j u s t c r i m

Very Tough Love | This American Life

Part One. Ira reports from Glynn County Georgia on Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams and how she runs the drug courts in Glynn, Camden and Wayne counties. We hear the story of Lindsey Dills, who forges two checks on her parents' checking account when she's 17, one for $40 and one for $60, and ends up in drug court for five and a half years, including 14 months behind bars, and then she serves another five years after that—six months of it in Arrendale State Prison, the other four and a half on probation. The average drug court program in the U.S. lasts 15 months. But one main way that Judge Williams' drug court is different from most is how punitive it is. Such long jail sentences are contrary to the philosophy of drug court, as well as the guidelines of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals. For violating drug court rules, Lindsey not only does jail terms of 51 days, 90 days and 104 days, Judge Williams sends her on what she calls an "indefinite sentence," where she did not specify when Lindsey would get out. (30 minutes)

via www.thisamericanlife.org

States' Brilliant Budget Solution: Sacrifice Public Education to Spend More on Ineffective Prisons » Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union

California's governor wants to eliminate the entire $30 million the state spends on public libraries, while spending more than $50 million to imprison two dozen bedridden inmates who pose no threat to public safety.

Unfortunately, these types of absurd budget "solutions" are more common than you might think. There's no shortage of debate about how to deal with fiscal crises around the nation; the protests in Wisconsin and other states over budget cuts reflect the passion surrounding this hot topic.

But there's one thing everyone who cares about the budget, our safety, and basic fairness should be able to agree on: reducing our already bloated and inefficient prison system is a good start.

via www.aclu.org

LAPD jail: LAPD finally opens its new downtown jail - latimes.com

Prisoners were transferred Wednesday from the LAPD's old Parker Center jail to the new $84-million Metropolitan Detention Center. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times / February 2, 2011)

ShareRelated Map: New LAPD central jail

By Joel Rubin, Los Angeles TimesFebruary 3, 2011E-mailPrint Text Size

via www.latimes.com

aclu | mdoc

ACLU Strikes Deal To Shutter Notorious Unit 32 At Mississippi State Penitentiary : Facility Plagued By Inhumane Conditions And Lack Of Medical And Mental Health Care (June 4, 2010)

"The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) today struck a deal to shutter the notorious Unit 32 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the subject of a longstanding ACLU lawsuit challenging inhumane conditions and a lack of medical and mental health care..." 

[via Prison Law Blog]

the promising side of incarceration stories - giving back

Some important stories from the promising side of incarceration stories ...  Five Prison Charities Helping Inmates Give Back [Ben Murray] Conviction to Change: Five ways prison inmates are giving back -The Long Termers Organization, Chowchilla, California ...

"In the farmlands east of San Jose, behind the fences of the octagon-shaped Valley State Prison for Women (VSPW), members of one of the country's most active and effective women’s prison groups have an interesting new idea: they’d like to sponsor a Girl Scout troop.

"The plan, if they can do it, is to start a troop made up of daughters of inmates that, with the aid of outside coordinators, would be just like any other troop in America—except it would occasionally gather at the institution..."

[Via Prison Law Blog]

cali state of the state | "spending 45% more on prisons than universities"

Proposed constitutional amendment would guarantee funds for UC [2010-01-06]: "Spending 45 percent more on prisons than universities is no way to proceed into the future," Schwarzenegger said. "What does it say about a state that focuses more on prison uniforms than caps and gowns? It simply is not healthy. I will submit to you a constitutional amendment so that never again do we spend a greater percentage of our money on prisons than on higher education."

HLPR ONLINE -Symposium: Confronting the Costs of Incarceration

Harvard Law & Policy Review -Symposium: Confronting the Costs of Incarceration

Foreword: Incarceration American-Style
Sharon Dolovich

Supporting Advisory Guidelines
Judge Nancy Gertner

Integrative Solutions to Interrelated Issues: A Multidisciplinary Look Behind the Cycle of Incarceration
Nkechi Taifa and Catherine Beane

Reducing Mass Incarceration: Implications of the Iron Law of Prison Populations
Todd R. Clear and James Austin

"incarceration american-style"

Dolovich, Sharon, Incarceration American-Style (October 13, 2009). Harvard Law & Policy Review, Vol. 3, p. 237, 2009 ; UCLA School of Law Research Paper No. 09-27. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1488439

Abstract:     
"In the United States today, incarceration is more than just a mode of criminal punishment. It is a distinct cultural practice with its own aesthetic and technique, a practice that has emerged in recent decades as a catch-all mechanism for managing social ills. In this essay, I argue that this emergent carceral system has become self-generating - that American-style incarceration, through the conditions it inflicts, produces the very conduct society claims to abhor and thereby guarantees a steady supply of offenders whose incarceration the public will continue to demand. I argue, moreover, that this reproductive process works to create a class of permanently marginalized and degraded noncitizens - disproportionately poor people of color - who are marked out by the fact of their incarceration for perpetual social exclusion and ongoing social control. This essay serves as the Foreword to a symposium in the Harvard Law & Policy Review addressing the costs of mass incarceration."

supervised release - a growth industry

Amir Efrati.  "Courts Face Growing Battle Over Limits on Ex-Convicts." Wall Street Journal,  August 13, 2009:  Another area of corrections cottage industry growth -- "As of September 2008, more than 95,000 convicts were serving a term of supervised release, up from 51,000 in 1997, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts."

" ... a much sought after tour destination ... "

"Louisiana State Penitentiary is the state' oldest and only maximum security prison and, as such, a much sought after tour destination for school groups, churches, and criminal justice professionals. A regular tour consists of a visit to the museum, the historic Red Hat, a cellblock or dormitory at Camp F, lunch at Camp F (provided this request was made in advance and group arrives before 11:00 a.m.), and the lethal injection table..."

get on the bus | uniting children with their mothers and fathers in prison

Get On The Bus offers

free transportation for the children and their caregivers to the prison, provides travel bags for the children, comfort bags for the caregivers, a photo of each child with his or her parent, and meals for the day (breakfast, snacks on the bus, a special lunch at the prison with their parent and dinner on the way home), all at no cost to the children’s family." On the bus trip home, following a four hour visit, each child receives a teddy bear with a letter from their parent and post-event counseling. 

This year Get On The Bus offers a Mother's Day trip on Friday, May 8, 2009 and a Father's Day trip on Friday, June 19, 2009.  The program offers transportation to five prisons throughout the state of California: California Institute for Women (CIW) in Corona, Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) and Valley State Prison (VSP) in Chowchilla, California Men's Colony (CMC) in San Luis Obispo and California Training Facility (CTF) in Soledad.

How Can I Help?  Contact your Get On The Bus Regional Coordinator or the Get On The Bus main administrative office to find out how you can help reach out to the children and families, donate food or supplies, sponsor a bus, prepare travel bags, collect teddy bears, raise funds, spread the word, or much, much more!: Northern California [email protected]; Central Coast:  [email protected]; Southern California:  [email protected]; Program Director:  [email protected].