San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Archives for March 2016

Three Strikes Initiative Aims to Recruit Registered Voters

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Petitions are being circulated across California, proposing to significantly change the Three Strike Law.
The goal is to gather 500,000 signatures by June 17 enough to meet statutory requirements. The law requires the signatures of at least 365,880 registered California voters.
Leading the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2016 campaign is CHOOSE1, a grassroots, nonprofit organization that hopes to place the reforms on the November election ballot.
The California Attorney General’s Office has given CHOOSE1 until June 17 to gather voter-registered signatures to qualify the initiative.
“I am excited to see another attempt to further chip away at the terrible Three Strike Law that has put thousands of people away for decades, while costing taxpayers billions of dollars,” says Emily Harris of Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
The proposed initiative would make two changes to the state’s existing Three Strike Law. First, serious and violent felonies committed before the law was enacted will no longer be considered when courts are deciding to sentence an offender for a second or third strike.
Second, the law will remove “criminal threats” of violence from the list of felonies that are considered serious under state law.
When the Three Strike Law was enacted in 1994, prior felony convictions were applied retroactively. Offenders convicted of new crimes with prior convictions dating back five, 10, 15 or even 30 years were immediately subjected to sentencing under the new law.
Many offenders’ pre-1994 convictions were the subject of plea bargains, at which time they were informed that they would be sentenced for a specified amount of time, with a one- or five-year enhancement. They were not told they could receive a life sentence.
Among those who would become eligible for relief if the initiative is approved are Tolbert Williams, who received 50 years to life for having in his possession two stolen mini speakers, and Michael Williams, who received 35 years to life for a verbal threat.
 

|“Many third-strike offenders that have felony convictions

prior to March 1994 have now served 20 years

or longer behind bars and are now between the ages of 37 and 60”|

 
 
The Three Strike law is wrong because it re-punishes offenders for felony convictions, which is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, double jeopardy clause, says Julie Piccolotti, a proponent of the initiative.
Piccolotti said she believes the current Three Strike law should have never been applied retroactively to prior felony convictions that predate its enactment. She said in particular because many offenders’ priors were plea agreements, in which they agreed to serve a specified amount of time for committing a new offense that did not include a life term.
The Three Strikes Reform Act of 2016 seeks to correct errors in the law. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the ballot measure will save the state hundreds of millions of dollars by resentencing individuals currently imprisoned under a third strike sentence. Many third-strike offenders that have felony convictions prior to March 1994 have now served 20 years or longer behind bars and are now between the ages of 37 and 60. Many of these offenders have rehabilitated themselves and some are medically incapacitated.
Studies show striker prisoners in this population demographic are less of a threat to public safety.
In an April 2014 study by the Stanford Three Strikes Project and NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund on the progress of Proposition 36 resentencing and release of prisoners, the recidivism rate of those released after being resentenced is 1.3 percent.
Proponents of Proposition 36 attribute its low recidivism rate to several factors: age and time served.
According to Californians for Safety and Justice’s post-election survey on Proposition 36, voters show overwhelming support for the ballot measure that cuts across party lines with broad support for future reforms.
With a national trend by conservatives and liberals, including President Barack Obama, for reform of the criminal justice system, CHOOSE1 and other organizations believe this is the right time to once again amend California’s Three Strike law.
Diana Zuniga of Californians United for a Responsible Budget said its organizations have continued to “fight against California’s Three Strike Law and one day repealing the law all together.”
For more information, the web site is www.choose1.org. 80 Cabrillo Hwy N, STE Q #609. Half Moon Bay, CA 94019. 650-503-6759

Re-entry Program Prepares Prisoners for Release

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A self-help program to safely re-integrate men into their communities before they finish their prison term recently graduated more than 40 inmates. San Quentin State Prison’s Garden Chapel served as a venue for the Feb. 5 graduation.
The idea behind California Re-entry Institute (CRI) is to begin the re-integration process while the participant is incarcerated and continue support services once released.
“I was empowered by knowledge, understanding and emotional intelligence,” said Philip J. Landis, 42, who was given a parole date late last year. “I gained tools to reach a deeper understanding of myself, to embrace change, and develop a plan to make a successful transition back into society.”
Landis is currently awaiting the governor’s final review of his parole.
CRI’s curriculum uses individualized case management and personalized parole planning to assist participants on issues such as emotional needs and addictions, as well as personal empowerment and financial literacy.
 

|“This gave me an opportunity to look at

the worst choice I made in my life

and take full responsibility for my crime”|

 
“It’s amazing the work they’ve done,” said Collette Carroll, CRI executive director. “They come every Saturday. They work hard. They share. They ask for case management. They are always stopping me and asking me questions; they’re anxious and invested. They’re dedicated to being the men who I know they are.”
CRI helps participants with personal transformation through its curriculum.
Victim/Offender Education Group (VOEG) helps offenders understand the impact on victims. Domestic violence prevention is taught by Melissa Davis of the Marin County Probation Department.
“VOEG led me to understand the causative factors of my crime and how it reached back into trauma that I experienced in childhood,” said graduate Roger Chavez, 61.”The crime impact statement taught me about the pain and suffering that I caused my victim and society,” he added, “This gave me an opportunity to look at the worst choice I made in my life and take full responsibility for my crime.”
Addiction Recovery Counseling (ARC) is also a part of the CRI curriculum.
“CRI helped me understand I had a problem with alcohol,” said Eddie Wills. “CRI teaches a little bit of everything. It prepares us for the shock of things we don’t know.”
Wills said he’s been incarcerated 33 years and has been to the parole board three times.
“It (CRI) gave me insight into who I am and where I come from and why I did a lot of the things that led me here,” he said. “We recognize the power of crime impact on our victims.”
Among the guests at the graduation were Susan Bonilla, Assemblywoman 14th District East Bay, (D-Concord), and several legislative aides.
“Graduation is a wonderful day. It speaks about stepping up. This is a significant day. You have accomplished something,” Bonilla said. “You have stepped up and done the work that you needed to do.”
Bonilla said that part of her work is to get programs like CRI in other prisons. “When I shake your hand I believe in you and with that handshake I hope to shake your hand in a different place when you are out,” she said before passing out certificates to the graduates.
Ryan Morimune, legislative aide and press secretary to Bonilla, said he was inspired and educated by what he learned. “A lot of people see recidivism but we don’t actually know what is behind it. So I learned it is about allowing people to do something different, be something different, allowing them the resources to make a safe and productive transition into a new life.”
“They stand before you as men that are assets, men that have people out there waiting for them. I am excited about what lies in front of them,” Carroll proudly expressed to the inmates and guests in closing the ceremony.
For Carroll, CRI is a legacy that reaches back to her husband, who volunteered at San Quentin for nearly 30 years before he passed away. She shared this moment with the new graduates of CRI. “If it was not for my husband, almost 16 years ago, volunteering me to come in to start a self-help program here, the fire would not have been ignited, the spark would not have been lit, and I would not have had the experience to share with you men. When I was in my darkest moment, when Roland passed away, people said I was a light in your dark place. You were the light in my dark place.”
Graduates:
Shai Alkebu-Lan, Edward Buchanan, Cleo Cloman III,Lee Conley, Kevin Fuqua, Gary Harrell, Jorge Heredia, Ernest Hill, Eddie Hollingsworth III, Claudius Johnson, Richard Lathan, Donavon Norwood, Peng Nampha, Ruben Ramirez, Alexei Ruiz, Tyrone Shirriel, David Stephens, Isaiah Thompson, James Vick, Martin Walters, James Wortham, Ian Charles Brown, Roger Chavez, Ronald Coleman, Kevin Demings, Andrew Gazzeny, Lemar Harrison, Eddie Herena, Glen Hill, Richard Honea, Phillip Landis, Nguyenly Nguyen, Kevork Parsakrian, Daniel Plunkett, Arthur Robinson, Danny Sanders, Marty Spears, Mark Tedeschi, Somdeng Dan Thongsy, Quinton Walker, Eddie Joe Wills, Richard Zorns.
–Rahsaan Thomas contributed to this story

TRUST Graduation Honors 88 Prisoners

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Eighty-eight San Quentin men completed the TRUST (Teaching Responsibility Utilizing Sociological Training) program which help prisoners prepare for freedom were honored at a joint graduation ceremony.
The graduation featured keynote speaker Joe Paul and the presentation of a check for $1,000 from TRUST members to an organization that supports children with incarcerated parents.
Many of the men have been in prison for decades. Several different groups under the TRUST umbrella help these incarcerated men with their journey and preparation for success in society.
“Today is about the 12th annual graduation of TRUST class 2015,” said host Michael Thompson, a TRUST member and the Project LA Chairman.
“There are about 39 TRUST members who completed their six-month curriculum. About 30 who completed Project LA’s 24-week course and 19 people who completed Health and Wellness. They consolidated the banquet for a sense of community and to give everybody their props for their commitment,” continued Thompson.
It was Project LA’s first graduating class.
Paul told the crowd of outside and inside people in the Protestant Chapel on Feb. 4 about making the most of a second chance.
“E22842,” Paul rattled off from the podium. “That was my prison number.”
He served four years for manslaughter, paroled in 1992 and has not looked back. Now he is program manager at Jericho Vocational Service Center.
“I’ve had the privilege of hiring my crime (partner in crime),” said Paul. “That same passion we used for crime is the same passion we are using right now for good.”
Paul recommended incarcerated men do five things:
1. Start now to get tools to prepare for life after custody.
2. Direct energy to maintaining support outside of prison.
3. Trust in your ability to lead a positive, prosocial life. Challenge threats to your new sets of beliefs.
4. Become an expert on you. Your real courage is being who you are, not who people want you to be.
5. Determine to use your pain, as your power.
TRUST teaches skills on how to live, how to handle family, relationships and job skills. It has a lot to do with living life and community, said graduate Donald Davis.
Project LA prepares men for the realities of paroling back to the Los Angeles area and helps released men with vocational training and utilizing re-entry services.
Health and Wellness, which began in 2008, is a 12-week course that helps men heal from past trauma.
“It’s an in-depth exploration of how trauma impacted their choices and decisions,” said Ameeta Singh, a therapist for Health and Wellness.
The incarcerated men presented a check for $1,000 to Project WHAT (We’re Here And Talking), which is a group with the goal of raising awareness about the impact on 2.7 million children who have parents in prison and to change or improve the policies that affect them.
Jessica Calderon accepted the check. Calderon’s mother was three months pregnant when her father went to prison for 17 years. Now she comes into San Quentin to speak with TRUST members and share her experiences.
“It’s all about creating a bond and keeping it,” said Calderon. “My dad watched my favorite TV show Charmed so he’d have something to talk to me about. He wrote me, but I hardly wrote back. Even if we don’t write back, it means a lot. I keep a box of all my dad’s letters.”
Singh opened her short speech with a quote by an Aboriginal political activist group from the 1970s, “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
She said she believes that healing in our own lives facilitates healing in the lives of others.
Timothy Warren opened the event with a prayer and sang Amazing Grace using his own unique form of vibrato.
Then TRUST Chairman Orlando Harris walked on stage to the sound of James Brown’s This is A Man’s World.
“TRUST’s mission statement is to assist men to become leaders,” said Harris when the music stopped. “TRUST will strive to help whoever decides to change with educational tools that turn their liabilities into assets.”
Next Project LA Executive Advisers Diana Kronstadt and Helaine Melnitzer spoke.
Kronstadt, who has worked with kids for 40 years as a psychologist, mentioned she never thought she would be working with men in prison.
“I learned the powerful truth that change is possible at any stage,” said Kronstadt.
Melnitzer thanked executive sponsor Antonia Fajardo for her support, hard work in making things happen and putting up with Melnitzer’s persistence. Melnitzer says she once chased Gavin Newsom down to speak to him about Project LA.
Inside facilitator, Angelo Alvarez, danced to the podium with James Brown’s I feel Good playing.
Alvarez, who is the San Quentin News’ Ask on the Line columnist, joked with the audience before making the serious point that incarcerated men are humans with children, siblings and parents, who are trying to make amends and who matter.
Community Partnership Manager Steve Emrick congratulated the volunteers, supporters and program graduates.
The graduates and volunteers expressed how much the programs helped them all.
Bootsy Coleman said, “Joe Paul was very inspiring to me, and Michael Thompson gave great information.”
Thompson said, “Speaking for Project LA, what my men get out of it is a sense of belonging. They see that our group has their best interest at heart, and the resources they get, they can really use in society.”
Diana Williams is a volunteer who oversees the Employment Readiness Seminars. She does it “because I come out of prison and I feel happier. It’s like Ameeta’s quote. I’m not helping anybody. I feel like I get more out of it … understanding our own humanity and how we are all connected to each other.”
Kronstadt said, “Seeing these men struggling to bring out their best self brings out the best self in me.”
“Majority of people locked in U.S. have severe neglect and abuse in childhood,” said Singh. “We go over the Advise Childhood Experience study. People take this information, and it transforms their lives.”
Professor of Sociology John Ely brings his St. Mary’s College students in to TRUST to learn about class and race. His students have worked with Dr. Gary Mendez on a book about TRUST.
Project LA taught graduate Russell Bowden his employment rights. He learned responsibility and how to interview.
Antwan “Banks” Williams closed out the event by performing inspirational rap songs.
“Freedom, I am on my way. I’m in prison, but all I see is free air,” rapped Williams.
–Kevin D. Sawyer contributed to this story

Annual Report Strives End Mass Incarceration

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After more than a decade of research and advocacy to end the harmful effects of mass incarceration, the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) continues to reach new heights. Throughout its history, PPI has relied on volunteers and interns to gather research information and to analyze and produce reports that raise awareness for policy makers and the public. Now the organization is branching out, according to its 2014-2015 annual report.
“This year, we’ve finally grown to the point where we can create a new network that allows less frequent but more focused contributions from working people throughout the country,” writes PPI Executive Director Peter Wagner in the report.
In a study on the racial geography of mass incarceration PPI exposes how gerrymandering gives undue voting representation to those living near prisons. That’s because the Census Bureau counts prisoners based on where they are confined instead of their home county.
“We hope these campaigns will encourage other states to address the problem of prison gerrymandering and compel the Census Bureau to implement a standard, national solution,” said Alison Walsh, PPI’s Policy and Communications Associate.
In its study, Prisons of Poverty, PPI unveiled the pre-incarceration incomes of prisoners to show how they are “shut out of the economy even before they are incarcerated,” writes Wagner, adding that this data was made accessible by data scientist Daniel Kopf.
In recent years PPI has worked to bring fairness to the phone rates that family and friends must pay to stay in touch with prisoners while they are confined.
“Recognizing yet another way that mass incarceration punishes entire communities, we’ve made it a priority to help the FCC understand and regulate this previously hidden market,” PPI reported.
“Since we published our annual report, the Federal Communications Commission has approved new fee limits and a rate cap” on interstate calls, said Walsh. New protections are expected to extend to intra-state calls.
“We are also working with criminal justice and immigration advocates in California to encourage the use of video technology to supplement, not replace, in-person visits,” said Walsh.
In the report Screening Out Family Time by Policy and Communications Associate Bernadette Rabuy and Wagner, PPI revealed how video visitation is used to discontinue human contact with those who are incarcerated.
PPI research provided a comprehensive national survey of the video visitation industry and held the industry’s alleged benefits up to the scrutiny of families of the incarcerated. The first year of its campaign to protect in-person visits produced many victories.
“Bernadette’s January report has transformed this industry, empowering families and facilities to fight back against bad contracts,” said Wagner.
PPI has also joined forces with attorney Stephen Raher, said Wagner, “to take on another expanding predatory industry.” According to Wagner, prepaid release cards are being issued when someone leaves jail or prison. If they are due money, instead of receiving a check or cash they are given prepaid MasterCards that come with “exorbitant fees.”
 

|“Bernadette’s January report has transformed this industry,

empowering families and facilities to fight back against bad contracts”|

 
“These cards charge some of the poorest people in this country,” said Wagner. “That’s just unconscionable.” He said Raher’s research caught the attention of the media and was “the core of our letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau calling for regulation.”
Other issues covered in the report include sentencing enhancement zones that restrict where the formerly incarcerated may reside, as well as driver’s license suspension for those convicted of drug crimes having nothing to do with driving. The report also addresses the practice of some jails halting letters to inmates.
“Controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio began a misguided trend in 2007 when he banned families from sending letters to loved ones in jail, requiring personal correspondence to take place on postcards,” PPI reported.
“Most recently, we analyzed Bureau of Justice Statistics data finding there is a national crisis of suicide in local jails, a problem far more prevalent in jails than in state prisons or the US,” PPI reported.
PPI is expanding its reach to reveal how mass incarceration at local, state and national levels continues to erode sociological conditions in the US. In this era of Black Lives Matter, it analyzed Gallup’s public opinion surveys that reveal how people feel about law enforcement.
“American confidence in police has reached a 22-year low,” PPI reported. “Black Americans consistently report having less confidence than whites in the police.”
According to PPI’s annual report, it produces original research and edits multiple databases “to empower activists, journalists and policy makers to shape effective criminal justice policy.”
The idea to start PPI came from a group of students (which included attorney Peter Wagner) in 2001. “We are also enormously grateful to the small network of generous individuals who sustain our work,” the report said. Its website can be accessed at www.prisonpolicy.org.

Yoga Instructor Chanda Wilson Helps Change Prisoners’ Lives

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Chanda Wilson says she teaches yoga to San Quentin prisoners because it helps them transform their lives.
That was her answer when a health care worker once asked her, “Why are you going into San Quentin?”
“If we all did our part, society could change,” Wilson said. “I feel like this work chose me.”
Having grown up in Flint, Mich., Wilson has seen poverty and death. This keeps her from judging others.
“We all have issues. We all suffer. We all have struggles. We all have committed acts of violence with our words,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s students have reported how yoga helps them.
“Some men said that they had difficulty but they remembered to pause and breathe in the moment and respond appropriately,” Wilson said.
“The greatest feedback I get from people is not about a particular pose they mastered but that they can disengage from a potential conflict based on what they learned from meditation,” said James Fox, the founder of the Inside Yoga Project, in an interview with Amelia Pany for the Epoch Times.
A Journal of Criminal Justice study found meditators have a 35 to 40 percent lower recidivism rate than parolees who only received educational, vocational and psychotherapy, but no yoga, according to an article written by Pany titled Prison Yoga: Is Meditation the Cure for Recidivism.
Wilson started teaching yoga inside San Quentin StatePrison more than a year ago at the request of Fox.
“James is awesome,” Wilson said. “He is so deeply committed to working with this population. It’s a calling for him. I consider it an honor to be part of his prison yoga project dream.”
Wilson’s journey to becoming a yoga teacher started 21 years ago, while in college. She suffered from insomnia. On the first day she tried yoga, she fell asleep in corpse pose. She awoke realizing yoga helped her get over insomnia. She also noticed yoga made her more flexible and stronger. The former active fitness enthusiast continued to practice for 10 years before becoming an instructor.
While teaching public classes, the Resolve to Stop Violence Program asked her to volunteer taking on students in the San Francisco County Jail. RSVP is a self-help program for men who have committed acts of violence against women. She agreed.
“I’m just trying to live up to my potential, and I want to help others do the same,” Wilson said.
After having her daughter three years ago, she took a break from teaching yoga in penal institutions until Fox asked her to teach at San Quentin.
Wilson says teaching yoga in male correctional facilities is not an issue.
“The guys have been incredibly respectful of me. I feel incredibly safe,” Wilson said.
While teaching her students, she also learns from them.
“I think this is a form of monastic life — you could let it destroy you or you can let it become part of your practice,” Wilson said. “I get to see, I get to learn that even under these circumstances you can practice (yoga).
“I also get to see you practice, how my instructions are received, how your body performs in different poses — it helps me be a better teacher.”
She reports hearing about a disproportionate number of San Quentin men complaining of sciatica injuries. She recommends yoga pose Downward Facing Dog or laying on a blanket with your legs held parallel against a wall.
“Opening the piriformis muscle (located in the buttock) can help relieve the pain of sciatica injuries,” said Wilson.
As for teaching yoga, “If it helps even one person feel less pain, less anxiety, less stress, less heartache, then it’s worth it.”

U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Gives Juvenile Lifers a Chance for Parole

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Prisoners sentenced as juveniles to life without parole, even for homicide, may now petition courts for parole eligibility, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.
“Allowing those offenders to be considered for parole ensures that juveniles whose crimes reflected only transient immaturity — and who have since matured — will not be forced to serve a disproportionate sentence in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” the 6-3 ruling said.
Louisiana prisoner Henry Montgomery served 46 years of a life sentence for killing a police officer when he was 17. The trial judge determined he should never be eligible for parole.
In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for juvenile homicide offenders violated the eighth amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
The decision in that case, Miller v. Alabama, required sentencing courts to consider a child’s “diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change” before condemning him or her to life in prison.
After that decision, Montgomery asked Louisiana state courts to review his sentence, claiming it was unconstitutional. They denied his petition, which he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court overruled Louisiana’s decision, declaring that all juvenile homicide offenders serving sentences of life without parole could petition for parole eligibility. State and federal courts had previously conflicted on whether the Miller ruling applied to earlier convictions.
The new Supreme Court ruling will not affect state sentences. “A state may remedy a Miller violation by permitting juvenile homicide offenders to be considered for parole, rather than by reentencing them,” the decision reads.

Court Denies Condemned Prisoners’ Right to Petition for Execution

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A federal appeals court has ruled that condemned California prisoners may not use petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal courts to challenge the systemic delay in their execution.
In 2014 a federal District Court in California granted prisoner Ernest DeWayne Jones’s petition to set aside his death sentence. The court held that the “systemic delay and dysfunction” in California’s post-conviction review process for capital prisoners violated the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

9th circuit

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court decision in November 2015. “(D)elay, in large part, is a function of the desire of our courts, state and federal, to get it right, to explore exhaustively, or at least sufficiently, any argument that might save someone’s life,” the court remarked.

Delays

“(S)uch delays are the product of a constitutional safeguard, not a constitutional defect, because they assure careful review of the defendant’s conviction and sentence.”
However, the Court of Appeals did not base its decision on an analysis of the constitutionality of California’s system of post-conviction judicial review for capital prisoners. It did so for a procedural reason: the federal courts may not make new constitutional rules of criminal procedure on petition for writ of habeas corpus.
In California, the post-conviction judicial review of cases involving a death sentence includes an automatic appeal to the state Supreme Court and a subsequent discretionary appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, any petitions for writ of habeas corpus to the state or federal courts (known as “collateral review”), and the eventual petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for review of the decisions on collateral review.

Teague rule

A Supreme Court decision in 1989, known as the Teague rule, prohibits the federal courts from considering novel constitutional theories on habeas corpus review.
The District Court in Jones’ case found that “delay is evident at each stage of the post-conviction review process” for capital prisoners in California.
Specifically, more than 900 people have been sentenced to death in the state since 1978; only 13 have been executed. As of 2014, some Death Row inmates had died of natural causes, the sentence of some had been vacated, and 748 remained on Death Row. For those who are eventually executed, “the process will likely take 25 years or more,” opined the District Court.

Assemblywoman Wants to Change Definition of Racial Profiling

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Legislation to change California’s definition of racial profiling was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
The measure was presented by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego. The new law will require local law enforcement agencies to collect demographic data on the people they stop, the reason for the stop, and whether the stop resulted in a citation or arrest.
The bill also requires the attorney general to establish an advisory board to improve diversity and racial sensitivity among law enforcement with the goal of eliminating identity and racial profiling, The Associated Press reported Oct. 3.
By April 2019, the bigger police departments will have to start reporting and smaller ones by April 2023, the AP reported.
The recent data collected by the Attorney General’s Office revealed that African-Americans make up 6 percent of Californians, but are involved in 17 percent of arrests and a quarter of deaths in custody.
Young Black men are 25 percent more likely to be booked into jail than Whites, the article states.
The bill was opposed by several Republicans. They cited cost and said it was unnecessary as police agencies begin using body cameras. They said they fear reverse profiling against Whites by officers to skew the statistics, the article reported.
The total cost for extra reporting has been estimated at $9 million annually for state agencies and the California Highway Patrol.
Collecting the data could ultimately avoid costly financial settlements when people are unlawfully killed by the police, the supporters argued.
The governor also signed SB11 by Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, to increase training on mental health issues for the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Basic training courses for police recruits would be mandated to 15 hours, with additional training for supervisors every four years.

Radar Technology Invades Privacy

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Many U.S. law enforcement agencies now have radar technology that allows them to see through walls of buildings and houses to know whether anyone is inside, a U.S.A. Today news article reveals.
Privacy advocates, however, have raised concern over the technology. They argue that the surveillance tools used amount to an unconstitutional intrusion by the government upon the personal domain of ordinary citizens, the Jan. 20 USA Today reported.
The device resembles a sophisticated stud-finder and displays whether movement is detected on the other side of a wall. When movement is detected, it shows how far away but does not show a picture or image of what’s going on inside, the article explains.
“The radars work like finely tuned motion detectors, using radio waves to zero in on movements as slight as human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet,” says the article’s writer, Brad Heath.
Documents show that law enforcement agencies including the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service began buying the radars in 2012, the article states.
Their use, though, was not widely known, the article adds.
That changed last December, when the issue was brought before the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver by a man on house arrest who was wanted for violating his parole. Even though they had no search warrant, officers used a device known as the Range-R, made by L3 Communications, to positively identify movement in his home before they entered, USA Today reported.
 

|“The radars work like finely tuned motion detectors,

using radio waves to zero in on movements

as slight as human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet”|

 
The American Civil Liberties Union’s principal technologist, Christopher Soghoian, commented, “The idea that the government can send signals through the wall of your house to figure out what’s inside is problematic.”
The federal appellate judges who heard the case last December said, “The government’s warrant-less use of such a powerful tool to search inside homes poses grave Fourth Amendment questions.”
Yet, the court upheld the search as within the boundary of the U.S. Constitution, U.S.A. Today reported.
The article quotes the three judges on the court as having expressed “little doubt that the radar device deployed here will soon generate many questions for this court.”

Report: Author Encourages Americans to Invest In Black Communities Instead of Prison Rehab

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America needs to invest in Black communities to help minority people succeed and not wait to spend money on rehabilitation of prison inmates, a recent report by the Economic Policy Initiative concludes.
Now it’s to a point where Black children born in 2001 are five and a half times more likely to be incarcerated than their White counterparts, according to the report.
“It is time for society to make the difficult choice that it has been avoiding since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to wholeheartedly invest in the Black community in order to achieve the social and economic equality,” wrote Robynn J.A. Cox, the report author. Cox is an assistant professor at Spellman College.
“We are already employing and providing education and job skills training to individuals imprisoned because most state departments of corrections also have a charge to rehabilitate. Why not offer these programs on the front end prior to committing a crime instead of after it is too late?”
The mass incarceration of Blacks is America’s way to maintain the social and economic status quo, according to Cox
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 is held responsible for the disproportionate rates of incarceration of Blacks in federal prison, Cox wrote.
Many rural communities sought to benefit economically from mass incarceration by using prison construction for economic growth, according to Cox..
To stimulate their economics through job creation, political officials hoped prisons would be a recession-proof industry. Therefore, state and local officials lobby for prison construction, since crime has been tied to federal funding.
For minorities, the burden of proof for a conviction is low, while for Whites it is a higher standard, the report says. Prosecutors are twice as likely to charge a Black defendant with a crime that is under the mandatory minimums versus a White defendant, it says.
Where Blacks make up less than 13 percent of the nation, they made up more than half of the prison population during the height of the prison boom, the 20-page report states.

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