San Quentin News

Written By Inmates - Advancing Social Justice

New York’s Riker’s Island Jail scheduled to close in 2026

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After years of debate and discussion, Riker’s Island Jail in New York is scheduled to close in 2026, according to Amanda Ottaway of Courthouse News.

With a reputation as one of the worst facilities to incarcerate human beings, politicians and the community of Queens, New York, felt that it is time to shut Riker’s down.

“Not another person should ever have to suffer through the inhumane conditions and the culture of abuse and violence that Riker’s fosters,” Brandon Holmes, campaign coordinator for #CLOSErikers, said.

Queens and the rest of New York are now faced with finding alternative housing for the current prison population. It is still up in the air whether or not to build new facilities in Queens or move the prisoners elsewhere.

When news of the jail’s future closing got out, some politicians signed-off while others did not. Those who are in favor of closing the facility feel that the jail has a horrible reputation for violence. Many are concerned about overcrowding and poor health conditions.

Others feel that closing the jail would incur the wrath of the public. The five boroughs in New York would have to come up with a plan on where to build another jail facility.

The opposing sides are looking into measures and proposals to slow down the process. Councilman Andy King, who voted not to close the jail, said he would like to see these proposals’ positive impacts before jails are put into neighborhoods.

Those who live in the inner city and suburbs are pushing back and putting up resistance. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who opposed the closure, pointed out that the proposal does not have a codified timeline for closing Riker’s.

Members of the city’s Land Use Committee feel that setting the goal of completion for 2026 gives both sides time to iron out the kinks and come-up with a solution that satisfies everyone.

In the meantime, Riker’s Island will continue to operate and live-up to its legacy as one of the worst jail facilities in the country for the next seven years.

Norways approach to incarceration sets new standard

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Norway is taking the lead in Europe when in it comes to prison reform and rehabilitation, according to Emma Jane Kirby of the BBC.

The country has moved away from just locking people up and throwing away the key, to an approach of cutting the prison population and finding ways to stop the reoffending rates.

“In Norway, the punishment is just to take away someone’s liberty. The rights stay. Prisoners can vote; they have access to school, to health care; they have the same rights as any Norwegian citizen because inmates are human beings. They’ve done wrong; they must be punished, but they are still human beings,” said Are Hoidal, the prison governor of Norway’s Haiden Prison.

Part of the process of Haiden’s rehabilitation program is daily exercise. Prisoners work out alongside staff, who participate in the same exercises. It is therapeutic for staff and prisoners alike, according to the article.

Bonding and forming a partnership between staff and inmate helps tone down violence, and let the prisoner get used to doing things that he or she did not do while living a criminal lifestyle, explained Hoidal.

The maximum security prison at Halden was built to ease and minimize prisoners’ fears and stress and to put them in natural surroundings. At a cost of 138 million Euros to build, prisoners can enjoy the blueberry woods, silver birch and pine trees surrounding them.

The two-story buildings were built to look more like a college environment than a prison, according to the article.

There are no bars on the windows. Every prisoner has his own cell, which comes with a flat screen TV, a desk, kitchenette with refrigerator and a shower stall and commode.

The prison has state of the art vocational programs, and one can take college exams in math and physics, and some have received diplomas. Inmate Fredrik is working towards his master’s in graphic design while serving a 15-year sentence for murder.

“If you don’t have opportunities, and you are just locked in a cage, you don’t become a good citizen.” Fredrik told reporter Kirby, as he adjusted the colors on one of the photos on his screen. “Here there are good opportunities; you can have a diploma, and when you come out, you can maybe get a stable job, and that’s important.”

Another aspect of prison life in Norway that differs from the U.K., is that it takes correctional officers two years to complete their training. In the U.K., it only takes three months. The Norwegian candidates train at a university college specifically for correctional service. Only 175 trainees out of 1,200 become prison officers, according to Hans-Jorgen Brucker who oversees their training.

“We want to stop reoffending, which means officers need to be well educated,” said Brucker. “My students will study law, ethics, criminology, English, reintegration and social work. Then they will have a year training in a prison, and then they will come back to take final exams.”

The country moved away from the punitive approach more than 20 years ago. There are no life sentences, and the recidivism rate has dropped dramatically over the years, according to the article.

The prison has “daddy” days for those who pass a safeguard test, and then the prisoners can spend a couple of days with their family in a small cottage on prison grounds.

Hoidal said he can’t remember the last time they experienced violence in Haiden Prison.

“In Norway, all will be released—there are no life sentences,” Hoidal reminded the reporter.

“So we are releasing your neighbor. If we treat inmates like animals in prison, then we will release animals on your street.”

Feds consider releasing prisoners

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The Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr are working together to release non-violent criminals following decades in prison, according to Michael Balsamo of The Associated Press.

The Trump administration signed a new bi-partisan law last year called the First Step Act. The Act allows federal courts to release prisoners who are serving time for non-violent felonies.

Mr. Barr recently visited a medium custody facility in North Carolina, where he met with the facility’s staff and prisoners while inspecting the premises. He liked what he saw.

“I’m impressed with how it’s going,” Barr said of the First Step Act’s implementation. “While there are a few things I probably would have done differently, I generally support the thrust of the First Step Act.”

Barr’s tough-on-crime policies seem to be loosening-up. Like many politicians and people throughout the country, Barr feels that prisoners who served maximum time for non-violent crimes should be considered for release.

One such prisoner, Leroy Nolan, was arrested for drugs in the 1990’s. Now 67-years-old, he has served more than 20 years of his sentence and meets the criteria for parole.

Nolan works in a prison factory making T-shirts, backpacks and other goods for government agencies or non-profits.

“I made the mistake of getting into drugs,” Nolan told Barr and Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, who accompanied him on the tour. “You all are good role models.”

One of the major stumbling blocks for First Step’s success is providing enough vocational, educational, technology programs to help prisoners find work upon release. Early release advocates are pushing the Trump Administration to allocate more funding to them.

Inimai Chettiar of the Justice Action Network worries that Congress could stall early release funding and put proper implementation on hold.

Chettiar’s concerns are valid. When Barr toured he noticed that prisoners completed their work on old computers, and prisoners mentored and facilitated groups rather than outside instructors.

As more prisoners become eligible for parole, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the money to sustain viable programs and help prisoners gain their freedom to work or engage in a trade. Ultimately, the Justice Department and Barr have to be more than “all-in.” They also need to push for necessary funding.

Maine and Vermont encourage the incarcerated to cast their vote even while in prison

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When most felons go to prison they lose their right to vote in most of the 50 states, the strongest exceptions being Maine and Vermont, reported Mother Jones.

Depending on what you were convicted for, states like Mississippi, Alaska and Alabama let some of their prison population vote.

Volunteers at the Maine and Vermont prisons come into the facilities to register prisoners to vote and give them encouragement, by letting them know that their vote is very important.

Law librarian John Sughrue, who works at one of Vermont’s prisons, thinks that voting is imperative, the only “effective tool” prisoners have. Yet he noted that only a small percent of the population exercise their right to vote.

“It seems the current political climate has rendered us inexorably divided,” he wrote via the prison email system.

Madeline Motta, who volunteers in Vermont’s prisons and helps register prisoners to vote, said of her effort that most of the prisoners are their own worst enemies, according to the article.

“We explained to inmates that elected officials are making decisions about your quality of life both while you are incarcerated and once you are out,” she noted.

More variables need to be looked at as to why those who are incarcerated and can vote, don’t vote. They feel that their votes will not make a difference. A high percentage of the inmates cannot read or write, so filling out a registration ballot becomes an issue. Since they are cut off from the Internet, most can’t get news or form opinions about issues or candidates.

Executive Director of Prison Legal News, Paul Wright, says that lower turnouts among prisoners are to be expected.

“We don’t have much of a democracy when it comes to candidate choice,” he said. “Making the conscious choice in refraining from exercising your rights is just as important as exercising them,” Wright told the Mother Jones reporter.

Just like outside on the streets, inside prison walls you have voter apathy among the incarcerated.

Several states are working on solutions that will allow the incarcerated to vote or get back their voting privileges/rights once out of prison.

Ten states and Washington, D.C., are currently trying to pass legislation to get prisoners the right to vote while in jail, according to Mother Jones.

Allegations of slave labor tarnish drug rehabilitation program’s record

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A well-known drug rehabilitation foundation is using its patients in Texas and Louisiana for what critics call “slave labor.”

The Cenikor Foundation said the workers’ pay goes to offset the cost of their participation in a two-year work-rehabilitation program.

“It’s the closest thing to slavery,” said Logan Tullier, a former Cenikor participant who worked 10 hours a day at oil refineries, and laying steel rebar in 115-degree heat. “We were making them all the money.”

Over the years the foundation has sent its patients to work for over 300 companies. according to the advocate.com in an article written by reporters for the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Working so many hours a day leaves little time for rehabilitative programs, the article noted.

Ethan Ewers said the courts ordered him to complete Cenikor’s program and he worked 43 days straight unloading cargo containers in oppressive heat. After working so many days in a row, he was too tired to go to meetings or groups.

“I said, ‘You need to give me a day off because I can’t do this anymore,’ “Ewers said he told Cenikor brass. “It was absolutely ridiculous.”

Cenikor charges less than temp agencies and its staff members get incentives to work the clients long hours. The more money staff brought in, the bigger their bonuses, the research revealed.

Some of Cenikor’s patients are working up to 80 hours a week, not seeing any of the money and at risk for injury and other health issues, according to the article. One worker died of job injuries in 1995.

Bill Bailey, Cenikor’s chief executive officer, earned more than $400,000 in 2017. theadvocate.com reported he repeatedly declined requests for comment. But in a statement, Cenikor officials said the work provides “a career path for clients to be hired by companies who traditionally do not hire those with felony convictions, allowing them to return to a life of being a responsible, contributing member of society.”

Fewer than eight percent of those who entered Cenikor graduate from the program, and therefore never receive a job that pays, the article noted.

Cenikor insists that they follow all state and federal laws.

However, the Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that work- ing for free in a nonprofit — even one with a rehabilitative purpose — was a violation of federal labor law.

According to theadvocate. com, research has found that many drug rehab programs throughout the country have become “little more than lucrative work camps for private industry.”

Florida county jail injury

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Florida

A mentally ill prisoner at the Broward County Jail in Florida used a razor to commit an act of self-mutilation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

“I have a real medical emergency,” the prisoner, who goes by the initials J.I., told an officer. “I just cut off my penis and flushed it down the toilet. I have no need for it anymore.”

J.I. was sent to solitary confinement for yelling at staff and had been there for 112 days prior to the incident. Even before his placement in solitary confinement he exhibited abnormal behavior — he refused to eat or take his medication and had public masturbation episodes.

These behaviors were red flags that the doctors overseeing J.I’s care failed to notice. J.I.’s medical files contained little information about his status and, as his mental state declined, his treatment plan was not updated. Prisoners in solitary are isolated in a cell roughly the size of a parking space. These conditions are often consequential for an individual’s mental health, which should be assessed and monitored before placement in solitary. J.I. was not assessed before his placement in solitary, according to the ACLU.

J.I.’s self-mutilation was only one case involving prisoners with mental health issues at the Broward County Jail. One prisoner diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder starved himself to death. Months before, another prisoner starved to death— standing six- foot-two-inches tall and weighing 240 pounds at his arrest, he weighed a mere 120 pounds at his death.

Prior to J.I.’s mutilation, a court-appointed expert issued a report finding life- threatening shortcomings with the jail’s mental health program, citing a failure to exclude patients with serious mental illness from solitary confinement. The expert concluded that the mistreatment and neglect of those with mental illness at the jail was “absolutely inhumane.” The ACLU has filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the prisoners at Broward County Jail.

A comprehensive plan to remedy the problems has been crafted but must be approved by a federal judge before it is implemented. Once approved, those with serious mental health issues will be excluded from solitary, treatment plans will be developed, and patients will be placed in psychiatric hospitals rather than being housed at the county jail.

USSC denies stay of execution because of constitutional issues

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Over the last three months, six executions in the United States have been stayed or rescheduled because of constitutional issues regarding the method of execution or who can be present in the death chamber, according to Reuters.

At the helm of this controversy is the state of Alabama, according to recent articles featured in Reuters and Mother Jones.

Christopher Price was scheduled to be executed at the beginning of April. Price filed an appeal when he found out that he was to be lethally injected. He wants to die by lethal gas. The lower courts granted him a 60-day stay of execution. The state of Alabama appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After some last minute arguing, the court decided 5-4 along ideological lines, with a conservative majority voting to proceed with the execution. The decision, which was issued at 3 a.m., was too late. The death warrant had expired. Alabama will have to set a new execution date.

The Alabama ruling comes at a time when the justices have been clashing over capital punishment. Conservative justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that an eleventh-hour stay of execution should be an “extreme exception.” It appears that the case of Christopher Price did not rise to that standard. The issue for the state of Alabama was the timing.

The state contends that Price and his lawyers had ample time to alert the state and let them know how Price wanted to be executed.

The liberal side of the high court maintained that the hasty decision made in the middle of the night undermined the criminal justice system. Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the liberal justices, called the litigation an example of arbitrary administration of the death penalty. He wrote that Price’s claim failed because of a minor oversight by his lawyer when filing evidence to support his argument.

“To proceed in this way calls into question the basic principles of fairness that should underlie our criminal justice system,” Breyer wrote.

Price, who was convicted of killing a minister, has no objection to dying. He con- tends that the three-drug protocol would cause him severe pain, and that nitrogen hypoxia would reduce that risk.

In a similar case, Russell Bucklew, a convicted murderer, sought to die by lethal gas. He has a rare medical condition that he claims could make his execution by lethal injection “gruesome.” He requested that the execution be delayed 60 days so he could proceed with his request to be executed by lethal gas. The Supreme Court, however, was not persuaded. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the Constitution does not guarantee a condemned prisoner “a painless death.”

Study: mental health diagnoses result in high rates of prisoner isolation

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New Mexico has one of the smallest prison populations in the country at 7,300 but is fourth in the nation when it comes to confining prisoners to solitary, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

On any given day one out of 10 prisoners is being held in isolation, just because they have been diagnosed with mental illness, accord- ing to the article.

According to the ACLU, the state has routinely underreported its use of solitary confinement over the past decade, in part because it has no clear definition of “solitary” and instead uses “multiple and constantly changing terms” to refer to the practice.

Researchers from the University of New Mexico along with the ACLU found that 90% of the prisoners surveyed said they had been diagnosed with mental health problems and had been enrolled in the Preda- tory Behavioral Management Program and spent eight months in solitary confinement, according to the article.

Criminal defense attorney Matthew Coyte said that solitary confinement is an issue that poses cost and safety problems for the public.

Coyte, who worked with the ACLU, says that segregation only worsens a prisoner’s mental state instead of providing rehabilitation, said the article.

“We have been manu- facturing mental illness for years with this form of incar- ceration,” he said. “You don’t want people who are incar- cerated to come out worse.”

Prisoners in isolation com- plained about a lack of recreation time, losing track of time, experiencing violent thoughts, fits of rage, and hearing voices. Some had thoughts of suicide, the article said.

The Corrections department and the governor are trying to come up with some solutions, but they are having a hard time hiring and retaining officers. At the release of this story in March, they were still look- ing for a Secretary of Corrections, according to the article.

Several Democrats are sponsoring a bill that would stop the isolation of juveniles and pregnant women and confine those diagnosed with mental issues to no more than 48 hours in lockup.

The governor wants to take a look at New Mexico’s Department of Corrections policies on solitary confinement and suicides in the prisons, said the article. She said that solitary confinement “should be used in only the most extreme and narrow circumstances.”

Josh Anderson, a union representative for prison officers, said that the group is open to looking at how to improve living conditions and is reviewing policies for managing the state’s prisons, according to the article.

More than 4,000 mentally ill prisoners held in isolation

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More than 4,000 prisoners diagnosed with mental illness throughout the country are being held in solitary lock-up, according to The Guardian.

Confinement intensifies their illness. Despite U.S. prisons having this knowledge, this practice continues, the article said.

“This is tragic,” said Judith Resnik, a professor of law at Yale University. She is the director of the Arthur Liman Center. “Solitary confinement is a disabling setting that is harmful for human health and safety. It can do harm for people who are mentally OK and inflict terrible damage on people who are already mentally ill.”

Yale researchers, along with the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA), revealed that this terrifying experience among prisoners is very prevalent, according to the article.

The ASCA and Yale researchers stated that the mentally impaired are kept in isolation at least 22 hours a day for more than two weeks.

These researchers found that out of the 33 states who responded to their survey, only one state, Texas, said that they have no mental health patients in solitary.

More than a third of the states that replied stated that 10 percent of male prisoners with mental illness are locked-down. Missouri had the highest number, 703 men, while New Mexico had the highest proportion at 64 percent.

Colorado is one of the success stories. The state has new rules in play. When prisoners are diagnosed with mental illnesses they are treated for their illness instead of being confined.

Recently U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued an opinion in a case the court declined to hear. She said she was “deeply troubled” by the ongoing practice. She wrote that “solitary confinement imprints on those that it clutches a wide range of psychological scars.”

The amount of time spent in isolation remains high. Spending 22 hours a day in a cell measured 6 feet by 9 feet takes its toll, said the article.

The survey said that the number of mentally ill in lock-up is declining and that since 2014 the segregated population has fallen from 100,000 to 61,000 as of last year.

Progress remains mixed, however, as numbers in 11 states have increased.

Collateral consequences of incarceration still linger

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Jay Jordan’s story is an example of the barriers the formerly incarcerated face when trying to make a new life outside of prison.

He was paroled in 2011 following seven years in prison. He filled out 30 applications as a barber, a skill he learned while locked up. He remained unemployed. Everywhere he went, his past convictions stopped employers from even considering him, reports Kay Wicker for thinkprogress.org.

These circumstances are anything but unusual. One in five Californians have convictions, according to a report published by Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ), an organization for which Jordan now works.

The report showed that a “vast majority have never done any time,” but their convictions are barring them from living a productive life. In fact, nearly 75 percent of parolees are unemployed a year after they are released.

A conviction in California can act as a barrier for attaining safe housing, public benefits and gainful employment. It also complicates issues of immigration and can negatively affect one’s health, medical or mental, according to the article.

Jordan managed to turn his frustrations into activism, taking on a number of jobs involving community organizing or political campaigns before CSJ hired him in 2016. However, employment was only one of his hurdles.

He and his wife cannot apply for adoption because of his conviction. They bought a home recently, but Jordan is not allowed to join the Home Owners’ Association. They have discussed a dream of starting a company, but Jordan cannot apply for licensing.

“I’m affected by every other (barrier),” said Jordan.

The CSJ report shows the systemic marginalization of living with convictions.

“A wealth of evidence indicates educational programming is one of the most effective approaches to reducing recidivism,” reported CSJ. “Still, individuals with convictions, particularly if they have been incarcerated, must overcome significant obstacles in accessing educational and vocational training programs.”

Approximately 40 percent of those incarcerated nation-wide do not have a GED or a high school diploma, and 46 percent have no secondary education. This hinders access to jobs, making it harder to reestablish community ties and abstain from criminal behavior. Those who make it into colleges or technical schools still face massive systemic hurdles in completing their degrees. For example, the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (VC- CLEA) prohibits the incarcerated from getting Pell Grants, which do not need to be repaid, unlike loans, noted the CSJ study. Additionally, those who committed drug offenses while receiving federal financial aid are no longer eligible for “federal financial aid to attend an institute of higher learning.”

The CSJ report, which Jordan helped compose, is the first step in a campaign called Time Done, which hopes to clear a path toward sunsetting convictions.

“This is not about shorter sentences,” Jordan said.” This is about people who are out and have served their time, have paid their debts and remain crime-free and have proven they can live in society and be productive. All we are saying is, ‘Let’s not put our foot on their necks as a country.’”