On a recent media tour of the now-completed Goose Creek Correctional Center, one reporter asked Joe Schmidt, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections, what the area surrounding the prison — on a remote stretch of road 30 minutes outside of Wasilla — will look like in 10 years.
“Cañon City, Colorado,” he replied simply. In 10 years, “somebody’s going to say, who put the prison right in the middle of that city?”
The following is a video on Goose Creek Correctional Center produced by the Mat-Su Borough
A week or so ago Alaska CURE was invited to tour the new correctional center in the Mat-Su Valley–Goose Creek Correctional Facility (GCCF). Amid a lot of controversy and outcry from the public and politicos alike the 1300 bed facility is nearing completion and according to the facility’s project manager, on time and on budget.
During the tour we were told that beginning in early March (2012) the first offenders will be brought into GCCF to “test it out” and each month 128 more offenders will be brought in over the next year until the facility reaches capacity.
This post will outline the key components of the facility and what issues may arise from Alaska CURE‘s point of view.
Location
GCCF is located on Point Mackenzie in Alaska’s Matanuska Susitna Valley approximately an hour drive from Wasilla and two to two and a half hours from Anchorage. A bridge that will connect the Mat-Su Valley (Port Mackenzie) to Anchorage is in the works with construction being completed in 2015 (estimate). GCCF is in a remote location and while the roads are well maintained, in the winter months it will still be a difficult drive to the facility for friends and family as well as GCCF staff.
Entrance and Visitation
A lot of rumors have been brought up about there not being any contact visiting at GCCF. This was our first question of the tour. As soon as you arrive at the facility visitors will enter in through the main entrance and check in with an officer at a desk. To the right are two video link cubicles and then a large waiting area for visitors to wait to be called. To us it looks a lot like a bus station waiting area.
We did not tour the visiting area of GCCF as it was one of the areas that was not yet completed. A question we plan to pose to DOC regards visiting.
At GCCF visitors will have to exit the main building and walk to a separate area for visitation. There are no plans at this time to cover this walk way.
Housing
The housing areas at GCCF was where we spent the most time on the tour and most of the questions were asked. GCCF is divided up into housing modules A through K each housing 128 offenders and double teired. All of the housing units (except segregation) are on the south side of the facility.
One of the first things that we were told was that the offenders are going to be expected to go throughout the facility for all of their services and nothing will be brought to them. This includes: meals, programming, jobs, recreation, medical, etc. They want the daily life of the offender to mimic (as much as possible) the life of the outside.
The facility will utilize a proxy card system for each offender. This will allow access into their cells as well as all of the programs and services needed on a day-to-day basis. An offender’s proxy card will only allow access to what is programmed on his card meaning he can not access another housing unit or another offender’s cell.
The first concern we had was no access to natural light in the cells. There are no windows in the living units except a bank of skylights at the top of each unit. Also at the top of each unit is a state-of-the-art ventilation system and ceiling fans.
Offenders will be double bunked with the exception of a couple of handicapped equipped cells in each living unit. We noted that the cells were of normal size for a new modular type design with little storage for the offender’s personal property–consisting of four storage bins under the bottom bunk.
We noted that there is a small desk for writing and presumably for an offender’s personal T.V. as this is where the coaxial outlet is located. There are no shelves at the end of the bunks as found in most facilities.
We were told that the offenders can purchase small flat screen type televisions through the commissary for $160.00.
The doors to the cells are metal and contain a large window and a locking mechanism to be used with the proxy key. Also a large window is located to the side of each door offering little privacy to the offenders in their cells.
The day room of the living units is large. The furniture had not arrived at the time of our tour but we were told it will be of the type found in most prisons–plastic formed chairs. There are two televisions in each day room as well as two banks of telephones.
An officer will be at a desk in each living unit and will be the primary point of contact for the offenders.
Restrooms and showers are on one side of the living unit as well as washer and dryers. We were told that offenders will be allowed to wear “civilian clothes” most likely meaning sweat shirts and pants and t-shirts while in the living units but will be required to be fully dressed in state issued clothing any time they leave the housing unit.
Offices for case managers and other staff are in each living unit as well as a multi-purpose room.
Food Service
The kitchen area for the food service was impressive. We were told that it is the largest commercial kitchen in the state of Alaska and will handle 4500 meals a day when fully operational. We were also told that the offenders will only be receiving steamed and convection oven type cooking. There will be no fried foods at all. We were told that only a three day supply of food will be in the facility at any given time. We were told this was a security measure in that: “If offenders were to riot then they will get hungry soon.”
There are three dining halls on the north side of the facility and the offenders will be fed one unit at a time. They will be given 15 minutes to eat in assigned seating. The dining halls are food port type. Meaning an offender walks up to a window, picks up his tray and gets a cup of juice and sits down and returns his tray to a food port on the other side of the dinning hall and exits the building.
An offender’s proxy card will be utilized for meals. If they have eaten the offender will not be allowed “second helpings”. The proxy card will also keep track of the number of meals that an offender eats in a given period of time.
Medical Service
The medical offices are on the north side of the facility and we were told that they will be staffed only eight hours a day by physicians. We were told that this is a “state of the art” medical facility and includes eight negative pressure beds for offenders suffering from TB and other illnesses. This was another question that arose as the medical staff is not available more than 8 hours per day.
Programs and Recreation
At GCCF they have several vocational/work areas for the offenders. These areas were designed so they can be utilized in a variety of programs (i.e. wood shop, electrical shop, etc) and customized as needed. There is a paint booth on site and we were told that GCCF offenders will maintain state vehicles at the site.
A Library, GED and other school-type class rooms, are on the north side of the facility as well as a chaplains office and a place for worship. We did not tour these classroom areas as they were still under construction.
A gymnasium is located on the south side of the facility as well as several basketball courts outside in the courtyard that separates the two main buildings of the facility. Two large softball/multi-use fields are at the east end of the facility and separated by a fence.
It is unknown if the yard areas will be open during the winter months.
Offender Jobs
We were told that offenders will be employed throughout the facility in areas such as food service, laundry, vocational programs, school, etc. We were told that a large majority of the offenders will be working on the grounds crew shoveling snow and sweeping, etc. All offenders will be paid for their work assignments as is the policy throughout the system.
Segregation
GCCF has two segregation units on the north side of the facility. One punitive segregation and one “secured housing unit” and protective custody wing. The segregation cells look like any other ‘jail within a jail’ setting. But we did find it concerning that the offenders will be double bunked in these cells.
In the segregation unit we were shown a small cage like enclosure where we were told that a “law library” will be held for the offenders in segregation. This access will be offered by computer terminal only, presumably to sites like Westlaw and Lexus-Nexus. We were told the offenders in segregation will not be allowed to have access to any other law library materials (books, etc.) other than what is offered on the computer terminal.
Impression
Looking at the facility through educated eyes, we feel that it is a state of the art facility in many respects but it will be quite restrictive. GCCF will be classified as a medium custody facility.We understand what the goals are of the Department of Corrections and that security is the first priority. It is evident at GCCF. We feel that the facility will meet the needs of the offenders doing time at GCCF but on a scale that may not be geared toward rehabilitation.
Sure it will be a way to “get our guys home” and return them from being housed at a prison in Colorado but that is only a temporary solution. GCCF is only one facility of five that were slated to be built in Alaska so that means that an ever present overcrowding problem will continue.
Issues
Alaska CURE has already discussed several issues with GCCF and the facility is not even open yet. Some of the big concerns:
Medical Staffing Availability
Food Service
Law Library Access in Segregation
Access to Natural Light
Access to Outdoor Exercise
Sept. 28, 2011
Today’s Stories
— San Diego Jails to House State Inmates: “Very Scary Prospect”
— Civilians Confirm L.A. County Jail Inmate Brutalization Reports
— Ohio’s Marijuana Megafarms: Have Mexican Cartels Moved In?
— “Microfluidics” Could Cut DNA Analysis Time for Police
— Florida Police Officer Killer To Be Executed Today After 33 Years
— MI Chief, Others Charged With Misspending Forfeiture Proceeds
— U.S. Prisoner Re-Entry Council Talks Grants, “Myth Busters”
— Presidential Clemency Acceptance Record Drops To 3 Percent
— ICE Chief in South Florida Charged in Child-Porn Case
— FBI May Keep Acquitted Suspects On Terror Watch List
— U.S. Provides Pot to 4 Patients “For Compassionate Reasons”
— AL “Church or Jail” Program Delayed After ACLU Objects
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San Diego Jails to House State Inmates: “Very Scary Prospect”
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San Diego County supervisors unanimously approved a plan yesterday to deal with thousands of lower-level criminals by housing them in local jails instead of state prisons and requiring county probation officers to supervise them, but not before questioning the state for forcing the change on them, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Gov. Jerry Brown recommended the state shift responsibility for felons convicted of nonserious, nonviolent and nonsexual crimes to the counties to save money and alleviate prison overcrowding, and the legislature endorsed the plan, which takes effect Saturday. “I enter this whole issue and discussion with a great amount of trepidation,” said Supervisor Greg Cox, who added that more than 250 inmates will be released from state prison next month to be monitored in San Diego County. “That to me is a very, very scary prospect.” Because the county’s jails have room for about 800 additional inmates, the supervisors said San Diego may fare better initially than other counties where the jails are at or near capacity. “I just have this sinking feeling that somewhere down the line somebody is going to be out that shouldn’t be out and do something that they shouldn’t do,” Cox said.
Civilians Confirm L.A. County Jail Inmate Brutalization Reports
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Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies brutalized inmates on multiple occasions and their supervisors failed to take complaints of the abuse seriously,say sworn declarations from two chaplains and a Hollywood producer who volunteered in the jails, reports the Los Angeles Times. Two volunteers said they heard deputies yell “stop fighting” as deputies pummeled inmates who appeared to be doing nothing to fight back.
The allegations come after Los Angeles Times stories detailing FBI probes into deputy misconduct in the jails. The declarations are expected to be filed in court today as part of a report by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is a court-appointed monitor of jailhouse conditions. It’s not uncommon for inmates to make allegations of abuse, but these sworn statements are noteworthy because all three are from independent civilians who say they came forward because they were troubled by what they saw.
Ohio’s Marijuana Megafarms: Have Mexican Cartels Moved In?
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As summer turns to fall in the foothills of Appalachia, the annual harvest for Ohio’s best marijuana becomes a chase between police and sophisticated growers, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The drug’s potency, which has skyrocketed over the years, and its profitability in a region crippled by poverty have made the chase as intense as ever.
What makes the high-stakes game different is a new wave of players. Mexican nationals have begun growing large plots of marijuana across southern Ohio hills. Some state authorities, who have tracked marijuana for years, say the groups are financed by the Mexican drug cartels in an attempt to use the state’s temperate weather, good soil, and vast rural landscape to grow potent pot without being noticed. Others, including federal prosecutors, aren’t so sure. While Mexicans are among those who have been prosecuted for cultivating the drug, federal officials have not been able to link them to major drug organizations. The fact that the new groups have moved in and begun what some are calling marijuana megafarms has been a shock to a region that enjoys a slower pace of life.
“Microfluidics” Could Cut DNA Analysis Time for Police
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The Baltimore Police Department is taking part in a program to develop and test new technology that could significantly cut DNA analysis time, reports the Baltimore Sun. The National Institute of Justice is putting $1 million toward the project. Police will partner with researchers from Yale University and a North Carolina-based company to develop technology that would enable crime lab workers to identify and test smaller samples in a much shorter time.
The technology is at least a year away from being usable and won’t be implemented for cases during the pilot phase, but officials hope it will be cleared for use if successful. “The problem being solved here is that DNA sequencing, which is the gold standard for crime forensics, is expensive and takes a long time,” said Richard West, CEO of Advanced Liquid Logic, which developed the technology. “This device will [] indicate to the crime lab technicians which samples are worthy and which are not worthy of further analysis.” The technology uses “microfluidics,” which one expert said is an emerging area of research. Mitchell Holland, director of the forensic science program at Pennsylvania State University, said such devices have been produced in the past year in academia and the private sector, as well as in Britain. “I don’t know of any [police] lab in the USA that is using microfluidics,” Holland said. “It could be that the Baltimore crime lab is one of the first in the country to implement this.”
Florida Police Officer Killer To Be Executed Today After 33 Years
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In a long-delayed death penalty case, Manuel Adriano Valle is due to be executed today in Florida, says the St. Petersburg Times. Jeneane Skeen will be watching in the execution chamber. Valle killed her father, Coral Gables police officer Louis Pena, 33 years ago. For decades, she and her family pleaded for justice. They wrote to six governors to sign Valle’s death warrant. Gov. Rick Scott finally did 12 weeks ago, his first execution.
“We’re tired of waiting,” Skeen said. “We want my father’s justice to be done. He gave his life doing his job.” Valle’s guilt is not in dispute. There’s no international outcry like that over Troy Davis, the man Georgia executed last week who maintained until the end that he was innocent. For the past three months, Valle’s state-appointed lawyers have fought to keep their client in prison and spare him the death penalty. They succeeded in delaying the execution twice. It was initially set for Aug. 2, but temporarily stayed to examine the safety of a lethal injection drug. Valle will be the first Florida inmate executed using the sedative pentobarbital.
MI Chief, Others Charged With Misspending Forfeiture Proceeds
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The former police chief of Romulus, Mi., Michael St. Andre, and five officers from a special investigative division allegedly spent more than $100,000 in forfeited drug money to buy booze, marijuana, prostitutes, lavish trips, and a tanning salon for the ex-chief’s wife, reports the Detroit News. Prosecutor Kym Worthy said the officers falsified reports and misused city funds to deposit cash into personal bank accounts. More allegedly was spent on a rehearsal dinner for an informant and on false payments to informants.
The officers also are accused of filing fake reports and double-dipping by charging the city for items such as uniform expenditures while pulling money from the drug forfeiture funds. The investigation started after a police official asked Michigan State Police to investigate the department’s use of drug forfeiture funds. The charges stemmed from the probe of what Worthy called “a culture of corruption and greed at its core.”
U.S. Prisoner Re-Entry Council Talks Grants, “Myth Busters”
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A federal interdepartmental council on prisoner re-entry held its second meeting yesterday, discussing $83 million in funding for programs under the Second Chance Act and the latest in a series of “Reentry Myth Busters,” fact sheets intended to educate employers and others about the impact of federal laws on those who are formerly incarcerated and seeking jobs, housing, and federal assistance or benefits. The new Myth Busters focus on veterans’ benefits, voting rights, criminal background checks, taxes, and Medicaid eligibility.
Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson said 131 grants were awarded, chosen from 1,000 applications. Prisoner re-entry could get less federal aid in the fiscal year that begins next week. A House committee voted to provide $70 million, but a Senate committee voted to zero out the program. Advocates are urging Congress to continue funding. Attorney General Eric Holder urged using “every tool at our disposal to tear down the unnecessary barriers to economic opportunities and independence so that formerly incarcerated individuals can serve as productive members of their communities.”
Presidential Clemency Acceptance Record Drops To 3 Percent
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The president’s power to reduce sentences and grant pardons is used infrequently, and backlogs responding to clemency petitions are common, says a Justice Department inspector general report quoted by the New York Times. More than one in five of 95,000 clemency petitions have been granted since 1900, but that rate has dropped in recent years, with just 3 percent of clemency requests–177 of 5,806 cases–being granted.
The clemency-petition backlog rose 92 percent from 2005 to 2010, from 2,459 petitions to 4,714. Since the end of the 2010 fiscal year, the Obama administration reduced the backlog substantially by denying nearly 4,000 petitions while granting 17 pardons. The first nine of those were granted last December. “They are stellar at rejecting applications,” said P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political scientist at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Il. Focusing on processing times and averages “completely missed the point,” said Margaret Colgate Love, U.S. pardon attorney in the 1990s. The essential question, she said, is the quality of review. Love, who represents applicants for presidential pardons and sentence commutations, said “the pardon process is not serving the president” by giving the information he needs to make good decisions.
ICE Chief in South Florida Charged in Child-Porn Case
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The South Florida head of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who spent decades busting criminals, will be in federal court today facing an indictment that accuses him of child-porn offenses on the Internet, the Miami Herald reports. Anthony Mangione, 50, was arrested yesterday on charges of possessing and distributing digital images of child porn on his computer.
Mangione was placed on paid leave in April after sheriff’s deputies and FBI agents began investigating four images of child porn he allegedly received on his home computer via an AOL e-mail account. The investigation grew significantly over the summer, leading to the alleged discovery of more images of child porn on his computer. The Justice Department probe took months to complete as investigators conducted a forensic analysis of his computer and other electronic equipment to determine whether Mangione sent, received or distributed illegal digital images of children. ICE has aggressively targeted child pornography, with Mangione frequently speaking out against “predators” who illegally share images through their computers.
FBI May Keep Acquitted Suspects On Terror Watch List
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The FBI may include people on the government’s terrorist watch list even if they have been acquitted of terrorism-related offenses or the charges are dropped, reports the New York Times. Files released by the bureau under the Freedom of Information Act lay out for the first time in public the legal standard that officials must meet to add a name to the list.
The database has about 420,000 names, including 8,000 Americans. About 16,000 people, including about 500 Americans, are barred from flying. Timothy Healy of the FBI Terrorist Screening Center said the files show that the government was balancing civil liberties with a careful, multilayered process for vetting who goes on it. Still, some of the procedures were criticized by civil liberties advocates like the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which made the request for the files. They include a December 2010 memo to FBI field offices showing that even a not-guilty verdict may not always be enough to get someone off the list, if agents still have “reasonable suspicion” that the person might have ties to terrorism.
U.S. Provides Pot to 4 Patients “For Compassionate Reasons”
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For the past three decades, the U.S. government has been providing a handful of patients with some of the highest grade marijuana around. The program grew out of a 1976 court settlement that created the country’s first legal pot smoker, reports the Associated Press. Advocates for legalizing marijuana or treating it as a medicine say the program is a contradiction in the 40-year “war on drugs” – maintaining the federal ban on pot while at the same time supplying it.
Officials say the program no longer accepting new patients, and public health authorities have concluded that there was no scientific value to it, At one point, 14 people were getting government pot. There are four left. The government has only continued to supply the marijuana “for compassionate reasons,” said the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Marijuana is getting a new look from states considering calls to repeal decades-old marijuana prohibition laws. There are 16 states with medical marijuana programs. In the three West Coast states, advocates are readying tax-and-sell or other legalization programs.
AL “Church or Jail” Program Delayed After ACLU Objects
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A Bay Minette, Al., alternative to incarceration program that asks first-time, nonviolent offenders to choose between church or jail, was slated to start this week but is being delayed for legal review, Mayor Jamie Tillery tells ABCNews.com. “The city will ask the Alabama Attorney General to review the program as well,” Tillery said.
The Restore Our Community program, called Operation ROC, aimed to offer those convicted of first-time misdemeanors the opportunity to attend church once a week for a year and answer questions about the services, or go to jail and pay a fine. While Tillery said the first-time misdemeanor offenders would be offered a “menu of options,” including community service, the American Civil Liberties Union stepped in to say church should not be among them. “The First Amendment still prohibits the government from becoming entangled in core religious exercise, which includes attending church,” said ACLU attorney Heather Weaver.
Aug. 11, 2011
Today’s Stories
— Meth Investigations Plummet After Federal Lab Cleanup Aid Is Canceled
— Phoenix Is Latest City to Restrict Tattoos for Its Police Officers
— California County Jails Prepare for Influx of State Prison Inmates
— LA Mulls New System to Stem Phone-Smuggling at Angola Prison
— ACLU Seeks Info From Police Agencies on Cellphone Tracking Policies
— ATF Boss Sought to End ‘Fast and Furious’ Amid Early Signs of Trouble
— A Decade Later, ‘Truth Activists’ Find Comfort in 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
— Amid Budget Crisis, CA Rookie Judges Train at Luxury Resort
— Report: Oregon Law Channels Black Youths Into Adult Court System
— Crime Declined in Tough DC Areas But Rose Slightly Overall
— MN Counties to Pay More to Keep Sex Predators Locked Away
— Under Fire for Death of Homeless Man, CA Police Chief Takes Leave
On every business day, Criminal Justice Journalists (CJJ) provides a summary of the nation’s top crime and justice news stories with Internet links, if any. Crime & Justice News is being provided by CJJ with the support of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, its Center on Media, Crime and Justice, the Ford Foundation, and the National Criminal Justice Association. The news digest is edited by Ted Gest and David Krajicek.
You may go to TheCrimeReport.org to search all archived CJN stories. Please e-mail Ted Gest at CJJ with concerns about the editorial content of our news items, to suggest news stories, or with general comments.
Meth Investigations Plummet After Federal Lab Cleanup Aid Is Canceled
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Police agencies in states that produce much of the nation’s methamphetamine have made a sudden retreat in the war on meth, at times virtually abandoning pursuit of the drug because they can no longer afford to clean up the toxic waste generated by labs, reports the Associated Press. Despite evidence that the meth trade is flourishing, many agencies have called off tactics that have been used for years to confront drug makers: sending agents undercover, conducting door-to-door investigations, staking out pharmacies to catch people buying large amounts of cold medicine.
The steep cutbacks began after the federal government in February canceled a program that provided millions of dollars to help local agencies dispose of seized labs. Since then, the number of labs seized has plummeted by a third in some key meth-producing states and two-thirds in at least one, Alabama. The trend is almost certain to continue unless more states find a way to replace the federal money or to conduct cheaper cleanups, which typically cost $2,500 to $5,000 per lab.
Phoenix Is Latest City to Restrict Tattoos for Its Police Officers
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Many police departments across the country have adopted tattoo restrictions for officers in recent years, and the courts have upheld those rules as reasonable. But in Phoenix, the remedy offered to officers with sprawling tattoos – cover them up – is being called impractical because of the intense Arizona heat, reports the New York Times. “It’s hot out there,” said Mark Spencer, the president of the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, which is challenging the new policy. “Imagine having to wear long sleeves along with body armor, a gun belt and having to get in and out of a police car 50 times every day.”
No survey was undertaken to determine how many of the Phoenix Police Department’s 1,187 patrol officers are tattooed. But officials said despite the ubiquity of tattoos on ankles, lower backs, shoulders and other parts of the body, they are still regarded by many as more in line with people who break the law than those who enforce it. “We’re not saying a person with a tattoo is bad,” said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, the tattoo-less spokesman for the department. “We just want to project a professional image. We don’t want to give anyone any reason to distrust us.”
California County Jails Prepare for Influx of State Prison Inmates
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Local officials in California are hastily assembling plans to squeeze thousands of criminals into their county jails and onto probation rolls, the first step in a massive shake-up of the state’s prison system, reports the Wall Street Journal. Over the next few years, county jails will see a flood of an estimated 75,000 inmates who would have previously gone to state prisons, while 26,500 would-be state parolees will now be supervised by county officers. The shift follows Gov. Jerry Brown’s signing of a bill in April mandating the change.
Set to go into effect in October, the change is meant to save money and reduce state-prison overcrowding, an especially urgent task after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that California must shed thousands of inmates from its prisons. In coming weeks, Fresno County may reopen an entire closed floor of a jail, while Los Angeles County could hire hundreds of new probation officers. San Bernardino County plans to allow more home detentions. The state will provide counties with funding to handle the new inmates and would-be parolees.
LA Mulls New System to Stem Phone-Smuggling at Angola Prison
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Louisiana corrections officials are considering a telephone access program to short-circuit unauthorized cellphone use in state prisons, reports the Baton Rouge Advocate. Officers have confiscated 32 cellphones from inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. Angola Warden Burl Cain said officers have been confiscating cell phones “right and left.” He blamed corrupt officers for smuggling most of the phones into the prison.
The department is looking at a managed access program to combat cellphone use in secure areas of our prisons, similar to a system used in Mississippi. There, a third-party system intercepts cellphone calls made from within secure areas and checks the phone against a database of approved users before the signal is sent to a cellular tower. If the phone is not registered, the system blocks the call.
ACLU Seeks Info From Police Agencies on Cellphone Tracking Policies
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The national American Civil Liberties Union has asked police in 31 states to turn over information about when, why and how they use cellphone tracking data, such as global positioning service, reports California’s North County Times. The ACLU asked 34 affiliate chapters to request such policies and other data from local law enforcement agencies. “One of the perils of the new technology as to mobile devices is the increasing potential for government control and surveillance,” said David Blair-Loy, staff attorney with the San Diego ACLU chapter.
He said the request as made to determine whether police departments have protections and policies in place. A number of local police agencies said they had received the request. In a statement, the national ACLU, said, “All too often, the government is taking advantage of outdated privacy laws to get its hands on this valuable private information by demanding it without a warrant.”
ATF Boss Sought to End ‘Fast and Furious’ Amid Early Signs of Trouble
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The Los Angeles Times reports that a top ATF official sought to pull the plug on the controversial Fast and Furious gun-selling investigation amid troubling signs just months after it began. Acting Deputy Director William Hoover called an emergency meeting in March 2010 after agents had lost track of hundreds of firearms. No arrests had been made in the investigation, the missing weapons had turned up at crime scenes in Mexico, and Hoover was concerned that someone in the United States could be hurt next.
Hoover said he wanted an “exit strategy” to shut down the program. But those at the meeting, which included a Justice Department official, did not want to stop the illegal gun sales until they had something to show for their efforts. Hoover suggested a “30-day, 60-day or 90-day” exit plan that would shut Fast and Furious down for good – just as soon as there were some indictments. But indictments did not come for another 10 months. By then, two semiautomatics had been recovered after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed south of Tucson, and nearly 200 had been found at crime scenes in Mexico.
A Decade Later, ‘Truth Activists’ Find Comfort in 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
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Ten years later, thousands of Americans continue to doubt the official version of how the World Trade Center collapsed, who was responsible and what the government knew and when, reports the Associated Press. The skeptics – they prefer the term “9/11 truth activists” instead of “truthers” – have persisted, with proponents from former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel to comedian Rosie O’Donnell. They have mobilized on the Internet, with YouTube videos of the trade center collapsing again and again.
“There’s really a foundation of reality here,” said Ted Walter, who has worked unsuccessfully to prod New York City officials into reopening an investigation of how 7 World Trade Center collapsed on the afternoon of Sept 11. “We believe that if all of the American public saw footage of building 7 on the nightly news, it would lead to widespread skepticism of 9/11.” For many, conspiracy theories aren’t terrifying; they’re more comforting than the idea that an event as terrifying as Sept. 11 could be so – random. Conspiracies can be a “security blanket” for explaining away the horrific, asserts Patrick Leman, a University of London professor who researches 9/11 theories. “It stops us from having to confront the unpredictability of life.”
Amid Budget Crisis, CA Rookie Judges Train at Luxury Resort
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California’s budget cuts have prompted some courthouse shutdowns and clerk layoffs, but 119 new Superior Court judges are spending two weeks at a judicial rookie camp at a San Jose resort, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. The Administrative Office of the Courts, the state agency that oversees the training, estimated the program at the historic Dolce Hayes Mansion cost about $260,000. That doesn’t include the travel costs for both the judges and 69 volunteer faculty, whose expenses are being shared this year by the state and the locally run trial courts.
The training – referred to as “judicial college” – is mandated under California court rules. But Presiding San Francisco Superior Court Judge Katherine Feinstein, who has been at odds with the AOC over its excessive spending while her staff is being cut to half its 2010 size, said the real issue is whether the state is providing the training “at the minimum cost possible.” The 43-year-old program used to be held at UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus, where judges bunked in the student dorms. The program later moved to somewhat nicer accommodations at a Holiday Inn in San Francisco. A couple of years back, however, the training moved to the mansion, with its “stunning decor, fine dining and unparalleled guest service.”
Report: Oregon Law Channels Black Youths Into Adult Court System
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Oregon’s mandatory sentencing law, known as Measure 11, has pushed a disproportionate number of black youths into the state’s adult criminal justice system, though often not for the crime for which they were originally indicted, reports the Oregonian. Though African Americans account for just 4 percent of the state’s youth population, they represent 19 percent of Measure 11 indictments.
The racial disparity is one of several findings in a new report, “Misguided Measures,” which asserts that Measure 11, which sets mandatory sentences for 21 violent crimes and mandates that youths charged with those crimes be tried as adults, has done nothing to reduce the juvenile crime rate and forces young people into adult jails. The analysis is a product of the Partnership for Safety and Justice, which has been critical of Measure 11 in the past, and the Campaign for Youth and Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates getting youth out of the adult system. The Oregon District Attorneys Association dismissed the report as “an opinion piece.”
Crime Declined in Tough DC Areas But Rose Slightly Overall
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Crime has declined in 2011 in several of Washington, D.C.’s most troubled neighborhoods, but crime increased slightly throughout the city as of Aug. 1, reports the city’s Post. Homicides were down 11 percent and robberies down 7 percent through Aug. 1, Mayor Vincent C. Gray and Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said at a joint press conference.
Lanier said violent crime fell by an average of 37 percent in five neighborhoods with persistent crime problems. However, total crime in the District, including both violent and property crime, was up by 3 percent through August 1. Gray attributed the decreases to a summer effort to address such issues as abandoned cars, overgrown grass and youth crime. Beginning in May, Gray said, he directed city agencies to work together so that quality-of-life problems – including dirty playgrounds, dark alleys, and overgrown grass and weeds – were addressed “within hours.”
MN Counties to Pay More to Keep Sex Predators Locked Away
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Minnesota lawmakers are confronting the spiraling price of confining the state’s most dangerous sex offenders after prison by sticking county governments with some of the tab, reports the Associated Press. A new state law affecting the once politically untouchable program reflects how lawmakers are trying to force local officials find cheaper ways to manage risky sex criminals. Counties will pay 25 percent of the cost for each offender they send to a secure state treatment program, up from 10 percent.
The change is expected to save the state $2 million over two years. Rep. Jim Abeler says he hopes the change makes counties think twice about sending sex offenders to the $70 million-a-year program, which treats more than 600 offenders. County prosecutors say they won’t ease up and predict increased costs will fall to property taxpayers.
Under Fire for Death of Homeless Man, CA Police Chief Takes Leave
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Michael Sellers, the embattled police chief in Fullerton Calif., has taken medical leave amid calls for his resignation as six of his officers are being investigated for their role in the death of a homeless man, reports the Los Angeles Times. Sellers has been under mounting pressure to answer questions about a July 5 confrontation between officers and a schizophrenic homeless man who later died.
Witnesses said officers beat and kicked the man and used a Taser on him several times. He died five days. Two city council members have called for Sellers to resign because he has failed to provide a narrative to the public about Thomas’ death. They also complained that information had been withheld from them, including a surveillance video that captured some of the struggle. City Manager Joe Felz informed the council Wednesday that Sellers, whose annual salary and benefits total $228,576, was taking a medical leave of absence for an unspecified period of time. He cannot be fired while on medical leave.
Dear Friends, below are the excerpts yesterday from emails I received from you concerning the impact of the extremely hot weather on people
incarcerated. As you can see, from the three days of emails, we now have info from TX, OK, AL, AZ, PA, IL, MO, CO, MD, VA, VT, MA & MS.
If you have more info on these states, please send it. Also, we have no info from many states especially in the South.
There is a reporter interested in doing a possible national article on the issue. In preparation, the arguments that I would make for air-conditioning all prisons and jails are the following:
(1) Justice is defined in the dictionary as “treatment that is morally right or fair and shows a genuine respect for people.” Not to provide
air-conditioning in this day and age in this country is a total disrespect of human beings who are wards of the state. When the state locks up a person, that person becomes a ward. The statet must provide the essentials of food, clothing and shelter. Society has evolved that “shelter” includes air-conditioning during appropriate times. Right now is certainly an appropriate time!
(2) People incarcerated cannot leave the heat and at least get a break from it by going to a library, mall, theater etc. THEY ARE STUCK!
Although there are many other people without air conditioning, they can in practically all situations find a/c, or at least in some way
get a break from the heat.
(3) Not air-conditioning facilities is a penny wise and pound foolish. I have yet to find statistics or studies to back us up. But, it is common sense that there no a/c brings about much higher health costs especially with many older prisoners. Also, special populations like pregnant prisoners should have a/c. See MD below on the person being pregnant in prison.
(4) Another result of no a/c are the security risks. More fights occur in the heat and correctional officers might increase the potential by finding excuses to stay in a/c staff offices.
I would appreciate your comments on these arguments. Charlie
IL
Dwight, the female maximum security prison is not air conditioned but does have a dog training class. the dogs are getting ice, but not the humans
CO
Canon City, Colorado. New Warden, wants to nail windows shut and keep doors closed, no a/c in the older units, like 4-mile, Arrowhead and
Skyline.
MO
Missouri CURE has heard from prisoners who are suffering in the heat. Most of the level 4 prisons do not have AC in the wings or cells, only
in guard enclosures, libraries, etc. People have had heat-related seizures and other complications.
VA
Ironically, many of the newer Virginia facilities are centrally air conditioned and there seems to be less violence as a result of the lower “misery index”.
VT & MA
VT. Facilities do not have air conditioning. My understanding is tense. Same with Springfield, Mass inmates lock up 24hrs and hot.
AZ
We are aware of inmates who have soaked their clothing in the clean water of their toilet, hung it up and used the cooled clothing as a sort of evaporative cooler. Very primitive.
AL
As far as I know, there are no air conditioned prisons in Alabama. There may be some air conditioned areas in some of them, but in general, nada. It’s terrible.The heat index in AL today was 101. I am surprised more people don’t die from it.
MS
Mississippi’s 3 state facilities do not have air conditioning. We asked about our loved ones being able to wear knee length shorts as opposed to the long pants.I’m told it would be too expensive. The reality is on the outset it might be more expensive but in the long run it would save money as it is hot here more months than it is cold and it takes less fabric to make these shorter pants than the long ones. Our loved ones also have to stay fully clothed from wake up until after dinner. Can’t wear just boxers. Women have to leave bras on and under shirts in addition to the top shirt. Men and women have to wear the undershirts. We too have several deaths a year during the summer months. Our state law says that the running of the a/c is up to the Cimmissioner. It’s not illegal for them to run it; they just don’t.
PA
PA prisons are no different.. Most of the institutions are old and made of brick, concrete and stone.. The prisons are hot as you know what during the summer..
MD
I remember being 7 months pregnant Iin prison feeling as if my unborn daughter was baking inside of me. As I read your e-mail, I recalled too well, the feeling of suffocation from being in a cell with a broken window. The heat that summer was nothing like it has been this summer. Even though I was with child, I was a healthy woman, but still had to battle the effects. For many though, they are not as healthy as I was and deal with some serious health issues.
TX
It is terrible that the Texas prisons do not have air conditioning. Here is an incident my daughter wrote about. Can anything be done, if not for this year, maybe next year?
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As we walked to work at dark thirty a.m. (3 am), several officers ran into #3 building. One ran out to Central Control. By the time we reached laundry to go to work, several women were crying. “She was screaming and crying for over an hour, calling for help and no one came!” A woman had been upsetting all of I-Wing, screaming and yelling, trying to save her cellmate’s life. Her cellmate died.
“It’s so f—hot in cell block, with the window all nailed shut, you can’t breathe!” Neither one of them had a fan.. Someone said when the temperature is 108 outside, it’s 118 inside these metal buildings. How many days this year have we had over 100 degrees? 45 days?
The woman who died was Nancy Yarborough. She was 45 years old and had been here 8 years. While they investigated, they shut the unit down and we were stuck in laundry for half a day. We saw them finally wheel her body out of #3 building on a gurney, with a sheet thrown over her.
“Heat-related fatality,” we kept hearing “She was making funny noises, and I jumped off my bunk to check on her. Blood was coming out of her mouth,” her cellmate was telling people. “She died of a brain blood clot,” we heard later. The wing bosses who are supposed to be supervising their assigned dorms are not there. They are huddled up together in the air conditioned pickets while the inmates are dying in the extreme heat in the dorms. “They should at least come unlock all the windows.
“Isn’t that against Federal regulations to have them all nailed shut and no air getting in?”
OK
Most cellblocks in the state Corrections Department’s men’s units are not air-conditioned, officials said.
A recent check of the temperature in one cell revealed a temperature of 96 degrees, said Jerry Massie, Corrections Department spokesman.
Workers are told to keep an especially close eye on inmates who are older than 55, have chronic illnesses or who are taking psychotropic medicines or other medicines that make them more susceptible… Susan Cosby, an Amarillo, Texas, licensed professional counselor who communicates regularly with a McAlester inmate, said the inmate describes the heat as horrible.
“I can’t talk about it without crying,” Cosby said. “I think there are going to be deaths there … I live in the Panhandle of Texas. I can go to the mall. I can go outside, but there’s nothing they can do.”
Another woman, the aunt of another McAlester inmate, said, “My nephew tells me he just sits there and drips sweat.”
There are about 18,000 inmates in state-operated facilities, and a majority of them are housed in cells that aren’t air-conditioned, Massie said. In general, the women’s prisons, and men’s death row and disciplinary units do have air-conditioning, as well as a minority of the other men’s units, he said. Outages are a common problem in some of the older prisons.
“I think we would prefer to have air conditioning, but it would be difficult to get much public support for it,” Massie said. “It’s pretty cost prohibitive.”
Hello All,
An Alaska CURE chapter is in the works! Having been a active member of Colorado CURE and it’s secretary until moving to Alaska last August, the need for a chapter up here is apperant.
The same issues in corrections face the offenders in the North as they do anywhere else Outside.
One of the biggest issues that the offenders in Alaska face is that quite a few of our prisoners are housed out of state in Colorado. This makes it not only difficult on the offenders themselves, but their family members too.
In the coming weeks, more information will be added to this website, along with meeting plans in the Anchorage area, a brochure mailer and a newsletter. If you would like more information on what CURE is all about, I encourage you to look around on this site and visit the National CURE website as well.
Alaska CURE 