California needs to continue reducing prison overcrowding and focus more attention on education and communities, according to a recent university symposium.
The University of California Merced’s Center for the Humanities sponsored the event, titled “30 Years of Mass Incarceration.”
“We don’t want to save money, we want to spend it on education and the bettering of the community,” said activist and author Ruth Wilson Gilmore, as reported by the Merced Sun Star.
“Things do not have to be the way they became. There were alternatives away from mass incarceration, but they weren’t taken,” Gilmore added.
The event featured professors and authors as part of the university’s seminar series called “Race and Justice in Transnational Perspective.”
On the subject of race and injustice, mass incarceration cannot be avoided, said Associate Professor Tanya Golash-Boza, organizer of the symposium.
“When we talk about race disparities and injustice, incarceration is a big issue,” she said.
Two of the university’s professors from the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, Nigel Hatton and Zulema Valdez, also volunteer their time and energy with the Prison University Project. The professors said the inmates they have worked with appreciate the access to education, the Sun Star reported.
Golash-Boza noted that symposium attendees included students, organizers of projects and public defenders.
Archives for October 2014
‘DARKNESS IN THE GOLDEN STATE’
A well-attended fundraising event sponsored by Legal Services For Prisoners With Children (LSPC) was held in August at the Luggage Room Gallery on Market Street in San Francisco.
LSPC is a nonprofit organization located at 1540 Market St. in San Francisco. Its main mission is to organize communities impacted by the criminal justice system and advocate to release incarcerated people, to restore human and civil rights and to reunify families and communities. LSPC focuses on providing legal support, trainings, advocacy, public education, grassroots mobilization and development of community partnerships.
Dorsey Nunn, executive director of LSPC, has more than 35 years of experience working on prison- related issues. He was a co-founder of All of Us or None, an LSPC project started by formerly incarcerated people in 2003. Nunn was involved with many social justice organizations from their beginnings, including Critical Resistance and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.
This event was to raise public awareness about the horrific effects Security Housing Units, often referred to as “solitary confinement,” through visual and written art forms donated by inmates currently incarcerated in Pelican Bay State Prison, San Quentin Prison and prisons elsewhere in the country. Featured were works by San Quentin inmate artists Thomas Winfrey, Ronnie Goodman and others.
In addition to thought-provoking art, photos and written works on display, Nunn read his original poems and Mark G. performed a dramatic monologue.
The evening also featured a screening of a short film, “Well Contested Sites,” a 13- minute dance/theater performance that explores the issue of mass incarceration and the complexity of experiences faced by those incarcerated. The film was a collaborative effort by Bay Area performing artists — some of whom were previously incarcerated — and filmmaker Austin Forbord and choreographer Amie Dowling. The performance piece was developed and filmed on Alcatraz Island.
After the event, a senior friend who attended commented, “I grew up pretty straight-laced without much prior sympathy for those who committed crimes and have to pay the penalty. Thus, I know prison life is awful, especially solitary confinement … Fortunately, the beliefs we grow up with often change or diminish as we age, and from my own experience, I can now empathize with the feeling of isolation.”
The evening’s purpose was summed up by Amie Dowling, co-director and choreographer of “Well Contested Sites:”
“…(may) our efforts and investments continue to interrupt the oppression of mass incarceration and celebrate the artistic and intellectual genius that resides in the men and women most impacted by the prison industrial complex.”
Raphaele Casale’s ‘Dynamic’ Presence Praised by Inmates in Program
One of the San Quentin program leaders is Raphaele Casale, who began her career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the medical department.
“When I was in medical, I had no idea what self-help programs were,” she said.
When Casale found out about SQUIRES, she said, “Wow! Here the kids can talk directly with inmates about how things can go really wrong just by making one wrong decision. It’s very intense sometimes. These kids need to realize they have the power to choose the direction of their lives.”
“I grew up in Marin and saw San Quentin from the highway all the time. I never thought about what went on at San Quentin. It’s kind of funny,” she said, “San Quentin has helped me to help kids.”
Before working for CDCR, Casale was always interested in law enforcement support services and served as a community service officer for a year with Fresno County.
“Young people today have so many social pressures and are pulled in so many different directions,” Casale said, “That’s one reason they get into trouble. I wanted to work in the criminal justice system and help young people.”
Casale hopes she is able to make a positive contribution by being involved with inmate self-help programs. In addition, she said that she believes those inmates who are involved in correctional education and vocational training are improving themselves.
“These men are people who want to do the right thing and will, if given the chance,” she said.
Casale has multiple responsibilities over a range of prison activities including secretarial duties for the wardens office and overseeing the inmate music program. However, she says she loves working with the SQUIRES kids.
According to Casale, SQUIRES is a program that shows young men what’s in store for them if they don’t change their ways. She said that bringing the youngsters into San Quentin for a day in prison “is one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever done.”
“We are interested in trying to find a follow-up program so that after the visit here, there’s someone for them to talk with,” Casale said.
The Los Angeles-based About Face Cadet Corps provides some of that aftercare. Eduardo Sanchez, a group leader with AFCC, said, “This experience changed how I see prison.”
Inmate Von Miles said he especially appreciates Casale for her energy and diligence.
“She has a fresh perspective and brings a lot of heart to SQUIRES,” Miles said.
Other inmates agreed.
Her official title is Chief Sponsor, but Arnulfo T. Garcia (editor-in-chief of the San Quentin News) said, “Her title should be chief go-getter.”
Mentor Tommy Winfrey added, “She’s Dynamic.”
“We respect her and she respects us,” said Winfrey. “She is very straightforward and firm in her resolve to do the best job possible.”
–By Ted Swain
SQUIRES Program Mentors Youth to Make Positive Change
Drugs, gangs, schools, parents, girls, peer pressure and bullying are the typical subjects discussed with young men at mentoring workshops of the San Quentin SQUIRES.
San Quentin Utilization of Inmate Resources Experiences and Studies (SQUIRES) is a program where inmates come face-to-face with at-risk youth in a dialogue to resolve life challenges that the youngsters may be facing.
SQUIRES mentors work with youngsters who are referred from organizations such as the Los Angeles Police Department, the Omega Boys Club, Rotary Clubs, the San Francisco Public Defenders Office, T&T House of Champions and the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation.
Presenting a “day in prison” for kids skirting trouble, the prison program started in the 1960s as a way to show kids what can happen to wrongdoers when they endanger and harm society.
SQUIRES mentors meet the kids early on a Saturday morning and guide them through a day of discussion, deliberation and visual impact about the fate of troublemakers. Working in groups of eight or 10, the youngsters form a circle group session for counseling with the SQUIRES mentors.
In Receiving and Release, the youth are given a verbal orientation on the intake process, which for actual inmates would include an unclothed body search, in addition to a number of other steps.
They get a bag lunch with a bologna or peanut butter sandwich before going on a tour of the prison, including a talk at the Condemned Row entrance door. By the end of the tour, which includes lockup in a cell, most of the kids say they do not want to end up living here.
Not too long ago, the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation brought kids into the SQUIRES program. The foundation formed nine years ago following the shooting death of its namesake, Terrance Kelly. To deal with his grief, Landrin Kelly, Terrance’s father, formed the foundation with the purpose of encouraging young people to make better choices.
Landrin Kelly and his wife, Mary, run the foundation. Mary said the program started as an after-school activity program. The foundation offers homework assistance programs, violence prevention programs, a computer lab and a creative art class.
“We also have a culinary program so we can teach them to make a quick meal for themselves,” Mary said.
Offering life skills, including a high achievers program, the foundation aims to help young men and women have a safe future by staying out of violent situations. We want them to be “more conscious of life and the consequences of their decisions,” said Mary.
Hector Garcia, a group leader at the foundation, says he really loves working with the young men and women. It’s “just a God-given gift, being able to work with the community in this way,” said Garcia. He added that everyone could benefit from this experience.
Recently the University of California at Berkeley football squad came to SQUIRES for a truth-or-consequences session.
“One of the guys I talked to had a clean record until he was 17 years old. He made a bad decision one night, and he’s been here for 25 years,” said Cal quarterback Jared Goff. “It shows how blessed we are to have the lives we have.”
Another sponsor, the Novato Rotary Club, regularly sends kids to the SQUIRES program. Larry Levy, a long-time Rotarian, has been escorting young men to the SQUIRES program for many years. Levy said that one of his objectives is to create a SQUIRES program at other California prisons so that youth counselors, social workers and parents throughout the state can access the prison experience as an additional tool.
Terry Pace of the T&T House of Champions in Oakland operates a group home focusing on safety, structure, life skills and love.
“The kids come to San Quentin with a hard shell and the SQUIRES mentors get them to open up,” she said. Pace says the men start a “process of feeling.” For some of the youngsters, it’s the first time.
Jack Jacqua of the Omega Boys Club is a well-known staple of the SQUIRES mentoring meetings. Jacqua has been working with troubled youngsters in the San Francisco area for more than 30 years. He works with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office and the court system to provide a safe and stable program for youngsters who need mentoring.
Jacqua said that the San Quentin inmate mentors are better counselors than the ones in the free world. He said it’s great to see how the youngsters open up when talking with the SQUIRES mentors. He points to the need to talk about feelings and says, “If the prisoners can talk about their feelings, then why wouldn’t the kids.”
Romania ‘Mana’ Jaundoo Expresses The Importance Of Working Inside S. Q.
Almost as soon as Romania “Mana” Jaundoo came to work at San Quentin, she was asked to become a sponsor for a youth-diversion workshop. She said she really likes working with the inmate mentors who volunteer for the program because they do so much good.
“They really pour their heart into helping young men,” Jaundoo said. “It’s a real team feeling working with these men. They’re so dedicated.”
Jaundoo co-sponsors SQUIRES with Raphaele Casale.
“The point of SQUIRES is to communicate with the young men who come to the workshops,” Jaundoo said. “I feel lucky to be part of that process.
“The SQUIRES mentors have such resolve. It isn’t often you see a grown man cry. The mentors and the kids keep it real in these workshops.”
Referring to how Jaundoo works with the kids, mentor Rasheed Lockheart, 36, said she “gives them a real sense of accountability, but she does it with compassion.”
Officially, Jaundoo is a correctional case records analyst for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
Prior to CDCR, Jaundoo was a cosmetologist. However, she said that since 18 years of age she wanted to be involved in law enforcement.
“I was doing some volunteer work over a weekend, and ran into a lady I knew,” Jaundoo said. The friend told her that CDCR was hiring.
“All my family is in law enforcement, and I have always seen it as a good thing,” she said. “It seemed like it was meant to be. It all happened so quickly.”
She submitted an application and was hired a couple of months later, she said.
“I was excited to take the job,” Jaundoo said. “I thought I would be scared but I was totally up to the challenge. It’s everything I thought it would be.”
She said that when she began working in the prison system, there were several things that surprised her — particularly the degree of segregation between the races.
“That was really a shock,” she said. “We’ve come a long way on the streets, but in prison it’s really bad.”
Jaundoo says working at San Quentin has lived up to all her expectations regarding her level of responsibilities. Her work involves calculating facts and figures and there’s a lot of training through headquarters.
She is married to a San Quentin Officer and they make a “Husband and wife team,” she said.
Although her job and the SQUIRES program bring her in contact with many inmates, she said she’s never concerned for her safety and sometimes feels safer in San Quentin than she does in the free world.
“I’m very comfortable in here. On the outside, I am always alert to my surroundings. On the streets, I always have my guard up,” she said.
Jaundoo said that she wouldn’t have made the many accomplishments with SQUIRES without the grooming and foresight of Correctional Officer E. Pulliam and Correctional Counselor II, M. Rodesillas. “They had faith in me,” she said. “They recognized that this was a calling for me before I knew it.”
–By Ted Swain
CDCR Puts Spotlight on Gender-Responsive Strategies
Women are different from men. While this may seem like a simple statement, it’s a fact many people, businesses and organizations have long ignored. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), however, takes the needs of female offenders seriously, understanding how gender-responsive strategies are vital to reducing recidivism.
This was the basis of the Gender Responsive Strategies Conference, held recently in Folsom. CDCR welcomed corrections officials, stakeholders and employees from headquarters and California’s three female prisons: Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), California Institution for Women (CIW) and Folsom Women’s Facility (FWF). The two-day event gave insight into the work CDCR is doing to rehabilitate female offenders, from health care and programming to parole and re-entry services.
Jay Virbel, Associate Director, Female Offender Programs and Services, said the intent of the conference is not only to gauge CDCR’s success so far, but to look to the future and how the department will continue to help women succeed.
“It takes everyone in this room to make that happen,” he said, “from the community, to the leaders, to the academics, all the way through. It takes all of us. Thank you for wanting to participate. Thank you for taking time to participate and making this meaningful.”
Participants were invited to tour FWF. Correctional officers and program directors led groups throughout the institution, where they met inmates furthering their education and gaining tangible job skills through the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA).
A group of inmates at FWF are training dogs through Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit organization providing service dogs to people who can’t otherwise afford them. The puppies, Penley and Nieve, were a hit with the FWF tour groups.
CALPIA’s headquarters are just steps away from FWF, and women in the construction program there have been hard at work installing a modular building, including pouring the foundation and creating a park-like area in front.
On the second day of the conference, Shannon Swain, Deputy Chief Superintendent, Office of Correctional Education, emphasized the importance of getting the right inmate in the right program at the right time, and having a variety of programming available makes this possible. The biggest lie in the world, she told the audience to much laughter, is “one size fits all.”
“The same is absolutely true about programs and about education,” she added. “We have 35 individual (Western Association of Schools and Colleges)-accredited schools with principals and staff out there, teaching academic and Career Technical Education every day. Those types of CTE programs include everything — building maintenance, carpentry, electrical, small engine repair … there are many opportunities for people in our prisons to get an education if they want one.”
Working alongside re-entry programs is the Division of Adult Parole Operations (DAPO), which has specialized programs in place for supervising female parolees. Maritza Rodriguez, Chief Deputy Administrator of DAPO, said the department’s practices have evolved from surveilling offenders and re-arresting violators to supporting parolees in their efforts to not return to prison.
Rodriguez discussed the HEAL Initiative (Housing, Employment and Linking services), a partnership between DAPO and the Division of Rehabilitative Programs created to reduce female offender recidivism. Components include pre-parole classes at Re-Entry Hubs, Female Offender Treatment and Employment Programs, specialized caseloads to address unique re-entry challenges for females and statewide staff training in gender responsivity. These efforts, Rodriguez said, are paying off.
“We have a huge uptick in how many parolees we have in really good programming,” she said. “We were kind of in this business of just getting them to the door; now we’re in the business of trying to keep them in the door.”
CDCR staffers aren’t the only ones helping women change their lives. The conference included several people who have made it their life’s work to help women. Dr. Stephanie Covington, PhD, LCSW, of the Institute for Relational Development and Center for Gender and Justice, developed the Beyond Violence program at CCWF and CIW.
Beyond Violence employs the Social-Ecological Model used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to understand violence, as well as by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) research on women in prison. This four-level model of violence prevention considers the complex interplay between individual, relationship, community and societal factors and addresses the issues that put women at risk for experiencing or perpetrating violence.
Covington told conference attendees it is a myth women are becoming more violent. She said the perception exists because of changes in policies and the justice system which are over-highlighted by the media. But it doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
“The majority of women who are incarcerated for violent, aggressive crimes,” she said, “are women who themselves have been victims of violence.”
Virginia Dunstone, Executive Director of Women 4 Change, is the creator of LifeScripting, an 80-hour workshop at CCWF in which female offenders analyze their behaviors and choices. Dunstone asked the audience how many of them spoke English. When everybody raised her hand, she asked how many of them have been told to stop speaking English, a language most learned in childhood. The room was quiet.
“You don’t tell yourself to stop speaking the language you learned,” she said. “And yet we learn every single belief solidly, in our childhood, and we get up day after day telling people, ‘Just stop your behavior.’ Behavior has to be recognized before it can be changed.”
More than 600 women have gone through the program at CCWF, Dunstone said, with 550 on the waiting list. Training will be conducted soon to expand the program statewide, as women have let CDCR know the program has changed how they think about themselves and how they communicate with others, including their families.
“Because of the things I’ve learned in this class, I am going to lead a positive, more empowered life,” one inmate wrote about participating in LifeScripting. “This class has also taught me how to be a better mother, sister, granddaughter, etc., when I parole. I am now in charge of my own life.”
Dunstone said it’s all about information.
“They don’t need me, they need information, and when that information affects them, they talk,” Dunstone said. “It happens with so many of your programs. Because you care about women – they know it. And they go and sign up and tell everybody, ‘Please go to the program, it will serve you.’”
Dr. Barbara Owen, PhD, helped CDCR revise its Gender Responsive Strategies training, which is required for all correctional and institutional staff working in female facilities. She said research has proven time and again such strategies, combined with programming such as Beyond Violence, work.
“Women are not men,” she said. “And I think we know that from our own lives – I think everyone who works in women’s facilities knows they’re different than male facilities. We now have the evidence, which we kind of knew already, that gender-responsive practices lead not only to improved outcomes, but vastly improved outcomes.”
More information about CalPIA can be found at www.calpia.ca.gov.
A Story I Knew All Too Well
Recently, I ran into a childhood friend and asked what he’d been up to. “Just came back from another funeral,” he answered. I shook my head, wondering what violent act had cursed our community this time.
You see, for many in South Los Angeles, it is more common to hear about death by the gun than by natural causes.
“I’m tired of seeing these young brothers buried,” he added before I could ask the details about another inner-city life cut way too short. Actually, I didn’t need to ask. I was sure it was just a different version of a story I knew all too well: The temporary silence of the night is interrupted by automatic gunfire.
A black male body drops. Loud cries of despair bounce against angry shouts for retaliation. Faint sounds of sirens grow louder as the emergency vehicles close in on the scene. A sudden beam of light from the hovering police helicopter turns the dark street into an eerily bright spot on the city map. Soon, yellow caution tape sets the boundaries and, eventually, a white sheet covers the lifeless victim. Disturbingly, the triggerman could be a gang banger, a neighborhood watchman or a police officer. And lately, the lines between them seem to have gotten more blurry.
When my friend sighed, my thoughts transitioned from the people directly involved in this type of community violence to those on the sideline who witness it by sight or sound.
What goes through the young, impressionable mind of a little girl who constantly hears the sounds of gang-related gunshots just outside her bedroom window? What is the teenaged boy feeling while huddled with his friends at school asking if any of them heard about the Florida kid who was shot and killed on his way home from buying a bag of Skittles?
And what about the pain of the parents whose young son, despite being unarmed and having his hands up, was shot multiple times and killed in the street by an officer of the law?
With tragedies like these being witnessed, I am not surprised that more and more people from the inner cities are being diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), despite having never ventured near a battlefield. Then again, we did see police in military vehicles with roof-mounted machine guns ready to shoot as they patrolled the streets of Ferguson, Mo.
We did see camouflage-clad police snipers pointing laser-scoped rifles at unarmed citizens who assembled to protest the excessive force a policeman used. Though on a smaller scale, I think this is not unlike the experience of many citizens on the sideline in the war zones of Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza.
As my friend walked away, I wondered how a lifetime of tragic events in the “hood” had affected him. I thought of myself and some of the things I had seen growing up in the inner city. And I contemplated ways to lessen the likelihood of our children and their children becoming a part of a story I knew all too well.
This guest column is by Larry Stiner Jr., the eldest son of Watani Stiner.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a movie that entertains, but its plot is close to slipping into absurdity.
Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), the most brilliant criminal in Europe, murders and buys his way into control of key business industries, so he can start a world war. His endgame is to sell guns and cotton — yes, cotton — to both sides.
The movie is directed by Guy Ritchie, who pits the half-mad mind of Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) against the half-sane mind of Moriarty in a cat-and-mouse game that unfolds in Europe during the Victorian era.
Rahsaan Thomas defended the story’s plausibility. To a prisoner who grew up hearing stories about how the CIA flooded inner cities with drugs while the government made a business out of fighting drugs, the story is not far-fetched. “After watching Bush use the wars after 9/11 to feed Halliburton’s pockets,” Thomas said, “this movie screams plausible.”
It is difficult to argue with Thomas’ experience. The plot, however, feels shallow, not because of what occurs, but because of why events occur and the character that makes them happen. Moriarty is wealthy, but if he succeeds in his schemes without being executed for treason, he will have … he will be … wealthy. We expect evil genius to make better risk-reward assessments. We would have liked the movie more if iconic genius had spawned a plan with aims more original than money.
Fortunately, talented actors salvage the plot. Downey and Jude Law continue with the chemistry that helped the success of the first Sherlock Holmes. Downey plays the stimulant-abusing, self-centered gentleman with charm, and Law convincingly affects long-suffering love for a friend who is both ridiculous and deeply flawed.
Jared Harris inhabits Moriarty and transforms any scene that lingers on him. He radiates malevolent power through an aloof demeanor, and his smile imparts the feeling that one is sinking in quicksand.
When SQ Reviews met to discuss A Game of Shadows, one of the points of contention was the film’s historical inaccuracies. Tommy Winfrey was the biggest proponent of the film’s right to set aside historical accuracy. “It’s not a historical movie,” Winfrey said. “It’s supposed to be attention-grabbing, and the scenes do that.”
Winfrey found little support for his position. Most of us belong to the prison demographic that reads a lot, and we can get indignant when we feel like our screenwriters are not taking the time to read at least an encyclopedia before writing a story of Victorian England. To Winfrey and the film’s credit, it turns out the rest of us need to read a book on the steampunk genre, which is the setting for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction that posits an alternate reality where steam instead of fossil fuel became Western civilization’s preeminent power source. A hallmark of this genre is a more advanced level of technology than would otherwise be associated with a given era. Though Victorian alternate history settings are common, steampunk is not limited to this era.
Other movies from the steampunk genre include 2011’s Three Musketeers, staring Orlando Bloom, and Wild West, starring Will Smith.
We averaged out our ratings, and on a scale of one to five canteen items, the film rated two and a half bags of potato chips. Though opinions conflicted, we all agree that if you like to watch trees explode in slow motion, you will like A Game of Shadows.
Contributors: Emile DeWeaver, Aaron Taylor, Erin O’ Connor, Juan Meza, Miguel Quezada, Rahsaan Thomas and Tommy Winfrey
Once Upon a Time at San Quentin
Imagine sitting in a waiting room, and you pick up this over-sized beautiful looking coffee-table book. You open it up and read about a horrific murder. This scraggly faced guard stares at you and you then realize—this is the beginning of a journey, you never expected.
Reading and seeing what’s contained in this historical account makes an inmate think about doing time in that fearful place verses this programming place—it’s San Quentin.
Detailed anecdotes, beginning with George Jackson, tell known stories from another perspective—analysis I never knew or read about. Once Upon a Time at San Quentin is fresh, at least in my limited learned mind.
Nevertheless, it seems a bit eerie seeing these large print black and whites, knowing the violent history of San Quentin, its grave yard, the walls, and Golden sitting with his side arm—a .357 magnum.
Golden has his take on convicts, as he calls us, and prison life, including the food he admits to like and eat. Big difference for me, as this food has turned me into a quasi-vegetarian. All the same, Golden’s perception about the ins and outs of prison life is interesting and fascinating, even remarkable in its attention-grabbing style.
He calls the Adjustment Center the Dungeon of Death, a place back then where correctional officers, “who through the unfortunate fate found themselves sentenced by a vindictive administration to work.”
Once Upon a Time at San Quentin gets to some criticisms about the criminal justice system:
Self centered and arrogant ‘Johnny Law’ believes what happens on the streets should totally consume on-duty prison guards, while street police have little or no concept of life in prison. Worse still, judges, prosecutors and juries have condemned these hapless California State victims to the living hell called San Quentin.
The account, If you Build It, They Will Come is more criticism, this time aimed at the Pennsylvanian Quakers who “had a bad idea” when they decided to “put these long metal bars on all the windows.”
Golden makes his point clear in Once Upon a Time at San Quentin:
“The focus of true prison reform must be on seven groups of people, both in prison and on the streets, listed by social importance.
- Street victims of violent crime.
- Juries.
- Tax Payers.
- Prison Correctional Staff.
- Innocent Inmates, in prison and wrongly convicted of crime.
- Prison Inmates who are victims of violent crime while imprisoned.
- Guilty incarcerated Inmates.
Failure to recognize all seven of these categories will eventually lead to a breakdown in all social cohesion.”
That being said, Golden has his own radical ideas about fixing penal problems in America, including the use of a firing squad to execute the guilty within 30 days of sentencing. I guess many of the guilty subject to a firing squad would be putting off their sentencing indefinitely.
Editor’s Note: San Quentin News endorses Once Upon a Time at San Quentin because its sales are directly tied to donations that help print and distribute newspapers to inmates who otherwise would not be able to read all about it.
Juan’s Book Review
Transparency Lacking in Private Prisons
The increasing use of private prisons in the United States has created a growing problem: contracting away transparency and government accountability by federal and state governments, said a reform advocacy report.
A recent report by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) criticized the trend of privatizing prisons by the federal and state governments that results in a lack of public access to the records maintained by the outsourced prisons.
“Privatizing entities once under exclusive governmental control has eliminated a key component of public accountability – access to information that explains how the prisons are being run, at what cost and the extent to which they are engaging in abuses that deprive prisoners of their basic civil liberties,” proclaimed the CREW report.
Public Records
Records of federal public prisons are maintained by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Bureau of Prisons, and are subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Similarly, records of state public prisons are maintained by the respective state departments of corrections and are subject to the state open records laws, such as the California Public Records Act.
The FOIA and the states’ open records laws provide the public with a mechanism to access governmental records, which promotes transparency of the public services and accountability of the government bodies that are responsible for providing the services.
“By contrast, private prisons are not subject to the FOIA and generally are not subject to state open records laws,” the CREW report said. “… As a result, the public is denied access to basic information that would provide a full picture of the workings and conditions of private prisons.”
Crew Reports
According to the CREW report, 18.6 percent of the federal prison population and more than 7 percent of state prison populations were incarcerated in private facilities as of Dec. 31, 2012. Corrections Corporations of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison company, and GEO Group, the world’s largest, monopolize the federal prison market, with CCA also running 53 facilities from state and local governments, the report said.
The CREW report detailed how CCA and GEO Group – who as for-profit entities serve the interests of “shareholders and the bottom line rather than the public” – have strategies to get and stay where they are today. The have lobbied heavily against any legislation that might have threatened their interests; provided generous campaign contributions to congressional and state political candidates, parties and other entities; and used philanthropic giving as a way to curry influence, the report showed.
PPIA
The private prison industry has lobbied successfully against the passage of five versions of the Private Prison Information Act (PPIA), which would have subjected private prisons to the FOIA. “This legislation has never been voted out of committee in the House of Representatives,” said the CREW report.
The private prison industry also has successfully blocked attempts by the Arizona Legislature to make the state’s private prison records public, the report noted.
The CREW report proposed these solutions:
- Enactment of a statute like the PPIA and similar state legislation.
- Congressional hearings to monitor private prisons.
- Legislation other than amendment of the FOIA that requires disclosure.
- Authorization of data collection from private prisons by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
- Congressional oversight.
- Investigation and studies by the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Offices of the Inspectors General at DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security.
- Grassroots efforts
California Public Records Act (CPRA)
GOVT. CODE §§ 6250 – 6276.48
THE BASICS
The fundamental precept of the CPRA is that governmental records shall be disclosed to the public, upon request, unless there is a specific reason not to do so. Most of the reasons for withholding disclosure of a record are set forth in specific exemptions contained in the CPRA. (§ 6253). Specific exceptions to disclosure are listed in sections 6253.2, 6253.5, 6253.6, 6254, 6254.1-6254.22, 6255, 6267, 6268, 6276.02-6276.48; to ensure maximum access, these exceptions are read narrowly. The agency always bears the burden of justifying nondisclosure, and “any reasonably segregable portion . . . shall be available for inspection…after deletion of the portions which are exempt.” (§ 6253(a))
In enacting the CPRA, the Legislature stated that access to information concerning the conduct of the public’s business is a fundamental and necessary right for every person in the state and the CPRA’s primary purpose is to give the public an opportunity to monitor the functioning of their government. U.S. Dept. of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of Press (1989) 489 U.S. 749; Times Mirror Co. v. Superior Court (1991) 53 Cal.3d 1325; CBS, Inc. v. Block (1986) 42 Cal.3d 646.
WHO’S COVERED: All state and local agencies, including: (1) any officer, bureau or department; (2) any “board, commission or agency” created by the agency (including advisory boards); and (3) nonprofit entities that are legislative bodies of a local agency. (§ 6252(a), (b)). Many state and regional agencies are required to have written public record policies. A list appears in § 6253.4.
WHO’S NOT COVERED: Courts (except itemized statements of total expenditures and disbursement) (§§6252(a), 6261).The Legislature. (§ 6252) See Legislative Open
Records Act, Govt. Code §§ 9070-9080.
TO MAKE A REQUEST OF THE CDCR
Write to: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
PRA Administrators
1515 S St., Suite 314S
Sacramento, CA 94283-0001
The CDCR charges $.12 per page for Public Records Act requests, plus actual postage. If the documents can be emailed, the postage would be waived.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR HELP:
FIRST AMENDMENT PROJECT……………..510/208-7744
California First Amendment Coalition……….415/460-5060
For the Top 10 Points to Remember about Making a California Public Records Act Request or Top 10 Points to Remember about Exemptions from the California Public Records Act, please send a request to:
The Center for Public Forum Rights
2218 Homewood Way
Carmichael, CA 95608 www.calaware.org