The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether babies born in Jerusalem to parents who are U.S. citizens may have their birth certificates and passports list ‘Israel’ as their birthplace. The current policy is to list the place of birth as “Jerusalem” and not list Israel.
The policy of the United States has been not to recognize the sovereignty of any part of Jerusalem because of claims by both Israel and Palestinians to the city. Israel gained control of West Jerusalem in 1948 and of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the 1967 War.
The government’s position is that by recording the birthplace of American babies born in Jerusalem as “Israel” it will challenge long-standing U.S. foreign policy concerning the recognition of sovereignty over Jerusalem. The State Department’s argument to the Court is that any action seen as altering U.S. policy toward Jerusalem could affect its role as a mediator in negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict.
The parents of the child born in Jerusalem maintain that Congress has passed a law allowing birth certificates and passports of U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem to record “Israel” as their place of birth. The State Department argues that only the President, not Congress, has the power to recognize the sovereignty of any foreign area.
The parents cite the precedent of U.S. citizens born in Taiwan. Although the U.S. recognizes the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, it allows American passports to show Taiwan as the place of birth despite China’s opposition to this policy.
In a ten-year period there were over 52,000 passports issued that listed Jerusalem as the place of birth.
The case is Zivotofsky v. Clinton and was argued before the Supreme Court in November.
Archives for November 2011
Responsibility In Rehabilitation
This interview was conducted with John Kern on the dynamics of correctional education policy in California from his perspective as a career CDCR landscape horticulture instructor and union activist.
What is your role with the union?
I work as the elected Chair of the Service Employees International Union Bargaining Unit 3 for state educators and librarians. Union activists advocate for more effective policies and try to influence decision-makers in the Administration and the Legislature.
“I have the responsibility to represent
the rank and file educators and librarians…”
What is CROB and what is your role there?
The California Rehabilitation Oversight Board (CROB) was created by AB 900 in 2007 to monitor CDCR rehabilitation programs and to advise the Legislature regarding their design and effectiveness.
It is chaired by the CDCR Inspector General and includes representatives from key academic, educational, mental health, substance abuse treatment, probation and law enforcement organizations. CROB’s purpose is to help make rehabilitation programs evidence-based and effective for offenders and citizens of California.
At a time when CDCR is seen as a very expensive, large failure, CROB has a role to play in advising the Legislature what kinds of programs to expand, what kinds of programs to abandon and what kinds of solutions can be implemented to reduce the chronic cycle of incarceration that has kept California’s recidivism rate the highest in the nation.
I have the responsibility to represent the rank and file educators and librarians.
Who can testify at these meetings?
CROB primarily receives reports from CDCR but also hears from rehabilitation experts and stakeholders such as prison educators represented by SEIU Local 1000. Ex-offenders have spoken to the board and I think more of this should happen.
Give us an example of how CROB affects rehab operations.
Recent changes in the academic education delivery models were a direct result of presentations made to CROB. In the wake of extreme budget cuts in 2010.
CDCR implemented education models that showed an outrageous lack of awareness of the needs of a typical inmate student. Forty percent of academic teachers were given 120 students each and were expected to produce academic progress with three hours or less contact time per week. We called it “drive-by education.”
The union produced a simple survey for teachers that asked if the new models were working and what could be done to improve them. The survey results were summarized in a presentation to CROB and, after less than a year, the [“drive-by”] models were abandoned and replaced.
What issues are you bringing to the CROB table?
Education programs are still grossly understaffed. Vocational programs abandoned in 2010 need to be re-opened. Issues with assigning the right inmate to the right program are still too common. Radical changes in legislation began dramatically shrinking the Division of Juvenile Justice in 1996, raising concerns that education and mental health services. CROB will have to take up these issues.
Letters to CROB can be sent to: California Rehabilitation Oversight Board, P.O. Box 348780, Sacramento, CA 95834-8780
Tom Bolema is a Literacy Coordinator in the San Quentin Education Department
November 2011 News Briefs
SACRAMENTO – The number of state prisoners arriving in county jails under California’s prison realignment program is significantly higher than many county officials had estimated, adding new pressure on sheriff’s departments to figure out what to do with thousands of extra convicted offenders.
RIVERSIDE – County board of supervisors approved charging prisoners $142.42 per day for their incarceration, CNNMoney reports. The plan is intended to save an estimated $3 to $5 million per year. Not every prisoner will be forced to pay up, however. The county will review each prisoner’s case individually to determine if they can afford the fee.
SACRAMENTO – California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation paid $2.25 million to the family of a prisoner left severely brain-damaged after she tried to hang herself in the mental health unit of the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility in Camarillo.
LOS ANGELES – Conrad Murray’s conviction for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson could result in a maximum of four years in prison, but it’s possible that the doctor may not go to prison.
SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services recently announced that victims of crime will be able to receive automated electronic notification of an offender’s release or scheduled parole board hearing.
SALINAS – The Correctional Training Facility in Soledad is donating 30 bunk beds and 60 mattresses to Victory Mission Homeless Shelter, 43 Soledad St. CTF spokesman Lt. Darren Chamberlain said the shelter requested help after discovery of bed bugs forced them to throw out its mattresses and bed frames.
WASHINGTON – According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Restorative Justice is a process that involves the victim, the offender and the community that does not seek to undermine or mitigate the punitive characteristics of incarceration. Restorative Justice facilitates changing the offenders’ thinking and raising their level of moral reasoning. Go to: Restorative Justice. Org
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases brought by prisoners in Alabama and Arkansas who were sentenced to life in prison without parole for killings they committed as 14-year-olds.
Vacaville – More than 32 prisoners graduated from the Mountain Oaks Adult Educational Center. Of the 23 who attended the graduation ceremony, six earned GED certificates, three graduated from the center’s disability placement program, six graduated from the office services and related technologies category, and eight graduated from electronics services occupations.
San Bernardino – The county’s drug court has become one of the first seven Mentor Courts in the nation. Drug Court is a drug-intervention program administered through the court system to divert defendants from jail and into drug treatment and rehabilitation. According to the California Association of Drug Court Professionals the annual cost of a year in prison for a convicted felon is $47,337. But, the annual cost of drug court per participant is $13,000, a savings of about $34,000 per participant, each year.
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown and lawyers for death row prisoners have agreed that the soonest they will finish their legal challenge to the state’s lethal injection procedures will be September 2012. If that schedule holds true, California voters may have the option of eliminating the death penalty before this case is decided. A ballot initiative that could end capital punishment is tentatively slated for the November 2012 ballot.
WASHINGTON – A Supreme Court case could determine whether thousands of prisoners in privately run prisons have the same rights to sue in federal court as prisoners in facilities run by the U.S. government. The case, Minneci v. Pollard, involves a federal prisoner who wants to sue his jailers for damages over alleged violations of the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The prisoner claims he was painfully mistreated after an accident at a for-profit prison, operating under contract for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Back in the Day
Selected Stories From Past Issues of The San Quentin News
NOV. 23, 1979 – After a four-month suspension of publication mandated by the warden, the S.Q. News has resumed production. The newspaper staff had been accused by administration officials of slanting the news. The resumption of publication was brought about, in part, by the filing of a lawsuit by the Prison Law Office on behalf of the news staff.
NOV. 23, 1979 – For the second time in less than a month the inmate canteen has been burglarized. The first break-in, on Oct. 31, netted the thieves $408 in cigarettes and envelopes. In the second incident, Nov. 14, approximately $500 in pastries and coffee were been taken.
NOV. 23, 1979 – The S.Q. Pirates completed an undefeated football season, outscoring their opponents by a combined 221 to 31. The Pirates play an eight-man team.
NOV. 23, 1979 – The Mystic Knights, a rock-soul group, will perform in the north dining hall Nov. 23, for the annual Thanksgiving Show. The group performed last May 28 at S.Q. with the New Riders of the Purple Sage.
APR. 25, 1980 – Two shots were fired on the lower yard Wednesday to break up a fight between two Mexican-American convicts. Both men had been drinking.
MAY 2, 1980 – Inmate Berry Floyd, 33, from Los Angeles, was shot a total of four times by two gunmen in the Adjustment Center exercise yard after trying to scale the wall. Floyd was taken to the hospital, heavily peppered with birdshot. He was kept for observation.
MAY 23, 1980 – After a year of remodeling, the new $125,000 S.Q. band-room, including sound studios and a classroom stage area, is scheduled to open June 2.
MAY 23, 1980 – Two black inmates suffered stab wounds on the tiers of A–Section in what is suspected as a racial incident. One con was stabbed four times and had a facial laceration, and the other was stabbed on the right arm. Four suspects were taken into custody, three whites and one Mexican-American. Two prison made knives were found.
MAY 23, 1980 – Due to the current lockdown, the annual Memorial Day show and fight card that were scheduled for May 23 have been cancelled. The fight card will be rescheduled for a later date. The May 16 issue of the S.Q. News was cancelled also.
MAY 23, 1980 – John Abbot, 25, William Broderick, 27, and Durward Shire, 64, were assaulted during the morning of May 13 in what prison officials are calling a racially motivated attack. Abbot suffered four stab wounds and was left in stable condition, the other two were treated for stab wounds and released back to their cells. Three prison-made knives were found at the scene and one suspect was taken into custody. The prison was placed under a general lockdown.