for people just out of prison. Parole-based reforms are also proving effective in Texas and Kansas. Both states have expanded drug treatment and other services and have seen a drop in parole revocations. Therapeutic programs that help ex-offenders reconnect with their families — while providing them with medical and mental health care — are also important. A fully funded Second Chance Act would help other states develop their own much-needed re-entry programs. The $330 million cost is a small price to pay to reduce prison populations and give more ex-offenders a better chance to make it on the outside. Supreme Court Okays Lethal Injection
Dem Governors Look For Ways to Manage 'Explosion'
Of Prisoners Leaving Jail
February 24, 2008 ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: A group of Democratic governors warned Saturday that a dramatic rise in the number of prisoners coming home over the next few years is one of four sociological trends that threaten to engulf the She was joined by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. The "reentry explosion" is one of four trends identified in The enormous increase in the number of ex-cons coming home over the next five years is an outgrowth of the tough-on-crime policies followed over the last two decades. "Twenty years ago, fewer than 700,000 people populated the entire state and federal prison system," says the report. "Next year, 700,000 people will be released from prison and 3.5 million will be released over the next five years." To address the "reentry explosion," The report also calls for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (E.I.T.C.) for single males without children. At present, the maximum EITC benefit for a single person without children is approximately $400 per year. It is over $4,000 for a single person with two children. "This gap needs to be narrowed," says the report, "to encourage single males to enter the workplace and choose a productive, rather than destructive path." "Because of the steps that we have taken both in terms of training in prison, looking at drug and alcohol programs, and partnering with communities' re-entry programs in big cities, where most of the inmates are returning, we have now been successful in flattening our prison population," said Sebelius. "We actually have fewer inmates today than we did when I came into office five years ago." Similar to the think tank's work on issues such as national security and abortion, "This is not about blaming society. The direct question we are trying to answer is what to do in the here and now about the 700,000 prisoners coming out right now every year," http://www.thirdway.org/press/release/55
And a few more updates:
Thanks to Sara J. Patemi of the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments: Crime rates, prison costs USA TODAY’s Charisse Jones cites some of the many reentry programs under way around the country. Money talks, it seems, where protests about warehousing have not. In 2004, it is estimated, corrections cost $61 billion and are climbing. So are the number released – in 2005: 698,000 -- and recidivism, now estimated at 68 percent returning behind bars within three years. "We are seeing really an unprecedented number of governors, state legislatures, mayors and county executives launching comprehensive prisoner re-entry initiatives," says Michael Thompson, director of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a national non-partisan policy resource center. "Returns to prisons are as high as they've ever been. … And that has a huge public safety impact and cost." States and cities taking action: • New Jersey next month will launch "Another Chance" to provide job training, health assistance and other services to 1,300 men and women who are newly incarcerated, within nine months of release or on parole and returning to Camden, Newark or Trenton. •California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation in May that will create at least 32 prisoner re-entry facilities, allowing inmates to spend the last 12 months of their sentences receiving anger management training, help finding jobs and other services. • Orlando will provide job training to ex-offenders on three public works projects, including the refurbishment of the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium. • Michigan has increased funding for its Prisoner ReEntry Initiative from to $33 million from $12 million, allowing it to expand from 15 metropolitan areas to the entire state by September 2008. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-13-excon_N.htm In Durham, N.C., The program requires participants to check in daily and meet monthly with an "interagency team" comprising members of law enforcement and center staff. That regimen begins while inmates are still in custody. The structure is important, said the center's director, Gudrun Parmer, because many aspects of an inmate's release (such as obtaining ID cards) can take weeks and should start as early as possible.
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Edited by Val Hymes 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. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.prisons29feb29,0,2057053.story 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://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/report_detail.aspx?id=35904 Fscinating op-ed piece in the Washington Post on the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the U.S. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/14/AR2008041402451.html
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://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2007/12/06/the-ex-con-next-door_print.htm Court: Prison Program Unconstitutional States cannot fund prison ministries with tax dollars, a federal appeals court has ruled, because doing so endorses religion, and violates the Constitutional separation of church and state. The case involves a Prison Fellowship Ministries program in Iowa. PFM applauds the fact that it can continue the program with private money because they say it works to change lives in nine programs in six states: Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas. The ruling has been appealed to the full bench. See the AP story by David Pitt Dec. 3. Read AP story at http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jduNcfKtwhqvFB09qTtQ3k2xnm- More News …. The Baltimore Sun recently ran a story saying that Maryland uses probation violations to convict those who have been acquitted of the same thing. www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimorecity/ A court says Pennsylvania cannot bar parolees from alcohol unless their crime was based on it. http://forensicpsychologist.blogspot.com/2007/12/blanket-ban-on-alcohol-verboten-court.html Mandatory Minimum The New York Times struck an editorial blow for basic fairness and judicial independence http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/opinion/ The Sentencing Project and Marc Mauer deserve a lot of credit for this. They are asking for contributions to continue the fight at: www.sentencingproject.org/Contribute.aspx /http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.juvey11dec11,0,3390965.story Releasing the elderly … bills tried in Illinois and Pennsylvania and used in Missouri … in your state? Let us know, please. From: Charles Sullivan <cure@curenational.org> Guidelines for the Illinois bill include: *Have to be age 50 and served 25 consecutive years to be eligible to submit petition to the sentencing court. Many researchers use 50 as age to define elderly in prison due to stress, medical care and pre prison life style. Recidivism rate for elderly much, much lower than any other group. Pennsylvania study indicated prisoners with age of those covered by HB 4154 was about 2%, *Bill includes a provision that a program similar to Impact of Crime on Victims Class (ICVC) program currently used in Missouri prison. Mothers of Murdered Children from metro East Louis area currently do restorative justice part of ICVC program in Missouri and are eager to do the same in Illinois. They are supportive of HB 4254 and will provide testimony as will Missouri prison officials. *HB 4154 will reduce IDOC expenditure by $70,000 for each prisoner who is released.” *Identify yourself as a member of Citizens for Earned Release (CER) and mention that our coalition can reach several thousand people. Mention Illinoisprisontalk as internet blog for information as well as CER website.” www.ilcer.org or www.illinoisprisontalk.com “…there is little if any scientific evidence of a causal relationship between crime rates and incarceration rates,” says James Austin, president of the JFA Institute and report co-author. :”There is no evidence that keeping people in prison longer makes us any safer.” And it is “financially wasteful.” “Unlocking America” calls for improving prison conditions by reducing overcrowding and expanding access to health care, academic and vocational programs and by lifting barriers to employment and restoring voting rights. It also calls for decriminalization of the possession and sale of recreational drugs, and claims that it would generate savings of $20 billion. Today, $60 billion is spent on corrections. The JFA Institute seeks research-based solutions to criminal justice issues. FinalCall.com quotes the Nation of Islam about the report’s findings, especially that blacks and minorities are imprisoned six times more often than whites. Abdullah Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam’s National Prison Ministry, offered a simple solution. “Give the Nation of Islam three years unhindered to teach the life-giving teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in the country’s prisons. We have a complete program to have our people totally freed to build a reality for ourselves,” he said. Adult System Said to Worsen A CDC report says juveniles tried as adults and sent to adult prisons come out to commit more violent crimes more often. www.cdc.gov. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/29/AR2007112901936.html Don’t give up on them Studies and polls say the public wants juveniles rehabilitated and not tried as adults. In Maryland, 14-year-olds can be handled as adult criminals. Our state is trying what has been successful in Missouri, but it seems to be an uphill struggle. The public wants us to try.
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