Poverty in San Francisco is quietly growing unchecked. As one of the wealthiest cities in the country, San Francisco’s budget for fiscal year 2012-13 of $7.9 billion surpasses the budgets of 11 states.
No matter how robust our local economic recovery portends, an honest assessment about poverty will remain impoverished as long as City Hall relies on antiquated economic measures.
It’s time to ditch our disproportionate reliance on federal standards and reassess how we calculate poverty in San Francisco.
A new poverty calculation developed by the Stanford Center on Poverty and the Public Policy Institute of California, the California Poverty Measure, expands the range of expenses and adjusts housing costs geographically. Under this more comprehensive analysis, the poverty rate for California is 22 percent, and for San Francisco, 23.4 percent.
According to analysts with San Francisco’s office of controller, even with various local safety net adjustments, for a family of four renting in San Francisco, poverty registers at an annual income of $36,349.
The biggest takeaway from a discussion about poverty has little to do with the data itself – it’s the fact that we know what to do but are not doing it.
This reality was brought into sharper focus Jan. 10 (2014) for a growing underclass exiting our County Jail. I had the honor of presiding over the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department Five Keys Charter High School graduation. We are the first city or county in the nation to provide a high school in its jails, a school with a union faculty.
More than 80 women and men, ages 19 to 59, about half in custody and half formerly incarcerated, were feted for obtaining their high school diploma or GED. The graduates’ stories of overcoming adversity and righting their wrongs were incredible. One man concurrently mastered his English as a second language certificate and his GED. A mother overcame her dislike for algebra to test exceptionally well toward her diploma.
It was their day, and ours, as I shared: “Orange is the new black when you don our cap and gown.” But beyond the milestone of a high school diploma, we’re reminded that unless there is affordable access to City College or another similar institution, or vocational training aimed at gainful employment, coupled with life skills for community re-entry, then we’re looking at recycling another generation through poverty.
Because 35 to 40 percent of our inmate population are parents, their incapacity to reach economic sustainability traps their children in a similar cycle.
San Francisco is in the unique position of having one of the most under-crowded jail systems in the country. Progress on tackling high recidivism rates is on the upswing — thanks to the collaboration among our criminal justice partners. However, preparing inmates for the real world is so undermined by the high cost of living in the San Francisco Bay Area that many will return to their families or communities discouraged by their inability to make a decent living or find respectable housing.
Before and after they exit jail in pursuit of a job, we’ll teach the soft and hard skills: Thrift. Determination.
Invariably, though, we’re invigorating a growing class of working poor if we neglect to address the real cost of living and its resulting measure of poverty in San Francisco.
Here is what we can do (about) poverty in San Francisco:
Take the politics out of raising the local minimum wage, and stepladder increases over 10 years.
Establish an official county poverty rate and methodology to determine it for San Francisco.
Develop a city master plan on ending poverty and retaining class diversity.
Produce a meaningful response to the mass exodus of San Francisco’s Black population and to the prospective impact on the Latino population.
Archives for March 2015
Tech Executives Offer Advice For Inmate Entrepreneurs
People don’t usually talk about Silicon Valley and the California prison system at the same time. However, on any given day, venture capitalists as well as business men and women right out of Silicon Valley come inside San Quentin to hear inmate ideas from the entrepreneurial program The Last Mile (TLM).
TLM teaches inmates how to develop their own business plans and how to pitch their plan to venture capitalists, business executives, public safety personnel, and other interested parties.
The pitch, given during Demo Day, is also an opportunity for the inmates to network and assess the feasibility of ideas they think would solve a problem in the business world. The next Demo Day is planned for later this month.
To help facilitate the learning process in the months before Demo Day, TLM sponsors Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti invite business professionals inside the prison to give classes on topics such as brainstorming, how to build a company and what kind of ideas attract venture capitalists.
Brainstorming
Last winter when Tina Seelig, author of What I Wish I Knew When I was 20, visited the men, she talked about how to brainstorm for business ideas.
“If you want to succeed, don’t have a fixed mindset,” Seelig said. “Work on changing your position and perspective. Once the right questions are asked, the answers will come.”
She encouraged the men to leave their comfort zones, suggesting that new experiences may lead them to new passions. Passion, according to Seelig, is the key to a successful business.
She also encouraged the group to see every problem as an opportunity.
Seelig’s tips to inmates included standing up while brainstorming, focusing on one topic, considering different points of view, and using small teams to allow better communication between participants.
Building a Company
For the last 25 years, Michelle Messina has worked with start-ups in Silicon Valley.
“The job you’re embarking on is really, really hard. The best thing you can do is build a support team,” she said during her visit. “What’s so unique about Silicon Valley is its diversity in culture. There are 120 different languages spoken and about 49 percent of the people are foreign born.”
Messina told the students what to consider when building a company.
“You must think about validation in the marketplace. Who is your customer base? You must be solving a problem in the marketplace organically. It’s about knowing your company, and making contact with that customer, and making the sell in person. Are you solving a problem?”
Messina then listened to some of the men present their ideas and gave advice on where improvements could be made.
Afterward Parenti evaluated each man’s viability as to whether his plan was up to par for the March Demo day.
If the plan was up to par, he was in the Starting Line Up category. If his plan was good, but needed work, he was On the Bench. If the idea itself needed work, he was Not Suiting Up.
Of the 19 participants, five were in the Starting Line Up, five were On the Bench and four were Not Suiting Up. The other five participants did not present their ideas that day.
Pitching Ideas
On the day venture capitalist Dave McClure came to San Quentin, he listened to some pitches, then said, “When you’re pitching to a venture capitalist, talk about the problem, not the solution.”
“What’s the same about everybody is the optimism of wanting to succeed,” McClure added. “However, out of 100 companies, maybe five to 10 might actually work.”
McClure explained what it means for a business idea to “pivot.”
“Pivot means that whatever you built did not work, and you need to change something in your product,” McClure said. “When you pivot, there may be some part of it that is not working and needs to be changed.”
McClure started an investment group called 500 Start Ups. He said the idea is to invest in many companies in order to answer some of questions about what it takes to run a company.
“I may not be in the same position as you guys, but I consider myself an underdog,” McClure said, referring to the ups and downs of his life.
“A lot of people we’re going to invest in aren’t going to make it. However, even the ones who don’t make it are still a part of the community as long as people feel that they’ve got a shot,” he said.
Referring to how the inmates’ pitches sounded, Redlitz said, “You guys were good, but you have to work toward great.”
“People in Silicon Valley believe they can do great things. Sometimes, they give advice, sometimes they give money, sometimes they tell you you’re full of it, but that’s helpful, too,” said McClure,
“Most of my success comes from not giving up,” McClure added.
Elderly Expected to Be One-Third Of Inmate Population by 2030
There are approximately 2.3 million people imprisoned in the United States. Changing demographics reflect the senior citizen, baby boomer wave will deeply affect prisons.
Between 1995 and 2010 the number of prisoners aged 55 and older quadrupled, according to a 2012 Human Rights Watch study. By the year 2030 seniors are expected to account for a third of all prisoners.
Currently in California, state government is sending aged and ailing prisoners to private nursing homes. In 2010 the state passed Penal Code 6267, a law to provide long-term care for ailing prisoners. The director of communication and legislation for the Correctional Health Care Services department, Joyce Hayhoe, stated aging prisoners who have not been deemed a danger to society and needing 24-hour care are placed in private nursing homes under certain conditions.
“They can’t leave the facility, of course. They’re considered on medical parole and assigned a parole agent,” Hayhoe added.
If a prisoner manages to improve, for instance from a vegetative or quadriplegic condition, the law allows for return to prison.
Currently in California there are only 65 individuals in this type of care, and the number fluctuates because the prisoners’ conditions are usually terminal. According to Hayhoe, there has been an increase in prisoners’ medical parole as the 55 and older population is the fastest-growing segment of prisoners.
“When you think about it, we release hundreds of people per month,” Hayhoe added. “It’s not anything new. The only thing different is we now provide payment to the nursing home and recoup that money from the federal government. It’s expensive to provide that kind of care in a prison.”
Outside of California, states have found privatization is cheaper. The state of Virginia conducted a study to determine whether to keep long-term care inside prison walls or to partner with private nursing homes. It also considered “geriatric release,” which allows offenders 60 years or older to apply for early release. The study found that Virginia would spend twice the private nursing home cost of $66,430.
States spend an average of about $70,000 per year to incarcerate prisoners 50 or older, about three times the costs to house a younger prisoner. Many prison experts agree that fewer older prisoners return to prison after release. Many states have “compassionate care” laws on the books, which allow the release of an ailing prisoner who, because of health status, is no longer seen as a danger to the community, but this law is rarely used.
Kyle Kaminski, a legislative liaison for the Michigan Department of Corrections, put together a report that estimated the number of prisoners in the 50 and older age bracket has increased almost 50 percent in the past 10 years. While the state housed about 600 of the older prisoners near a hospital facility, the state wanted to determine whether privatizing could better serve the prisoner population.
Lifers Hold Origami Workshop for Children’s Hospital
Inside San Quentin’s Interfaith Chapel, 15 convicted murderers and lifer inmates came together to fold hundreds of origami hearts for patients at Oakland’s Children’s Hospital.
The inmates’ goal was to uplift the children’s hearts and make them feel loved and not forgotten on Valentine’s Day.
At the end of the origami workshops, hundreds of stand-up heart–shaped origami were sent to the hospital and placed on the children’s dinner trays on Valentine’s Day. “Just imagining the smiles on the kids’ faces, when they receive the (origami) hearts, makes it all worth it,” said inmate Upu S. Ama.
The origami event was led by volunteer Jun Hamamoto. She first brought origami to San Quentin in 2012 when she asked prisoners to fold cranes in support of global unity and world peace to be placed on the World Tree of Hope. The Rainbow World Fund (RWF) an Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender (LGBT) based humanitarian aid organization and the Japanese community came together to sponsor the World Tree of Hope.
The cranes made were signed with positive messages from inmates and displayed on a giant Christmas tree inside San Francisco’s City Hall.
The success of the first origami workshop inspired Hamamoto to bring the origami movement inside San Quentin.
Since 2012, she has held countless origami sessions involving different groups in San Quentin, such as the Native Hawaiian Spiritual Group, R.O.O.T.S. (Restoring Our Original True Selves), Buddha Dharma Sangha, Kid C.A.T. (Creating Awareness Together), Free to Succeed, the Native American Culture Group and Project REACH. Hamamoto plans to extend an invitation to more groups.
The Origami Legend
As a part of her Japanese heritage, Hamamoto believes that origami is more than an art project. It can have a spiritual meaning or impact. For example, there is a Japanese legend that if a person folds 1,000 origami cranes he’ll be granted a wish.
During World War II, a little Japanese girl, Sadako Sasaki, contracted cancer from the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima. The little girl wished to get well from the cancer and thereby attempted to fold 1,000 cranes to get her wish.
Sadako wrote messages on the wings of the cranes, such as; “I will write peace on your wings, and you will fly all over the world.”
Sadako got up to 644 cranes before she passed away. Her classmates and friends completed her task, which inspired the creation of The World Tree of Hope.
For the inmates it was an opportunity to offer support for the children. “I wanted to give back to the kids,” said inmate Adnan Khan. “I understand that receiving something unexpected can uplift a child. It is similar to receiving mail; it brings joy. I hope I can do the same for them.”
During the origami session, the men were asked to wash their hands and be mindful of the kids’ conditions. For instance, no tape or glue were used to make the origami because they were told tape or glue could negatively affect the children’s conditions.
“Not only was the origami made with careful focus, it also required discipline and puts me in a meditative state of mind,” Khan said.
Sharing similar feelings, inmate Nick Lopez said, “When I’m folding origami, it calms my mind. For the few hours that I’m involved, it takes me away from prison. And knowing this goes to the children inspires me to want to do more.”
Harold Meeks, who attended his second origami workshop, said, “In addition to making hearts, we’ve also made butterflies to send home to family and friends. But what’s most meaningful is it’s an opportunity to build on rehabilitation and give back to the community. It is an honor to give and serve someone who is in an unfortunate circumstance.”
Father George Williams Speaks Of His San Quentin Experiences
The following is the first of a two-part interview with Father George Williams, the Catholic Chaplain for San Quentin.
How did you come to work at San Quentin?
I had visited here a few times when Father Barber was the chaplain. At the time of those visits, I had no idea I’d ever be working here.
I came out here to talk with him about his programs here – to get some ideas to bring back to Massachusetts. I was impressed with the chapels here and the programs available.
I remember thinking how much I would like to work here. Then out of the blue in the summer of 2010, a Jesuit friend of mine in Los Angeles called and asked me if I would be interested in coming to San Quentin as a chaplain since Father Barber had by then decided to move on.
My immediate reaction was, “Of course!” And I joked with my community (who tend to be academics) that it was like getting a call from Harvard asking if I wanted a tenured position there. So it was really like an offer for the best job ever for me – and I jumped at the chance. The reaction back East was, “Oh, wow. San Quentin!”
My parent’s reaction was simple: “Are you insane?” They didn’t like the idea of their only son moving all the way out to California only to get shanked on his first day on the job (they watched too many “Lockdown” episodes).
So I was pretty excited and happy at the prospect of coming here – and a bit apprehensive of working on Death Row – not sure why. I guess I had visions of Hannibal Lecter or something. But the reality has been that I really enjoy working with the guys on Death Row and no one there is like Hannibal Lecter!
It wasn’t like anyone had to twist my arm to move to the Bay Area either – it is beautiful here, and as much as I love the city of Boston, I haven’t missed the weather back there. And I get back a few times a year to see people and spend time in Boston, so I don’t get homesick.
Actually after four years now, this area is beginning to feel more and more like home. San Quentin certainly does.
I decided to drive out here when I moved – to really make it a kind of spiritual pilgrimage – driving across the country slowly, over a few weeks, staying with friends along the way – including a week at a monastery in Colorado – a place I really love.
So it was a grace-filled and smooth transition from East to West, and I haven’t regretted it for a second. My hope is that I can now do 25-to-life here at San Quentin.
I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than work here and I’m incredibly grateful that God has given me this opportunity to do so. My four years here so far have truly been the best years of my life, so far … And that’s in no small part to the men in blue here who make working here such a joy.
What was your vision?
I don’t know if I had a clear vision about coming to San Quentin. I had been working in prison ministry for about 20 years. I started at Boston City Jail and slowly worked my way up to the state prison system as a chaplain in Massachusetts. While I have a deep love for this work, I found Massachusetts a pretty horrible system to work in as a chaplain. There was little in the way of rehabilitative programming in the state prisons. They were and are pretty bleak places.
I think my mental image of San Quentin was like most people on the East Coast have – a famous prison – Death Row, violent past, Johnny Cash and so on. It has a scary cache about it.
My vision for the Catholic Chapel here is that it be truly a house of God that people of all faiths (or no faith) can come to be spiritually fed, whatever their path.
How has being a Jesuit influenced ministry here?
One of the things that attracted me to the Jesuits (the official title of the order is “The Society of Jesus”) is that its members tend to be really smart men who have open minds and never stop learning.
Another thing that attracted me to the Jesuits was their emphasis on working with the poor and marginalized.
A quote that caught my attention early on was a statement they made about our faith: “The mission of the Society of Jesus today is the service of faith, of which the promotion of justice is an absolute requirement. For reconciliation with God demands the reconciliation of people with one anther.”
Looking back, I see how God has guided my choices – and led me to this work. The Christian churches haven’t always responded enough to prison ministry – the work has to be an expression of the Gospel – to go where the church is not, to serve those who society has neglected or rejected.
It just so happened that as I began my life as a Jesuit, the U.S. was already beginning a tragic move toward mass incarceration. At no time have there ever been so many Americans locked up in jails and prisons – and the churches for the most part haven’t mobilized to meet the needs of prisoners or those who work in prisons.
Part Two of this interview will be published in June.
FCC Proposes New Regulations To Limit High Phone Costs
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed new regulations to curb excessive charges by the prison telephone industry.
The purpose of the proposed regulations, according to Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), is to “protect the families of incarcerated people from the predatory prison telephone industry.”
In October 2014, the FCC called for feedback in an effort to, among other things, ban kickbacks to prisons that award telephone contracts to service providers such as Securus, CenturyLink, ATN, Telmate and Global Tel*Link (GTL).
The FCC reported GTL alone “has more than 1,900 correctional facility customers,” according to its documents.
“The FCC’s previous order said that companies aren’t allowed to treat the kickbacks as part of the cost of doing business,” PPI reported.
Other FCC proposals were to cap in-state and out-of-state calling rates, PPI reported.
“The previous FCC regulation capped only the rates for calls between states, which tend to be more expensive but also only make up about 20 percent of all calls from incarcerated people,” PPI reported.
The new proposal, according to PPI, would make certain a family would not be subject to paying more to talk to a loved one who is incarcerated just because that person is in the same state.
Aside from the proposal to stop kickbacks, PPI reported the FCC wanted feedback regarding placing caps, limits or a complete prohibition on “ancillary fees.”
FCC documents cite such fees. For example, GTL charges a minimum fee of $25 to set up a prepaid account for customers to receive collect calls from inmates. If the customer does not use the account and later requests a refund, GTL will charge a $5 refund fee.
“If the account remains inactive for 180 days, the remaining funds become the property of GTL,” the FCC reported. “The Prison Policy Initiative recommends ‘banning all illegitimate fees.’”
“Our research found that fees drive up the phone bills families have to pay, so this step would make a huge difference for the more than 2 million kids with an incarcerated parent,” PPI reported.
According to PPI, the FCC also requested more feedback on how to address other telecommunication services, like video visitation, that lack many of the same regulatory oversights as phone services.
The FCC is looking for “strategies (on how) to make the prison phone market more competitive, and increase access for individuals with disabilities,” PPI reported. In addition, the FCC is looking to see how it can apply the new regulations to existing contracts.
“Here at PPI, we were pleased to see that the FCC cited our research, presentations, petition submissions, and technical comments throughout their proposal to take a huge step forward,” PPI said.
“The commission took long-overdue steps to provide relief to the millions of Americans paying unjust and unreasonable interstate inmate phone rates. These exorbitantly high rates discouraged phone calls and, at times, made it nearly impossible for inmates to maintain contact with their families, friends, and communities, to society’s detriment,” the FCC said.
In its Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FCC said reforms to Inmate Calling Service (ICS) would benefit society by making it easier and cost-effective for inmates to stay in touch with their families and friends.
Citing an April 2014 study by the Department of Justice, the FCC found that two-thirds of the 400,000 inmates released over a five-year period were rearrested within three years; and 75 percent were rearrested within five years.
“As a nation, we need to take all actions possible to reduce these recidivism rates. Studies have shown that family contact during incarceration is associated with lower recidivism rates,” the FCC said.
The FCC acknowledged the disparity between Local Exchange Carriers that provide service to the public, and those, such as GTL, that provide ICS.
“While the commission prefers to promote competition to ensure rates are just and reasonable, it remains clear that in the inmate-calling service market, as currently structured, competition is failing to do so,” the FCC said.
According to the FCC, companies that provide ICS have been “characterized by some as subject to ‘reverse competition,’ forcing providers to compete not on price or service quality but on the size of site commission payments.”
In the FCC document citing consumer disclosures, it sought comments on “how to ensure that rates and fees are more transparent to consumers.”
The regulatory agency also sought comments on how service providers could better notify customers regarding ICS options that are available to them and the cost of those options.
According to the FCC, “One ICS provider underscored the importance of ‘educating the consumer.’”
FCC Propone Nuevas Regulaciones Para Limitar El Alto Costo de Llamadas deTelefono
La Comisión Federal de Comunicaciones (FCC) propuso nuevas regulaciones para frenar los cargos excesivos por la industria de teléfonos en la prisión.
El propósito de las regulaciones propuestas, de acuerdo a la Póliza de Iniciativa de la prisión (PPI), es “proteger las familias de personas encarceladas de la industria depredadora de teléfonos que opera en la prisión.”
En Octubre del 2014, la FCC busco recaudar información, entre otras cosas, en un esfuerzo para prohibir a las prisiones las facilidades (mordidas) que conceden contratos a proveedores de servicios como Securus, CenturyLink, ATN, Telmate y Global Tel*Link (GTL).
La FCC reporto que la GTL por si sola “tiene mas de 1,900 clientes en las instalaciones correccionales,” de acuerdo a los documentos de la FCC.
“La orden previa de la FCC mencionó que a las compañías no se les permite tratar las facilidades (mordidas) que se les dan como parte de el costo al hacer negocios,” reporto la PPI.
Otras de las propuestas de la FCC fueron la de establecer un limite a los cargos de llamadas dentro del estado y fuera del estado, reporto la PPI.
La regulación previa de la FCC solamente limitaba las tarifas de llamadas entre estados, lo cual tiende a ser mas costoso pero también únicamente compensa cerca del 20 porciento de todas las llamadas de personas encarceladas,” reporto la PPI.
De acuerdo a la PPI, la nueva propuesta se asegurara de que la familia no este expuesta a pagar mas al hablar con su ser querido quien este encarcelado solamente porque tal persona esta en el mismo estado.
Aparte de la propuesta de parar las facilidades (mordidas), La PPI reporto que la FCC busco recaudar información con respecto a situar restricciones, limites o una prohibición completa en la “cuota auxiliar.”
Los documentos de la FCC cito tales cuotas. Por ejemplo, la GTL cobra una cuota mínima de $25 para crear una cuenta prepagada para que los clientes reciban llamadas por cobrar de presos. Si el cliente no utiliza la cuenta y después solicita un reembolso, la GTL cobrara $5 por cuota de reembolso.
“Si la cuenta permanece inactiva por 180 días, los fondos restantes pasan a ser propiedad de la GTL,” reporto la FCC. “La Póliza Iniciativa de la Prisión recomienda la ‘prohibición a toda cuota ilegal.’”
“Nuestra investigación encontró que las cuotas aumentan las facturas de teléfono que las familias tienen que pagar, por lo tanto este paso hará una gran diferencia para mas de 2 millones de niños con padres encarcelados,” reporto la PPI.
De acuerdo a la PPI, la FCC también solicito más auto-crítica sobre como abordar otros servicios de telecomunicaciones, como visitas por video, que carece de las mismas normas que rigen a los servicios de teléfono.
La FCC esta buscando “estrategias en como hacer que el mercado de teléfono de la prisión sea mas competitivo, y aumentar el acceso para individuos con discapacidades,” la PPI reporto. Además, la FCC esta observando como se puede aplicar las nuevas regulaciones a contratos existentes.
“Aquí en la PPI, estamos satisfechos al mirar que la FCC cito nuestra investigación, presentaciones, peticiones y comentarios técnicos a través de todas las propuestas para dar un gran paso hacia delante,” La PPI menciono.
“La comisión tomo los pasos largamente atrasados para proveer alivio a los millones de americanos que pagan tarifas de teléfono injustas e irrazonables por llamadas interestatales que los presos efectúan. Esas tarifas bastante altas desaniman el hacer llamadas por teléfono, y algunas veces, es casi imposible para los presos mantener contacto con sus familias, amigos y comunidades, lo cual es perjudicial para la sociedad,” la FCC menciono.
En su Segundo Aviso de la Propuesta Reglamentaria, la FCC dijo que las reformas del Servicio de Llamadas del Preso (ICS), beneficiara a la sociedad al hacer más fácil y accesible el costo efectivo de las llamadas para que los presos se mantengan en contacto con sus familias y amigos.
Citando un estudio por el Departamento de Justicia en Abril del 2014, la FCC encontró que en un periodo de cinco años dos-tercios de los 400,000 presos puestos en libertad fueron arrestados nuevamente en menos de tres años; y el 75 por ciento fueron arrestados en menos de cinco años.
“Como nación, necesitamos tomar toda acción posible para reducir estas tasas de reincidencia. Estudios han mostrado que el contacto con familiares durante el encarcelamiento esta asociado con una tasa de reincidencia baja,” la FCC menciono.
La FCC reconoce la desigualdad entre Empresas de Intercambio Local que proveen servicio al público, y aquellas, tales como la GTL, que proveen el Servicio de Llamadas al preso (ICS).
La FCC anuncio que, “Mientras la comisión prefiere promover la competición para asegurarse que las tarifas sean justas y razonables, se mantiene claro que en el mercado de servicio de llamada al preso, como se encuentra actualmente estructurada, la competición a fallado en llevarlo a cabo.”
De acuerdo a la FCC, las compañías que son proveedoras de ICS han sido “caracterizadas por algunos como sujetas a ‘revertir la competición’ forzando a los proveedores a competir no por precios o calidad de servicios, sino por el tamaño de las comisiones.”
En el documento de la FCC, citando las revelaciones al consumidor, busco comentarios en “como asegurar que las tarifas y cobros sean más claros para los consumidores.”
La agencia reguladora también buscó comentarios sobre como los proveedores de servicios podrían mejorar la forma de notificar a los clientes con respecto a las opciones del ICS que están a su disposición y sobre el costo de esas opciones.
De acuerdo a la FCC, “Un proveedor de la ICS subrayo la importancia de la ‘educación al consumidor.’”
–Traducción Marco Villa
Searching for Accuracy In the Recidivism Rate
The states should move away from collecting and using recidivism data as a single number that uniformly defines success or failure in sentencing and corrections policy, urged a recent report by the Urban Institute.
The report points out that recidivism, the most commonly used definition of correctional success, is “most frequently reported as a single statewide rate, which is too imprecise to draw meaningful conclusions and insufficient for assessing the impact of changes to policy and practice.”
“Making recidivism a meaningful performance measure demands that states employ a wide range of reoffending metrics. States should shift their thinking about recidivism from reporting one number to developing a portfolio of outcome measures that assess the impact of correctional interventions,” the report said.
The report, titled “Improving Recidivism as a Performance Measure,” analyzed the movements of the states that participate in the Justice Reinvestment Initiative to change the way they approach criminal justice policy development and adoption. These states “engage in a data-driven process that targets the drivers of the correctional population and prison costs,” and as a result, “more than 20 states have enacted reforms to reduce correctional spending so that a portion of the savings can be reallocated to programs that improve public safety,” the report found.
Citing various data from the states, the report outlined four steps that it suggests are necessary to make recidivism a meaningful performance measure:
The first is to define recidivism using multiple measures of success.
Recidivism reduction is the responsibility of multiple agencies and many different actors. States “should think of recidivism as a series of different performance indicators that must be carefully calibrated to the outcome they are intended to measure.”
In addition to return to custody, states should also include desistance, time to failure, crime severity and behavior change as indicators of success.
Second, states should develop protocols to ensure data collections are consistent, accurate and timely.
The current reporting on recidivism by the states is inconsistent at best. “Ongoing data collection and analysis is necessary for any performance measure.”
In the data collection process, states should assign unique identifiers and link data across criminal justice agencies, develop long-term records, collect contextual information and update changes in status.
Third, analyses of data should account for the underlying composition of the population.
Recidivism will be a more useful performance measure when we can compare recidivism outcomes across populations. As a necessary precursor, statistical techniques that account for the risk level of the population being studied must be employed for this comparison.
“Risk-adjusted” recidivism rates – expected recidivism rates compared with actual observed rate of recidivism – should be used in analyzing recidivism across populations, such as, for example, parolees and max-outs.
Last, states should package the findings on recidivism to maximize its impact, and get the results into the hands of decision makers.
Recidivism analysis “has to be packaged succinctly and disseminated to the right audience to influence the direction of policy and practice.
“To maximize the impact of recidivism as a performance measure, states should provide annual information to decision makers in all three branches of the government, report a variety of recidivism information to measure success and summarize findings for policymakers.”
Undocumented Immigrants on the Rise Since September 11
The excessive incarceration of undocumented immigrants and other non-citizens currently residing within the U.S. border has accelerated since the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the Justice Policy Journal reports.
Criminalizing immigration has rapidly accelerated since September 2001, the study for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice concluded.
“The United States has developed a prison-industrial complex,” the report said.
Proponents contend that the private sector can more efficiently provide services than the government, leading to cost containment and the reduction of the federal budget and debt,” the study stated.
The sentiment toward undocumented immigrants has soured since 2001, according to the study prepared by Alissa R. Ackerman and Rich Furman of the University of Washington and Meghan Sacks of Fairleigh Dickinson University.
The detention of immigrants and noncitizen residents in the United States is nothing new, nor is the use of incarceration as the primary means to punishment its citizens, the study says.
The authors report undocumented immigrants are a primary target of the prison industrial complex.
“The immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has partnered with the private prison industry to detain immigrants. Some scholars have argued that this movement is part of a ‘new penology’ where immigrants are determined to be a dangerous and risky segment of the population that must be controlled,” the study said.
Private prison companies obtain the most revenue from state prison contracts and it stands to reason that as state prison population decrease, so too will profits. To this end, it is essential that streams of profit must continue to flow. Immigrant detention and the criminalization of immigration will provide that revenue, the researchers claim.
According to the study, “Approximately 12 percent of the federal prison population is currently comprised of individuals convicted of or awaiting trial for immigration offenses. There are conflicting reports as to how many immigrant detainees are housed in private facilities.”
ICE reports “17 percent of individuals detained by them are housed in contract, or private facilities in 2012.” However, an Associated Press report from the same year suggests nearly half of immigrant detainees were held by private prison corporations, the report noted.
There were around 2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S. today. According to researchers, this does not include roughly 33,000 people who were detained every day by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ackerman, Furman and Sacks defined a new penology as the management, surveillance and control of a specific group of people. It’s about identifying and managing these disobedient groups.
A religiously and ethnically constituted group of Muslim and Arab men has allegedly victimized the American public. “As a result, law enforcement tactics such as racial profiling and preventive detention that would have shocked the nation 20 years ago are tolerated and even condoned as a ‘necessary evil’ for the protection of national security,” according to the study.
The study asserts that rehabilitation is no longer the model of the criminal justice system. This was evidenced by the increase and disparities that led to a public movement of harsher sentencing legislation.
New sentencing laws resulted in a noticeable shift from rehabilitation to retribution and incapacitation. In their opinion, danger management is a part of the move to a new penology.
“These laws have provided the political climate to detain more people. The number of individuals detained has risen exponentially over the last 30 years and corresponds with the rise of the overall U.S. prison population,” the study said.
Three major transformations accompanied this shift to the new penology. According to their study, “the language of clinical diagnosis has been replaced by the language of probability and risk; the goal of reducing recidivism is abandoned for an increasingly efficient system of control; and the strategy of targeting individuals has been replaced by a focus on aggregate populations of offenders.”
The authors of the study wrote, “Selective incapacitation policies moved to the forefront of the criminal justice system in the 1980s. These policies seek to identify and incapacitate high rate offenders at the height of their offending in order to reduce crime”
The new penology is present in immigration policies, the study claims. “The priorities of the immigration system have shifted and can be seen by the growth of immigration law enforcement, the targeting of immigrants with criminal background for law enforcement, the increasing percentage of noncitizens being detained, and the paradoxical growth of admittance into and deportation from the United States at the same time.”
The study adds, “The new penology corresponds with and reinforces one of the most profound changes in U.S. incarceration and most importantly in the incarceration and detention of immigrants: the privatization of prisons. This phenomenon is apparent in the accelerated growth of the private prison industry.”
This rise in the prison population “obviously includes the undocumented, but may also include refugees, asylum seekers and even U.S. citizens that appear to meet some physical or ethnic criteria,” the study reads.
Instead of being well informed about the realities of immigration, policy and reform, the American public has been appeased by the new penology and remains relatively silent on the realities of detection, detention and deportation, the study concludes.
FBI’s Data of Arrest Records Creates Problem For Anyone Who Was Cleared of Charges
Nearly one out of every three American adults is on the FBI’s master criminal database, and that can create problems for those who were cleared of charges.
“Over the last 20 years, authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests.” Between 10,000 and 12,000 new names are added every day, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
“Many people who have never faced charges, or have had charges dropped, find that a lingering arrest record can ruin their chance to secure employment, loans and housing,” the Aug. 18 report said.
Cases of mistaken arrests are also forwarded to the FBI. In many instances, only half of the records with the agency are fully updated. Arrest information is forwarded to the FBI when a case is thrown out locally, but not necessarily updated there.
“There is a myth that if you are arrested and cleared that it has no impact,” said Georgetown law professor Paul Butler. He believes these problems linger for years.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, law enforcement agencies cracked down on urban areas. More than 100,000 officers were put on the streets to combat an out-of-control crime rate.
“The wave of arrests has been fueled in part by unprecedented federal dollars funneled to local police departments and new policing tactics that condoned arrests for even the smallest offenses,” the newspaper reported.
In 2011 the government spent $212 billion on law enforcement at the local and state level, “including judicial, police and corrections cost, according to the most recent estimates provided by the U.S. Census Bureau,” the report revealed.
“You’ve got these large numbers of people now who are stigmatized,” said Jack Levin, co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Boston Northeastern University. “The impact of so many arrests is catastrophic.”
“We made arrests for minor infractions that deterred the more serious infractions down the road,” said James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents about 335,000 police officers. “We don’t apologize for that.” He claims innocent people are alive because of actions taken by law enforcement officers during that time.
Researcher at the University of South Carolina tracked 7,335 randomly selected people in their 20s. Forty percent of the males interviewed were arrested before age 23. “The rate was highest for blacks at 49 percent, 44 percent for Hispanics and 38 percent for whites.”
They found one in five women had been arrested at least once by the age of 23.
Statistics show “47 percent of those arrested weren’t convicted. In more than a quarter of cases, subjects weren’t even formally charged.”
In one case study, a Hispanic male was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting two young girls. The prosecutor’s office dropped the charges because he was the wrong person. He had to hire a lawyer to seek formal expungement after learning “the burden was on him to clear his record.”
Internet websites and background check businesses are charging fees to correct public records and remove mug shots and bogus charges. Recently, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a new bill making it illegal for websites to charge state residents to have their mug hots and arrest photos removed, the report said.
“According to 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 69 percent of employers conduct criminal background checks on all job applicants. Fewer than that — about 58 percent — allow candidates to explain any negative results of a check,” the newspaper stated.
Some employers worry about turning down applicants because of criminal records. Business owner Mike Mitternight said he could be open to a discrimination claim. “I have to do the background checks and take my chances. It’s a lose-lose situation.”
In 2009, Precious Daniels participated in a protest against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan during a debate over the new health care law. She was arrested with only a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge and released on $50 bail. The charge was subsequently dropped.
Daniels didn’t anticipate any future problems until she applied for a job with the Census Bureau in 2010. Several days later, she received notification that a routine background check uncovered a “red flag.”
According to the report, “For her application to proceed, the Census Bureau informed her she would need to submit fingerprints and gave her 30 days to obtain court documents proving her case had been resolved without a conviction.”
Clearing her name was no easy task. “From what I was told by the courthouse, they didn’t have a record,” Daniels said. According to the report, “she didn’t get the job.”
“Today, Ms. Daniels is part of a class-action lawsuit against the Census Bureau alleging that tens of thousands of African-Americans were discriminated against because of the agency’s use of arrest records in its hiring process,” it was reported.
Over 850,000 applicants received similar letters to the one sent to Daniels, said Adam Klein, the New York plaintiff attorney.
The Census Bureau and the Department of Justice representatives denied these allegations. They allege the plaintiffs’ method for analyzing hiring data was “unreliable” and “statistically invalid.”
In 2012, John Keir and his wife were arrested for criminal mischief for scratching someone’s car with a key. The report said, “They were found not guilty at trial.”
The 35-year-old Keir was hired by Regions Bank as an $85,000-a-year information security official in 2014. The bank sent his fingerprints to the FBI as part of a criminal background check. Several weeks later, he was fired, the story said.
Keir “says his firing resulted after failing to disclose his recent arrest record as well as a number of traffic violations during his teens that had branded him as a ‘youthful offender’ in Alabama. He says he didn’t lie on his application, and only recalls being asked about any criminal convictions.”
Arrest records don’t always disappear over the years. According to the report, “An arrest record can only be removed if the local court system notifies the FBI that it should take it out of the file.”
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