• 30Mar

  The myth of the Rockefeller-drug-laws repeal

  Prison State No Comments

  Don’t be fooled when people tell you that the Rockefeller minimums got overturned!!  This article is a MUST READ!!

  The myth of the Rockefeller-drug-laws repeal

  

  http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/55693/

  If you glanced at the Times last Thursday, you might think Governor Paterson and state legislators had finally woken up and decided to wipe the Rockefeller drug laws off the books. Albany reaches deal to repeal ’70s drug laws, declared the page-one-above-the-fold story. Well, not exactly. By Friday morning, when the governor held a press conference on the proposed changes to the laws, it had become increasingly apparent that “repeal” was not the right word.

   

  Back in 1973, when Governor Nelson Rockefeller hatched the idea of punishing drug users and sellers with stiff mandatory sentences, Mayor John Lindsay denounced his plan as “merely a deceptive gesture offering nothing beyond momentary satisfaction and inevitable disillusionment.” The most egregious injustices were the fifteen- and twenty-to-life sentences handed down for first-time drug crimes—more time than for kidnapping or rape or manslaughter.

   

  Fast-forward 36 years, and opponents are still battling to undo these laws. They managed to eke out a few small reforms in 2004 and 2005. And now this latest plan will enable judges to send some nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of prison—which sounds good, but of course the devil is always in the details. Last week, details were hard to come by. How many people are we really talking about? (The governor’s office says it doesn’t yet know, but the Correctional Association, a prison-watchdog group, estimates that it would have affected fewer than half of those now locked up on drug charges.) And what if you’re not an addict at all? What if it’s not treatment you need but a high-school degree and a job? Do you have to feign addiction to avoid prison?

   

  What remains untouched is the basic punishment structure of the laws. Of the 11,936 prisoners doing time for a drug crime in New York State’s prisons at the start of this year, the largest group—a total of 4,949—were sentenced for class-B felonies. Selling only one bag of heroin or one vial of crack still qualifies as a B felony. While the new proposal would empower judges to send first-time B felons to treatment instead of prison, for those who fail to complete treatment or were never addicts in the first place, the punishment remains the same: one to nine years in prison. (And for those with a prior record, there is no shot at treatment; it’s a minimum of three and a half to twelve years.)

   

  The momentum that triggered these latest reforms can be traced back to 1998, when a ragtag group of prisoners’ relatives started holding weekly vigils outside Rockefeller Center, carrying placards with photos of their loved ones. But when the group’s leader, Randy Credico, the son of a prisoner, watched Paterson’s press conference, he was not happy. He worries that overselling this proposal creates the illusion that the problem has been solved, and makes it that much more difficult to revisit the issue. “They came up with an agreement to get people to stop complaining,” he says. “It’s not sweeping. It’s misleading advertising. These guys may as well be selling used cars.”

  Tags: New York, Prison State

• 26Mar

  KKK flag flies in an Illinois backyard

  Racism No Comments

  Would you want to look at this flag every time you walk down the street?!  This article is about more than just a KKK flag in a backyard, because obviously that in itself is nothing knew in America!  Notice how the dude uses immigrant-bashing to justify the racist flag.  It’s almost as if he’s trying to imply that the KKK or today isn’t racist, just anti-immigrant!! 

  KKK flag flies in an Illinois backyard

   

  http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-kkk-flag-oquawka,0,2651281.story

  OQUAWKA, Illinois – How would you feel if you saw a flag flying high everyday that simply said KKK. The people of Oquawka see one everyday.

  One of the rights our veterans fought and died for was freedom of speech and from this Veteran’s Memorial in Oquawka I can see right across the street someone flying a KKK flag

  This banner of three letters stands for the Ku Klux Klan. A secret society organized in the South after the civil war to reassert white supremacy by means of terrorism. But the flag’s owner, Rebel Ruberg, says that’s not the message he is sending.

  “The Klan is not as bad as people say they are what they’ve done in the past is said and done. What people need to do now is wake up and realize we need to watch our borders.”

  And if that modern take on the kkk sounds surprising to you, Rebel goes on.

  “I’m not a necessarily what people consider a racist, a racist. I’ve got black friends, I’ve got Mexican friends and I’ve got white friends so obviously I’m not a racist.”

  What is obvious is what waves in the wind in his yard. And those three letters are associated with hate and hate crimes. But the Henderson County state’s attorney, Ray Cavanaugh, says by itself the flag is not a hate crime.

  “Threatening somebody or committing a criminal act like burning a cross on their front yard or battering somebody and say it’s because of your race or something like that.”

  So I asked Ruberg do his KKK beliefs extend beyond his flag, “People don’t need to be fearful of violence or anything like that coming from you?”

  He said, “It’s just an expression that’s all it is.”

  “As the state’s attorney says it’s not a crime to have that flag flying and people in town tell me they’re not bothered by it and stopping by the sheriff’s office they say there’s been no formal complaints.”

  Tags: Illinois, Racism

• 26Mar

  Chicago police officer cleared in fatal shooting of teen in 2007

  Police Brutality No Comments

  Police shoot this young man in the back and the killing is justified?!  Aaron Harrison was killed basically for running away, trying to be free.

  Chicago police officer cleared in fatal shooting of teen in 2007

  

  http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=33074

  When 18-year-old Aaron Harrison was shot in the back neighborhood residents took to the streets. They marched on the local police station and they continued to march during the following days.

  Now, a year and a half later, the Independent Police Review Authority has concluded its investigation into the incident. IPRA found the shooting was justified because the officer reasonably feared for his life.

  Officers had pulled their car over because they say Harrison was tugging at his waistband, a sign that someone might have a weapon. When they tried to question him, he ran causing further suspicion.

  The officer who fired the fatal shot said Harrison pointed a gun at him. Most of the witnesses say they never saw Harrison with a gun but one witness says he saw Harrison earlier on the day of the shooting with a gun matching the one found at the scene.

  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-harrison-cop-shootingmar26,0,5204243.story

  A Chicago police officer was cleared of wrongdoing for fatally shooting a teenager in 2007 after the youth allegedly pointed a gun at him, the agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct said Wednesday.

  The fatal shooting of Aaron Harrison, 18, prompted protests on the West Side and a lawsuit by his family, which contended he was unarmed and struck in the back as he ran away.

  The 32-year-old officer, whose name was not disclosed, was a nine-year veteran at the time of the shooting. He said he shot Harrison during a foot chase after Harrison pointed a gun at him in the North Lawndale area. Harrison had a long arrest record and a drug conviction.

  Ilana Rosenzweig, chief of the Independent Police Review Authority, said the investigation concluded that Harrison was armed based on a “preponderance of evidence.” The officer acted within departmental and state guidelines, believing his life was in danger, she said.

  Harrison’s mother, Annie Johnson, said she was not surprised by the results of the investigation, saying she believes the agency is only protecting the officer.

  Tags: Illinois, Police Brutality, police murders

• 26Mar

  SD settles with family of man shot by police

  Police Brutality No Comments

  This story shows how it all goes down, we get killed by the cops, the shooting is ruled justified, then (and this the best case scenario) we get a little money.  Instead of justice, we get money (if anything)…  welcome to capitalism.

  SD settles with family of man shot by police

  

  Jacob Richard Faust, murdered by police…. but “justified”…

  http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12000427

  SAN DIEGO—The city of San Diego has agreed to pay $325,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a 25-year-old man police shot and killed when he reached for a toy gun during a traffic stop.

  The City Council unanimously approved the settlement in the wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday.

  Jacob Richard Faust was pulled over for making an illegal left turn on April 4, 2005. Police say he scuffled with two officers before reaching behind his van’s front passenger seat and pulling out the toy gun. One of the officers fired three times and killed him.

  Faust’s family has disputed the officers’ account.

  They say Faust used the toy gun as a prop in a puppet show.

  The district attorney concluded that the shooting was legally justified.

  HERE ARE SOME FACTS ON THE CASE FROM ANOTHER WEBSITE

  On April 4, 2005, two months after his 25th birthday, Jacob was shot to death by Stephen Holliday of the San Diego Police Department in what was supposed to be a routine traffic stop. There was a lot of misinformation put out at that time, some conjecture, some hearsay, some of it just plain wrong.

  These are facts that we know to be true at this point, as taken from POLICE RECORDS. This is not CONJECTURE. This is not somebody’s OPINION.

  Jacob was not under the influence. He was cited for an illegal left turn. He was also cited for throwing a cigarette butt out of the window while waiting for his ticket to be written.

  Brian Keaton, the officer who pulled Jacob over that night, did not call for backup; Stephen Holliday showed up on his own. Brian Keaton claims not to have seen the actual shooting.

  Jacob was sitting in his van for over 20 minutes after the traffic ticket had been written. He was said to have been smoking cigarettes and listening to music.

  None of the witnesses heard excessively loud music. Chantilly Lace by the Big Bopper was playing on the tape player.

  No witness claims to have heard or seen any argument between Jake and the police. The only thing heard, reported by every single witness, were the words, “get out of the van,” and then several gunshots immediately following that. No pause, no five or six seconds – the witnesses all said it was immediate.

  The toy gun the police have in “evidence” was removed from the scene and placed in the trunk of a police car by another officer who showed up within a minute of the shooting – before the homicide investigators arrived. There are no pictures of the toy gun in Jacob’s van. Jacob’s fingerprints are not on the toy gun None of Jake’s friends or family had ever seen this toy gun before.

  No evidence of pepper spray was found on Jacob’s body at autopsy.

  There were no attempts made by the police at resuscitation or to maintain his life support. Jake arrived at Mercy Hospital 20 minutes following the shooting. He was pronounced dead after two minutes. The cause of death was exsanguination; he bled to death.

  The police records list Jacob as having “no known address,” a term used for homeless or transients, despite the fact that his van was registered to 825 5th Avenue San Diego, just around the corner from the shooting. It took SDPD more than six hours to walk around the block and tell Jake’s family of his death, as they put it, “a series of unfortunate events that happened too quickly.”

  In the past 30 years not a single shooting by the San Diego Police Department has been found unjustified by the District Attorney’s office. The San Diego Police label and refer to some killings of those that are homeless, mentally ill, or prostitutes, as “NHI.” This stands for No Humans Involved.

  Jacob was a pacifist. He had no criminal history or history of violence. He never had an altercation with a police officer or anyone else.

  The San Diego Police Department has apparently been given license to kill, and they exercise that license quite frequently. The media applauds the town “heroes” for their protection, and more and more families are left devastated. It seems that protection in this town exists solely for those owners and patrons of high-end establishments and Stadium realty. How many more have to die and how long will the people of America’s Finest City continue to turn a deaf ear? They ought to be ashamed of themselves and at the same time not just a little afraid of a police state. We want Justice for Jake, as well as all others whose loved ones’ lives have been needlessly taken at the hands of our “protectors.”
  

  Tags: California, Police Brutality, police murders

• 25Mar

  Ex-prison guard who set up inmate beatings dies

  Crime, Prison State No Comments

  This article reiterates a lot of what we’ve been talking about.  The prison guards offered alcohol and other priveleges to inmates who would attack whoever the CO’s chose.  Who is the most powerful gang in the prisons?  The COs.

  Ex-prison guard who set up inmate beatings dies

  

  Inmates at Pelican Bay are at the CO’s mercy.

  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/25/BAI316M2IG.DTL

  (03-24) 17:42 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — A former California prison guard who was convicted in 2002 of setting up beatings and stabbings of inmates has died of cancer in federal prison, authorities said Tuesday.

  Jose Ramon Garcia, 55, died March 16 in the prison hospital in Butner, N.C., the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said. A preliminary report said the cause of death was non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

  A federal jury in San Francisco convicted Garcia and another guard, Michael Powers, in May 2002 of conspiring to violate the civil rights of as many as eight inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison from July 1992 to August 1996.

  Garcia was sentenced to more than six years in prison and Powers to seven years. They remained free on appeal, however, until September 2006.

  Prosecutors said the guards offered prisoners alcohol and other privileges to attack other inmates, targeting convicted child molesters, rapists and prisoners who would not cooperate with them.

  Garcia was convicted of state charges in 1998, but a judge overturned his conviction because of incompetence by his lawyer, Robert Noel.

  Later, Noel and his wife, Marjorie Knoller, were convicted of manslaughter in the dog-mauling death of a San Francisco woman. Both have served their sentences, but Knoller could be sent back to prison if she loses her appeal of a judge’s decision last year that reinstated her second-degree murder conviction.

  “In many respects he was a decent man. He cared about people,” Garcia’s lawyer, Matthew Pavone, said Tuesday.

  Tags: California, Prison State

• 25Mar

  Supreme Court refuses ex-Border Patrol agents’ appeal

  Immigration, Latin America, Mexico, Police Brutality No Comments

  We first reported on this story here.  The supreme court refused the appeal, but they’re free anyway… criminals pardoned by a criminal.  But that’s how it goes when you’re affiliated with the most powerful gang in the streets (the police).

  Supreme Court refuses ex-Border Patrol agents’ appeal

  

  These border patrol cops shot a man for nothing and then tried to cover it up.

  http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6333308.html

  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a fleeing drug smuggler and trying to cover it up.

  The high court refused to consider an appeal from Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

  The former agents were convicted in 2006 of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila near El Paso on the Texas-Mexico border. Investigators said the agents never reported the shooting and tried to cover it up by picking up several spent gun shells.

  Both former agents said they thought Aldrete was armed.

  Their conviction had been affirmed by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. They served two years in prison before getting their 10-year sentences commuted by President George W. Bush.

  Tags: Immigration, Police Brutality

• 25Mar

  Judge rejects returning prison care to state

  Healthcare, Prison State No Comments

  “…evidence in an inmate lawsuit showed that inadequate medical care at the state’s 33 prisons was killing at least one inmate a week.”

  Judge rejects returning prison care to state

  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/25/BAI316M314.DTL

  (03-24) 12:33 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s request to return health care in California prisons to state control Tuesday, ruling that a court-appointed overseer is still needed to restore basic medical treatment in the overcrowded and understaffed prisons.

  U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson in San Francisco said that although health care has improved under federal management since 2006, he has “no confidence that such improvements would continue, or even be maintained,” if the state regained control now.

  Federal management “is not and was never intended to be a permanent solution,” and will end as soon as the state shows it is able to run the system, the judge said.

  Henderson appointed a receiver to run the prison health system in 2006, saying evidence in an inmate lawsuit showed that inadequate medical care at the state’s 33 prisons was killing at least one inmate a week. State officials had shown themselves incapable of complying with the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the judge said.

  The current receiver, law Professor Clark Kelso, has submitted an $8 billion plan to build seven health centers for 10,000 prisoners and improve some existing medical centers. He said last month that only 5,000 new beds may be needed, at about half the cost.

  After the Legislature refused last year to approve bond funding for prison hospitals, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, and Attorney General Jerry Brown, a Democrat, asked Henderson to remove Kelso, arguing that his plan was too lavish and costly and that his appointment had been illegal.

  In response to Tuesday’s ruling, Kelso issued a statement saying he looks forward to “working collaboratively with state officials and agencies to achieve our shared goal of improving prison medical and health care to constitutional levels” and returning management to the state.

  State officials said they would ask an appeals court to overrule Henderson.

  “The federal receivership has become its own autonomous government, operating outside the normal checks and balances of state and federal law,” Brown said in a statement. “It is time for a dose of fiscal common sense.”

  The state has also appealed Henderson’s order requiring it to spend $250 million to renovate prison health centers under Kelso’s plan.

  In separate proceedings, a three-judge panel, including Henderson, has ruled that overcrowding at the prisons – now filled at twice their designed capacity of 80,000 – was the primary cause of inadequate health care, and has tentatively ordered the release of between 37,000 and 58,000 inmates to local custody, treatment programs or parole. Schwarzenegger plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  At a hearing in Henderson’s court last week, a state lawyer argued that federal law prohibits judges from appointing managers to take over state prison operations and also forbids judges from requiring prison construction.

  Attorney Paul Mello also said the state was spending $14,000 per inmate on health care each year, the most in the nation, and more than $2 billion on the system overall. Citing a reduction in inmate deaths, Mello said federal management was no longer needed.

  In Tuesday’s ruling, Henderson said federal law does not restrict judges’ authority to temporarily remove prison operations from state officials who have mismanaged them. He also noted that the state consented to the appointment of a receiver as early as 2005 and never objected until last summer.

  Kelso’s plan is expensive, Henderson said, but providing adequate health care in the nation’s largest prison system is costly, “and it is even more costly when the receivership must make up for the years of neglect by the state.”

  He noted, for example, what court experts found at San Quentin State Prison in 2005. A nursing office was located in a filthy room without medical equipment, an examination table, a sink or a telephone. A clogged shower drain outside the office left standing water outside the door. The previous nursing office had been in a broom closet.

  Tags: California, Healthcare, Prison State

• 23Mar

  I’m Not Going Back!!! – Parole Violator Shoots It Out With Cops

  Prison State No Comments

  This story is a story that was made for Malcolm-Che, as it is encumbant upon people like us to add the important context to this story. 

  Everyone knows about the shootout with the cops, but what drove this man to take the violent route?  The thought of returning to the California prison system.  Particularly in this case, Corcoran Prison – a prison where CO’s have been documented to use prison rape to conrol prisoners and also set up gladiator-type battles. 

  What made him so desperate?  As a convict he couldn’t find a job.   “Mixon’s uncle, 38-year-old Curtis Mixon of Fremont, said his nephew had become depressed because as a convicted felon he could not find work.”

  They tell us that prison is supposed to be horrible so it prevents people from wanting to go back!  I guess their strategy kind of backfired on this one. 

  Oakland police department stunned by day of loss

  

  This undated picture provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Lovelle Mixon. Police said the 26-year-old parolee wanted on a parole violation opened fire on two officers during a traffic stop Saturday afternoon.

  http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gd2xGykkCnfLhKopnaeC8-qYjWEAD973L66G1

  OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Bouquets of flowers from grieving residents were piled up at a growing memorial in front of the Oakland police department after its worst single day death toll.

  Three officers were killed Saturday during separate confrontations with a 26-year-old parolee who relatives said feared returning to jail. A fourth officer was on life support.

  “We lose officers about every 57 hours in this country,” said Chuck Canterbury, president of the national Fraternal Order of Police. “But seldom do you have one of this magnitude.”

  Oakland had never lost even two officers in the line of duty on the same day. Flags at the state capitol were flown at half-staff Sunday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returned from Washington, D.C., to meet briefly with Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and members of the police department.

  Police said all four officers were shot Saturday by Lovelle Mixon, 26, of Oakland, a parolee who fled after shooting the first two officers following a traffic stop, then shot two more after a SWAT team entered an apartment in which he was hiding. Mixon was killed by officers, police said.

  Mixon’s family gathered Sunday at his grandmother’s East Oakland home, where he had stayed on and off since being released from a nine-month sentence for a parole violation, family members said.

  LaTasha Mixon, 28, a cousin of the gunman, said her family’s prayers were with the slain officers’ relatives. “We’re devastated. Everybody took a major loss. We’re crushed,” she said.

  Mixon was wanted on a no-bail warrant for violating his parole when Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, and Officer John Hege, 41, both on motorcycles, stopped a 1995 Buick sedan in east Oakland just after 1 p.m., police said.

  The driver opened fire, killing Dunakin and gravely wounding Hege, Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said.

  Police initially issued a statement Sunday saying Hege had died but later backtracked, saying the officer had been declared brain dead but remained on life support while a decision was made about donating his organs.

  Reached by telephone, Dr. John S. Hege said his son was attached to a ventilator and “looks fine” except for a black eye behind which the bullet was lodged.

  “He does not have vital brain function to sustain life and will not regain that,” Hege said, adding that the family would soon make a decision about continuing life support.

  After shooting Hege and Dunakin, the gunman fled on foot, police said, leading to an intense manhunt. Two hours later, officers found the gunman inside a nearby apartment building.

  When a SWAT team entered, the gunman opened fire, police said. Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35, were killed and a third officer was grazed by a bullet, police said.

  Officers returned fire, killing Mixon, police said.

  Mixon had previously served six years in state prison for assault with a firearm during an armed robbery in San Francisco, the family said. While he was in Corcoran state prison, he married his childhood girlfriend, they said.

  Mixon’s uncle, 38-year-old Curtis Mixon of Fremont, said his nephew had become depressed because as a convicted felon he could not find work. His nephew expected authorities to issue an arrest warrant for missing parole meetings, even though the he felt he was not to blame, he said.

  “I think his frustration was building up, but he was trying to better himself,” Curtis Mixon said. LaTasha Mixon said Sunday her cousin was “not a monster.”

  Dunakin is survived by his wife of 16 years and their three children, two boys ages 15 and 8, and a 13-year-old daughter, said Maxine Schwab, Dunakin’s mother-in-law.

  “He was smart, and he was so good with people, very warm and affectionate,” said Schwab. “If you met him, you’d be charmed by him.”

  Schwarzenegger’s office said that like Dunakin, Romans, who lived in Danville, left behind a wife and three children.

  Friends who knew Sakai from his days at the University of California at Berkeley and his continued involvement in his college fraternity said he was married to a campus police officer and was the father of a young daughter. He and his family lived in Castro Valley.

  Oren Levy, a fraternity brother of Sakai, said his friend grew up in Big Bear and was an accomplished mountain biker and outdoorsman who majored in forestry and graduated in 1995.

  As an undergraduate at Berkeley, Sakai worked for the campus police department as a student volunteer. After graduation, Sakai spent a year in Japan teaching English.

  “His honor was extremely important to him. Whenever there was a situation where someone could take the path that was less honorable, he always advocated doing the right thing,” Levy said. “Being a police officer was really perfect for him.”

  Hege’s father said his son, who lived in Concord, loved being a policeman. He worked well with people and was an Eagle Scout. He played high school football and wrestled. He umpired and coached even as a youth, and joined the Oakland Police Department reserves.

  He taught high school physical education for a few years in Hayward before joining the police department a decade ago. He recently became a motorcycle traffic patrol officer, Hege said, adding, “He liked excitement.”

  As for the slain shooting suspect, Dr. John S. Hege said, “The man was evidently terribly desperate. It is a sad story.”

  Tags: California, Prison State

• 23Mar

  Parole fee burdens ex-offenders

  Prison State No Comments

  It’s bad enough that they have a criminal record and can barely find a job (in an already struggling economy), but now they also have a parole fee to further financially cripple them?!?!?!  Stuff like this really makes you wonder if the point of the system is to rehabilitate or re-incarcerate. 

  Parole fee burdens ex-offenders

  

  Andrea Brinkley, a mother of three, says she did not realize that she owed a parole supervision fee until she received a bill for $2,200. She works as a housekeeper at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore.

  http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/crime/bal-md.parole23mar23,0,7441412.story

  A monthly fee charged to Maryland parolees often grows to a burdensome debt that hinders their attempts to build a life after prison and runs counter to the mission of the parole program, according to a study that will be released this week.New York University Law School. The report recommends that the state abandon the fee or streamline the process for financially strapped parolees to apply for an exemption.

  More than 80 percent of parolees do not pay the state parole supervision fee on time and some consider committing crimes to pay the fee, which amounts to an average of $750, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the

  “The population of people on parole is more or less indigent,” said Rebekah Diller, the study’s principal author. “They’re struggling at the most basic level to find housing and to find a job. The people we interviewed talked about the fact that this was yet another source of pressure. They felt like they were behind before they even started their lives after prison.”

  But advocates for lower taxes said it only seems fair that parolees should shoulder some of the costs of the services that they receive.

  “I would suggest that, rather than being abolished, this fee should be raised,” said Herb McMillan, president of the Maryland Taxpayers’ Association and a former state representative. “Fees save money for taxpayers. I think it’s fair that the individual should bear some of the cost of their parole.”IHOP and now as a housekeeper at Mercy Hospital – but the debt is disheartening, she said.

  The $40 monthly fee, which was mandated by the state legislature in 1991, generates about $350,000 a year for the state’s general fund, according to the report.

  Most people on parole do not have the money to pay the fee, Diller said. At the end of their parole, only about one-third of former inmates have found a job and many do not have permanent housing, according to the report.

  Andrea Brinkley, 38, a mother of three, said her parole debt is difficult with the money she earns cleaning a hospital. She said that she did not realize that she owed the fee until she received a bill for $2,200 in October – six months after she completed parole.

  “I couldn’t believe it,” Brinkley said. “I had just cleaned up my credit from when I was living the wrong life, and then here I was back in debt again.”

  Brinkley, an East Baltimore resident, said that when she was sent to prison for two years for a drug conviction in 2002, she had spent nearly her entire adult life selling drugs and had no job skills. Since then, she has stopped using drugs, regained custody of her children and worked hard – first as a waitress at

  “As hard as I’ve worked to get where I am, the last thing I want is something like this hanging over my head,” she said.

  Only 17 percent pay the fee before they complete parole. Many parolees are intimidated by letters that inform them that they could be found in violation of parole for not paying the fee, according to the report, which is based on records provided by the Maryland Division of Parole and Probation and interviews with parole officers and parolees.

  Offenders are not charged with violating parole solely for not paying the supervision fee, although it is one of the factors considered if the person had committed other offenses, said Patrick McGee, director of the Division of Parole and Probation.

  The supervision fee is one of many that parolees might be required to pay, McGee said. Many owe restitution, court costs and charges for drug testing. Parole officers are responsible for drawing up payment plans and collecting those fees, in addition to helping parolees seek work and readjust to life outside prison.

  “We collect millions of dollars each year; that’s a huge impact on our workload,” McGee said. “If we didn’t have to collect the money and it was done by someone else, we’d have more time to work with offenders in other things like finding jobs.”

  Although parole officers are responsible for collecting the supervision fee, they do not help parolees obtain exemptions. Only the Maryland Parole Commission, a separate office, can excuse a parolee from paying. Because the process is complicated, only a fraction of eligible parolees apply for and are granted an exemption, according to the study.

  Once a person completes parole, the unpaid debt is turned over to the state’s collection agency. The bills can be staggering for someone newly released from prison, said Monique Dixon, the head of the crime and juvenile justice program at the Open Society Institute, which sponsored the study along with the Abell Foundation.

  “Even through $40 a month is not a big hardship for many people, it’s a huge hardship for people making minimum wage,” Dixon said. “The stress of trying to pay this and the stress of trying to live day to day can be very discouraging for people trying to put their lives back together after prison.”

  The fee will be discussed at a forum at the Open Society Institute on Thursday.

  Although the fee creates some problems, McGee said, he does not recommend that the state do away with it.

  “In many ways, imposing fees and fines is a good way for people to pay back their debts to society,” he said.
  

  Tags: Maryland, Prison State

• 23Mar

  Union wants fire chief fired or demoted for alleged racist behavior

  Racism No Comments

  Union wants fire chief fired or demoted for alleged racist behavior

  http://www.southmilwaukeenow.com/news/41574417.html

  On allegations of repeated racist language and racist attitudes, the South Milwaukee firefighters union has filed charges seeking the demotion or removal of Fire Chief Jay Behling, according to a statement of charges. The statement was filed with the South Milwaukee Police and Fire Commission.

  The statement says that the chief “intentionally and repeatedly used racist language and expressed a racist attitude in the course of his employment, in front of his subordinates, thereby compromising his ability to effectively command and supervise the city of South Milwaukee Fire Department.”

  Specifically, the statement says that during a Feb. 16 annual performance review for firefighter Ryan Kurz, Behling discussed his views about the food pantry at his church. According to the statement, Behling allegedly used a racial slur referring to African Americans in describing people who use the pantry.

  The statement cites several other instances where Behling allegedly used the same slur.

  The statement was released by Glen McCoy, president of the Firefighters Protective Association and a lieutenant at the Fire Department.

  An employee of the Fire Department confirmed that Behling was in today but said he would not be taking any calls.

  The statement further alleges misconduct on the city’s part. On March 2, the Firefighters Protective Association wrote to Mayor Tom Zepecki and City Administrator Tami Mayzik regarding the allegations.

  According to the association’s statement of charges:

  Zepecki replied that Behling was disciplined, but did not explain how until the association sent multiple letters to the city. Zepecki then said Behling was disciplined with a three-day suspension. Zepecki failed to interview the Fire Department employees who were subject to Behling’s alleged comments.

  Due to the alleged racist comments, the statement says, Behling is unable to enforce the city’s anti-discrimination work rules or to effectively advocate for minority members of the city’s population.

  Tags: Racism, Wisconsin

« Previous Entries