“The death penalty is not a deterrent to crime, nor is it swift justice,” former San Quentin Warden Jeanne Woodford told an audience of about 100 attorneys and death penalty opponents in a recent Marin County speech.
It is costly, ineffective and fails to make the public safe, said Woodford, who is now the executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a San Francisco based organization that is gathering signatures for a state ballot initiative that would eliminate the death penalty and replace it with life without the possibility of parole. The petition needs 400,000 signatures to qualify for the November 2012 ballot. As of Dec. 6, it had 212,000.
In addition to establishing the life without parole as the maximum penalty, the ballot initiative would establish the Safe California Act, which would require murderers to work to pay restitution and set aside $100 million to help solve murder and rape cases. Approximately 56 percent of rape cases and 46 percent of murders go unsolved.
The organization has the support of the National Black Correctional Officers Association.
When she arrived at San Quentin in 1978, two weeks after graduating from Sonoma State University, she was one of the first women to work in a prison housing unit. Woodford spent 26 years at San Quentin, including four years as warden.
“I killed four people for the State of California. It didn’t make anything better for anyone. On the day of an execution,” she said in her Dec. 6 talk, “you get up in the morning knowing you are going to kill a person.”
She would ask herself if the world would be any safer and answered “no.”
“I would be surprised if any warden who has witnessed an execution is in favor of the death penalty. It doesn’t work, and it is very costly,” she said.
California has spent $4 billion on capital punishment since restoring the death penalty in 1977, she said. During that time, 13 prisoners have been executed, which breaks down to $308 million per execution, she said. The cost is expected to rise to $9 billion by 2030.
It is estimated that sentencing to life without parole instead of parole would save the state more than $184 million a year.
“Executions have an emotional effect on staff who carries them out,” she said.
She stated other statistics: 139 condemned people in the U.S. have been found innocent, and at least three who were executed are believed innocent.
States with the death penalty have the highest crime rates, she noted. For instance, New York, where there is no death penalty, has a crime rate 40 percent lower than California’s.
A new Death Row is likely to be built in Marin, she said.
“When I was warden, Gov. Gray Davis tried to move Death Row. It would have cost $210 million then. The cost today is estimated at $400 million,” Woodford told the audience.
Archives for December 2011
Cards for Kids
A group of prisoners, sentenced as teenagers to life in prison, reached out to hospitalized children this holiday season, bringing joy into their lives.
For the second year, the San Quentin activity group Kid C.A.T., the Vietnam Veterans Group of San Quentin, prison staff, and community volunteers of about 25 worked together by using watercolor paint, marking pens and glitter to decorate Christmas cards.
The holiday cards, some decorated with Ninja Turtles, gingerbread men and even Bart Simpson, were presented to youngsters hospitalized at Oakland Children’s Hospital as singer Brenda Rhodes strummed a guitar and sang holiday tunes.
“We all know what it is like to receive cards during the holidays, so we know how important this is to kids,” said Michael Nelson, co-founder of Kid C.A.T.
Kid C.A.T. is an acronym for “Kids Creating Awareness Together.”
Kid C.A.T.’s agenda envisions communities that provide a healthy and loving environment for youngsters so that they may grow into mature adults.
“It really does brighten their days,” said Oakland Children’s Hospital Director of Volunteers Susan Martinez as she explained how the holiday cards are put on the children’s food trays.
“I think you are doing a tremendous thing for yourselves and for the kids,” she said.
Martinez has been with the hospital for 11 years and manages 11,000 volunteers who supplement a full-time staff of 2,000.
Approximately 12,000 patients and 250,000 outpatients, with all forms of medical needs, are seen each year at the hospital. They speak 60 different languages.
The hospital is a trauma center, and receives patients from around the world, including children injured from the war in Iraq, according to Martinez.
Oakland Children’s Hospital was founded in 1912 by Mabel
Weed and nurse Bertha Wright, then called the “Baby Hospital.” Today it has 191 licensed beds. The facility offers outstanding patient care and supports nationally recognized pediatric teaching and research.
The average hospital stay for a child is five days.
Medical Care at San Quentin Improving
The latest evaluation of the San Quentin State Prison health care system shows that urgent and emergency services for prisoners are deficient. High marks were given to the health care system for doing face-to-face assessments of treatment plans and appropriately housing prisoners based on their ailments.
Urgent services address the care provided to prisoners before and after they were sent to an outside hospital. Emergency services examine medical personnel response time to prisoner injuries.
In 2001, California prisoners filed a class action lawsuit alleging that the state provided constitutionally inadequate medical care in its prisons.
In 2005, a federal judge ruled that the prison system’s delivery for medical care to prisoners was “broken beyond repair.” He appointed a receiver to raise the delivery of medical care to constitutional standards.
The receiver requested, and the Office of the Inspector General agreed, to establish an inspection program to review the delivery of medical care at each state prison.
In March 2011, San Quentin was inspected for the second time. The report found that San Quentin received 81.5 percent of the total weighted points possible – a 13.3 percentage point improvement over the score of 68.2 percent from its first inspection in December 2009.
The low score in urgent services was based on its inability to manage follow-up treatment prescribed for prisoners after being discharged from outside hospitals. The low scores in emergency services was primarily because of inadequate preparation and improper equipment available to emergency responders; however, submitting paperwork late significantly dragged this mark down.
San Quentin staff was given good marks for timely dialing 911 after a life-threatening condition was identified, and all first responders were basic life-support certified.
A complete breakdown of the institution’s score in each of the 19 relevant components of the evaluation, including the results of all 132 questions on the survey, can be found at www.org.ca.gov.
West Block Woes
San Quentin North Block prisoners who were transferred to West Block are dealing with the new living conditions with patience.
The transfer was a shock for them because North Block has full power to the cells and the television cable is hooked up to the institutional antenna. West Block has neither of these amenities.
Since there is limited power in West Block, coupled with the fact that newly received prisoners are still housed there, breeds an unusual amount of loud noise.
Associate Warden, Ernie Facio said that the newly received prisoners would be out of the building by the end of December.
Last month, Warden Michael Martel and Prison University Project facilitator Jody Lewen inspected the facility. Following their inspection, the showers were repaired. However, the block still has years of caked up grime on its walls. The prisoners are working diligently to clean it up.
The telephone situation has created an additional disadvantage to living in West Block because there are only four telephones for a mainline population of at least 600 prisoners. This means standing in line for over an hour for a 15-minute call.
Daniel Trevino was transferred to West Block in December after being housed in North Block since 2007.
Funding Mental Health Facilities
Several hundred million dollars are going into new medical facilities for state prison inmates. With budgets being slashed around the state, critics are questioning the state prison building boom, according to ABC7 News.
Early next year the state will open the first mental health facility for prisoners funded through a $7.5 billion bond approved by lawmakers in 2007. “We have a large waiting list currently, and we’re under a Coleman federal court order to relieve that waiting list,” said Stirling Price, Vacaville State Prison Psychiatric Program.
Vacaville state prison is about to open the doors to a new mental health wing. The Vacaville site added 45,000 square feet with 64 beds to the existing prison hospital — price tag: $33.6 million or a half-million dollars per bed.
With a court order in hand, the state is quietly spending a lot of money on prison construction projects to improve the mental health care of inmates. However, critics say this is no time to splurge.
Along with Vacaville, about a dozen other prison facilities are being expanded, including the one in San Luis Obispo, costing $35.7 million, and in Chino, which will cost $33.7 million. Stockton will get a brand new $900-million medical center.
At a time of deep budget cuts to education and social services for the poor, groups like Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) are questioning the use of taxpayer money in this building spree.
“We need the Legislature … to step up and to halt all of the jail expansion projects,” said Emily Harris of CURB. However, lawyers for prisoners have won battle after battle in courts to improve the conditions in prisons. They are so overcrowded, healthcare declined below constitutional standards, and the United States Supreme Court had to step in.
The Prison Law Office’s, Steve Fama, sees the expansion as a victory.
“I don’t think we should have a society in which a person who’s seriously ill [to be] allowed to live in pain because they have a mental health illness that’s not treated.”
The state says while the upfront costs seem like a lot, it will actually save taxpayers money in the long run by having these care facilities available on site.
Offering Peer Health Educator Training
Centerforce’s Peer Health Education Program is offering two new classes: a 12-week series of health classes that lead to becoming a Peer Health Educator and a drop-in health class.
The Peer Health Educator Classes are on Tuesdays from 10:30 to 12:30 in the Peer Room in the Old Laundry Building on the Lower Yard.
- The Tuesday class cover the following topics:
- Introduction to Peer Health Education
- Health and Self-Awareness
- Cultural Awareness and Humility
- How Individuals Change Behavior
- Introduction to the Immune System
- Overview of HIV and AIDS
- Overview of Sexually Transmitted Infections
- Liver Basics
- Overview of Viral Hepatitis A, B, and C
- Overview of Tuberculosis (TB)
- Communication and Presentation Skills
Centerforce requires a commitment from all participants to attend the entire12-week period and to have an interest in Peer Health Education. After completing the entire training, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion and a Chrono.
The drop-in health class is on Wednesdays from 10:30 to noon and covers a wide range of health topics. The drop-in style class is open to anyone in the General Population who wants to learn more about health related issues and topics.
Questions regarding these classes can be directed to Centerforce Peer Health Educators:
Asuega 3H33L
Carranza 3N96L
Larus 4H95L
Leal 4N29L
Morris 1N32L
Amending Three Strike Law Up for 2012 Vote
A new ballot initiative is headed for a vote in 2012 to curb life sentences for non-violent crimes.
The measure was drafted by the Stanford University School of Law Three-Strikes Project after its review of cases similar to the type that the initiative targets – following modest relief from the courts and receiving support from several sentencing reform groups, the 2012 measure was drafted.
Wording for the ballot initiative was submitted to the California Attorney General’s Office on Oct. 21. The proposed inititive would:
Not allow anyone previously convicted of rape, murder, child molestation or other heinous crimes to appeal their life terms.
Restore the Three-Strike Law to what initiative supporters say was the public’s original understanding by requiring life sentences only when a defendant’s current conviction is for a violent or serious crime.
Establish that repeat offenders convicted of non-violent, non-serious crimes such as shoplifting and simple drug possession will receive a non-life sentence.
The supporters of the measure have secured at least one major financial backer, David W. Mills, a former investment banker and Stanford law professor.
The initiative’s official sponsor is the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
The Stanford group also has hired San Francisco political consultant Averall “Ace“Smith to lead what is expected to be a fiery campaign.
The initiative reform measure is vastly different from past changes in the law.
In 1996 the first change in the Three-strikes Law came when the state Supreme Court ruled that judges were not mandated to sentence every defendant to a life term after being struck out. The court ordered that trial judges must review every case prior to sentencing a defendant to 25-years to life, regardless of the defendant’s current or prior convictions.
The coalition took lessons from 2004’s failed Proposition 66, which would have limited third-strike convictions to serious and violent crimes, but did not disqualify offenders with previous murder, rape or child molestation convictions. Opponents, including two former governors and current Gov. Jerry Brown, used that difference to turn public opinion against Proposition 66. Opponents said it would result in tens of thousands of dangerous criminals being released from prison.
To qualify for the ballot the initiative needs 504,760 signatures of registered voters. Political consultant Bill Zimmerman, who submitted a proposal to steer the campaign, estimated that organizers need about $10-15 million to win.
If voters approve the initiative, backers believe that about 3,000 of the 4,000 nonviolent third-strikers currently serving time in state prisons could be eligible for resentencing. They say that could save the state $150 million to $200 million a year.
Hanukkah Begins December 20th and Ends December 27th
As the Jewish festival of Hanukkah approaches, many prepare for the ceremonial lighting of the Menorah candles – the three blessings and the miracle that is the Festival of Lights.
Hanukkah begins December 20 after sundown and ends December 27.
The Shamash. a ninth light separated from the others, will be used to light the first candle of the menorah.
Each night of Hanukkah one light is added, starting at the right and moving to the left until we light eight candles on the last night.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness by Michelle Alexander
“More African-American men are in prison, or on parole, than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War,” said Professor Michelle Alexander in a recent telephone interview. “A black child today has less of a chance of being raised by his parents than a child during slavery,” she added.
Alexander is author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness,” which chronicles how racial politics has given birth to America’s cycle of massive incarceration – driven primarily by the aggressive arrest and conviction for non-violent and drug-related crimes.
Alexander clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and one of President Obama’s mentors, federal Judge Abner Mikva.
She said, “Politicians have used racial politics for political gain, which has given birth to massive incarceration. But for the racial politics, massive incarceration would not exist today.”
“Today 80 percent of African-American kids will not grow with their father,” said Alexander.
“The system of mass incarceration has decimated black families,” said Alexander. “Women shrug their shoulders and ask, ‘What’s wrong with black men?’ People seem to think black men decided they did not want to get married anymore. That is not what happened,” Alexander said. “This is due to mass incarceration.”
In 1982, President Ronald Reagan declared a war on drugs when drug crimes were on the decline. Alexander attributed growing crime rates over the past 30 years to “the war on drugs (being) waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color.”
“I’ve seen a shift in rhetoric, but I haven’t seen a shift in policy,” she added, “We’ve spent $1 trillion on the drug war since it began; that money could’ve been spent on drug-treatment programs.”
The media facilitated the rise of mass incarceration, she added, and the most damaging imagery came from the Reagan Administration.
The new Jim Crow Era can be traced to the prison system, she said. “Once branded a felon, discrimination can be practiced against you with impunity. People returning from prison find themselves jobless, penniless, barred from public housing, often denied food and unable to vote,” she added. For years, Alexander served as the director of the Racial Injustice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, which spearheaded a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement.
She told the story of an African-American man about 19 who came into her office. At first she was put off by his felony conviction. But he told her he had been a victim of the notorious Oakland Riders, a group of renegade police officers.
At one point federal District Court Judge Thelton Henderson threatened to place the Oakland Police Department under federal control over its nearly nine-year failure to reform such abuses.
Alexander holds a joint appointment with the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. As a former associate at the law firm of Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, she specialized in class action lawsuits alleging race and gender discrimination.
Juan’s Book Review
PUP Brings Change
San Quentin sits alongside the Bay like a castle, a penitentiary full of history and legend. It is symbolic of a bloody past – once home to warriors and beasts alike who met in combat and insurrection.
The Bastille by the Bay and the Gloomy Citadel of Despair are just a couple of names of this illustrious prison. Every bloody and withered stone of San Quentin has withstood the elements of time but those mythic warriors and tall tales are no more. The culture has morphed into a place of progressive rehabilitation, now home to numerous pro-social programs – a place where the “lifer” population can utilize a variety of curricula to support the rehabilitation process.
One of the cornerstone pro-social programs is the Prison University Project (PUP), also known as Patten College led by Dr. Jodi Lewen, has huge enrollments and provides prisoners with the opportunity to become serious students. Professors from prestigious universities in the Bay Area like Cal-Berkeley and Stanford volunteer their time to provide quality education. In addition, PUP provides a study hall featuring college professors and graduate students who volunteer their time for the students. The no-nonsense Amy Roza and Kara Urion support the students and volunteers by ensuring that they have a variety of educational tools at their disposal to facilitate the rehabilitation process. Important critical thinking skills are developed. The ability to understand reasoning, set goals and to think beyond pre-conceived limits are all trademark skills the students learn at PUP. Unlike the other college programs that are found throughout other prisons in the state, PUP provides students with the opportunity to be exposed to other viewpoints and it fosters a sense of community.
Utilizing skills learned in the classroom at PUP gives prisoners at San Quentin a leg up. Boasting self-esteem, learning valuable life skills, and being surrounded by a community of citizens who actually care about a prisoner’s life are all part of what PUP does best. The prisoners at San Quentin are lucky to have the opportunity to attend classes at PUP…this one is thankful. I hope that in the future PUP can serve as a model to bring change throughout CDCR.