San Quentin News

Written By Incarcerated - Advancing Social Justice

Some states seeking input on wrong parole decisions

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Some states are still seek- ing input from the wrong people on parole decisions a Prison Policy Initiative report maintains.

The report says the wrong people are prosecutors and crime victims.

In California, prosecutors and victims must be notified when a person is being considered for parole. Yet the only information they can provide to parole commissioners is about the crime itself and who that person was, not the individual’s rehabilitative efforts.

Victims and prosecutors should have a right to be heard but the information they provide is not helpful in determining if the person has been rehabilitated, writes Jorge Renaud in the Oct. 25, 2018 report.

This is important given a 2016 survey commissioned by the Alliance on Safety and Justice. The survey indicated that “60 percent of victims preferred shorter prison sentences and more spending on prevention and rehabilitation to longer prison sentences,” Renaud reported.

The report also showed that victims were “three times more likely to prefer” accountability through options other than prison, like “rehabilitation, mental health, drug treatment and community supervision.” They also believed that prison did more to create criminals than to rehabilitate them.

Renaud argues it is “counterintuitive” to seek the opinions of prosecutors and victims during parole hearings, given their goal of putting offenders behind bars. Yet some criminal justice experts still endorse this antiquated process. Many reformers believe that parole decisions should be left to professionals who know how to identify transformation, psychological growth and increased maturity.

The American Law Institute has recommended a “second-look” provision to the Penal Code to review the cases of incarcerated individuals who have spent “at least 15 years in prison,” reports Renaud. Still, the institute also recommends notifying prosecutors and victims of these proceedings, undermining the reform effort.

“Prosecutorial overreach” is partially responsible for mass incarceration, reformers believe. Restorative justice, at the other end of the spectrum, offers a progressive approach that allows survivors of violence to heal, by confronting, meeting and talking with those who have wounded them.

Florida reduces in-person visits with more video

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Maison Teixeira

Maison Teixeira

Florida never seems to pass up the opportunity to make a bad situation worse, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Are prison video calls a convenience or a scheme to make money for prison officials?

Florida ignores criminal justice reform and spends around $2.4 billion annually on its prison system, which in this situation means reducing in-person visits, according to Times columnist John Romano.

There are studies that show inmates who stay connected to the outside world are less likely to re-offend. It also leads to better-behaved inmates, who anticipate family visits, according to the article.

“We value in-person visitation; we absolutely do. But given our current (financial) situation, this is our best option for safety reasons,” said Michelle Glady, Department of Corrections (DOC) spokeswoman.

“I know there’s a lot of emotion and fear among family members out there, but we’re not eliminating in-person visitation.”

“The possibility of revenue is probably the leading factor”

The video calls have actually replaced in-person visits in many jails (but not many prisons) around the country, which creates complications with fees for money transfers, services and downloads, according to the article.

“They’re reducing our days so they can make money on video visitation. Money is what motivates these people,” said Jewie Tryon. Her husband is serving a 25-to-life sentence. She has started a petition on change.org to stop the reduction of visiting days.

“When you take away the only honest-to-God reason for rehabilitation these guys have, you’re going to have trouble. I promise you that.”

Her thoughts were echoed by an analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative. “We know family visits reduce recidivism, and they create a safer prison environment,” said Lucius Couloute. “I can’t think of a good reason for wanting to eliminate visiting days. The possibility of revenue is probably the leading factor.”

The DOC acknowledges the power of in-person visits yet the possibility of cutting the visitation in half due to budget issues is still on the table. Their reasons are lack of staff to safely handle weekend visits, according to the article.

Florida had been working for two years with the South Florida contractor JPay, whose opinion is that the video calls are meant to supplement, not replace the contact visits, according to the article. Representatives from JPay were contacted but did not respond to an interview request.

https://www.tampabay.com

Report Indicates Prison Visitation Reduces Violence and Recidivism

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New Tool to Analyzing Criminal Justice Policy

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Incarceration rates are not the entire story of the criminal justice system. For reformers seeking to rationalize our criminal justice policies, the Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) has created a significant new tool for analyzing the complicated issue of developing proposals for reform.
PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html
The scope of correction control includes federal prisons, 50 state prison systems, thousands of county and local jails, juvenile incarceration, civil commitment, Indian country jails, parole and, most importantly, probation.
According to PPI, “the criminal justice system’s reach in this country is far more expansive than usually assumed.” The national average is 2,111 people under correctional control per 100,000 (pht) residents. California’s rate is 1,582 pht. Georgia is over double the California rate, and Maine has the lowest rate at 858 pht.
The report has identified a tremendous variation between states that is largely driven by differing uses of probation. Fifty-six percent of the people under correctional control in America are on probation. Georgia has 78 percent of the people under its control on probation, while Nevada has 31 percent. Parole (conditional release from prison) makes up 11 percent of the total.
With this new tool, policy makers and reformers can identify the disproportionate use of any given criminal justice policy tool by comparing their local system to other states. For example, Georgia’s probation population pht residents is “greater than every other states’ total rates of correctional control,” according to the PPI press release issued in conjunction with the report.
Of particular concern to the PPI is the need to assess whether the community supervision mechanisms of probation and parole are being used as alternatives to incarceration or “as a net-widener that unnecessarily expands the criminal justice system’s reach to low-level crimes.”
Use of this tool can aid in the objective valuation of existing criminal justice policy mechanisms and identify areas of potential reform.
PPI’s “Correctional Control: Incarceration and Supervision by State” issued on June 1, is the first report to aggregate data on all types of correctional control nationwide. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/50statepie.html
http://sanquentinnews.com/optionb-org-support-group-overcoming-effects-incarceration/

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