A new and interesting way to experience the California correctional crisis through the eyes of inmates: The Poetic Justice Project offers its debut production, Off the Hook, which will be playing in various locations in CA. It is a play set in a California prison, it features formerly incarcerated people, and is based on their experiences.
I understand the play will focus, among other topics, on violence and race segregation in prison, which, incidentally, has been the focus of a recent Chron story highlighting the problems with racial classification and raising interesting questions about its inevitability.
This weekend will feature the first meeting of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty on U.S. soil, and, to my delight, this will happen at Hastings. The program seems very interesting. If you have interest in the topic, the first day, Saturday, June 12, will be open to the public. It’ll be delightful to see you there; if you see me and read the blog, do come by and say hi.
On May 19 I attended the San Francisco Public Defender’s 2010 Justice Summit, at the SF Public Library. Jeff Adachi eloquently introduced a day of 3 panels, one Clara Foltz impersonator, a TV PSA, and free lunch. The PSA video was a startling, professionally-produced 15-second spot promoting the abstract concept of the public defender (“PD”).
The first panel, “Ordinary Injustice,” offered a scathing critique of every level of our criminal justice system. The title was taken from the book of the same name by Amy Bach, who spoke first and stole the show with firsthand stories of miscarriages of justice in rural courtrooms. She also noted that these problems affect everyone, not just those caught up in this system, because our tax dollars become the collateral consequences. Laurence Benner made the point that this injustice will inherently remain so long as local politicians are entrusted with funding our indigent defense system. Kenneth Tanaguchi, Fresno PD, mentioned thatjustice suffers in counties using contract defenders because of their innate conflict of interest: turning a profit will trump clients’ best interests when criminal defense services are auctioned. John Terzano, Justice Project ED, explained prosecutorial misconduct as a product of prosecutors’ discretion, lack of accountability, and entrenched culture. Sam Webby described his series of stories for the San Jose Mercury-News about the San Jose’s defendants going without representation at their first (and usually only) appearances, which led to a change in policy: now those courtrooms have lawyers in them everyday for the first time.
The second panel discussed PDs’ public relations problem: “Public pretender or public crusader?” Former prosecutor Jonathan Shapiro, now famous for The Practice and Boston Legal, started controversially by telling the audience of PDs to cut their ponytails, lose their earrings, and wear dark suits with white shirts and red ties. His main point was that PDs need more self-promotion, and collective national representation to educate the public on their purpose and worth. Jami Floyd of tv’s The Best Defense agreed that the media contributes to misperceptions of the PD’s role, because of the pro-prosecution bias in the assumption that defendants did something wrong (violating innocent-until-proven-guilty). A New Yorker, she argued that reforming draconian drug laws is the best issue to start with reshaping the PD’s image. Criminal defender Gerald Schwartzbach drew applause for, “You don’t fight crime by cutting social services,” and for, “Putting a black robe on a jackass doesn’t get you a judge,” and for, “The whole criminal defense bar, public and private, needs to circle the wagons” and unify to improve its reputation/image. Carol Dee Huneke of PD Revolution (pdrevolution.blogspot.com) pointed out that even though emotionality usually favors victims, occasionally it works for defenders, and then they ought to call the media.
The third panel focused on prisoner re-entry services, from the mixed viewpoints of service providers, former prisoners, and advocates. It was pretty depressing, as highlighted by Eliza Hersh of the East Bay Community Law Center’s Clean Slate program: “There’s not really such a thing as a ‘clean slate’ in California.”
This is a bit last-minute, but better late than never: The Consortium for Women and Research at UC Davis is putting up a terrific one-day symposium titled Gender and Incarceration in California.
This annual symposium brings together scholars, community members, and policy makers around issues of gender and poverty in California. The theme for 2010 is gender and incarceration. Discussion will focus on reproductive rights for women in prison, the consequences of parents’ incarceration for children and families, styles of masculinity promoted by prison culture and sexual violence.
Friday, 9am-5:30pm Historic City Hall at Bistro 33 226 “F” Street, Davis
The event requires RSVP; the terrific list of speakers, including Valerie Jenness and Lateefah Simon, is on the program (click the link above).
I’ve just heard of a fascinating event. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it, but I hope many of you will:
WHAT CAN YOU GET FOR $10 BILLION?
Prison Spending and the CA Budget Crisis
An expert panel discussion on what prison spending and criminal justice policy mean for CA’s budget crisis and other spending priorities.
April 15, 2010 5:30-7:30pm Goldman School of Public Policy 2607 Hearst Ave (Room 250) Berkeley, CA
Moderated by Henry E. Brady, Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy.
CONFIRMED PANELISTS: Jeanne Woodford, Retired Chief of Adult Probation, City and County of San Francisco, Former Undersecretary and Director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Former Warden of San Quentin State Prison Dave Lewis, Deputy Director Fiscal Services, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Lance Corcoran, Chief Spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association John Dannenberg, Former CA Prisoner and Contributing Writer, Prison Legal News Paul Golaszewski Lead Analyst on Adult Corrections, Legislative Analyst’s Office Aaron Edwards Lead Analyst on Correctional Health Care and Inmate Rehabilitation Programs, Legislative Analyst’s Office
Here in America, last week the Providence Journal (the news source of record for the state of Rhode Island) took a related stance. The editorial board called for, not decriminalization, but taxation and regulation of all substances. The editorial argues, “Even if legalization were to increase drug use, that risk is overshadowed by the benefits. Crime would drop in our streets as dealers lose their livelihood, and users don’t have to rob others to support their habit. Governments can regulate the drugs for purity and collect taxes on their sale.”
However, the Cato report found that Portugal’s total decriminalization actually led to declines both in drug usage rates and in HIV infection rates. People found in possession of drugs are sent to a panel of a psychologist, a social worker, and a legal adviser to consider treatment and rehabilitation options. For the short version, read the TIME Magazine summary. This usage decline suggests that the public safety and economic benefits of drug policy reform would not merely offset harms of any increase in drug use, but rather, represent independent public policy gains.
Adding to our last post on the new Pew study, as a transplanted Rhode Islander I was thrilled to see Pew report that Rhode Island now leads the states in prison population reduction. As Bruce’s post reminds me, we never thought we’d see the day RI had fewer than 4,000 state prisoners. The RI General Assembly has recently eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, restoring judicial discretion. The Department of Corrections has increased sentence reductions for inmates’ good behavior.
Last night, the RI Senate Committee on Marijuana Prohibition released its final report, and concluded its business by releasing its final report and voting to recommend that the legislature decriminalize marijuana. This change would result in vast savings: in 2009 RI arrested 2,546 people for first-time marijuana possession. According to re-entry institute OpenDoors’s new report, in 2008 RI imprisoned 188 people and jailed 396–who spent a collective 2,366 days in jail.
This week’s posts seem like an endless stream of complaints about various futile criminalization efforts. Today’s contribution has to do with the recently proposed San Francisco “sit-lie” ordinance. Proposed by Mayor Newsom after a stroll with his baby on Haight, the ordinance would forbid sitting or lying on public sidewalks within the city of San Francisco.
The public discourse about this has centered on the question of criminalization of the poor. Beyond that question, which obviously has to do with the ideological divides in the city, I would like to bring once more, with your permission, gentle reader, the question of enforceability and benefit.
As characterized by Nevius (critiquing Jeff Adachi), the proposal “would restrict sitting or lying on public sidewalks anywhere in the city between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. First-time violators would be warned to move, then could receive a citation with a $50 to $100 fine. The second violation could result in 10 days in jail or a fine of $300 to $500, and each violation after that would be subject to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail.” Since the targeted offenders would, for the most part, be unable to pay the fine, they’d be shunted to court, where the case would be closed or diverted to the Community Justice Center or to the Mental Health Court, where the same population could end up anyway, for the exact same reasons, if prosecuted for one of the following violations of the already existing San Francisco Police Code, Article 2:
Why do we need yet another low-level municipal law for people who are easy to tangle in the law enforcement web anyway, if we really want to entangle then in it? Could this be yet *another* politically-motivated symbolic piece of useless legislation? I leave that to you, gentle reader.
Oh, and if anyone feels that this piece of legislation might be a waste of precious policymaking time, it appears you’ll have a chance to speak up today at the police commission meeting.
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Props to Michael Mutalipassi for digging out the police code provisions.
Tomorrow, between 6pm and 8pm, I’ll be giving a talk about the California Correctional Crisis at Reed Smith, LLP, in downtown San Francisco. The talk is free and open to the public, but requires RSVPing.
Today the Justice Policy Institute issued a press release criticizing President Obama’s budget proposal. The new budget would increase funding for law enforcement and prisons, and reduce funding for alternative justice programs. JPI has released a full fact sheet, here. The text of their release follows:
Group Criticizes Obama Administration’s Budget Plan to Increase Policing and Prisons
Justice advocates disturbed by proposed $29 billion for ineffective and unfair policies
Washington, D.C. – The Justice Policy Institute released a factsheet today challenging the Obama administration’s proposed Fiscal Year 2011 Department of Justice budget. The Administration is asking for $29.2 billion, which includes more funding for law enforcement and prisons, and reductions in spending on juvenile justice programs that have been proven to be effective at getting youth back on track for positive life outcomes. A hearing for the proposed budget was scheduled before the Congressional Budget Committee, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science on February 11, but was delayed and is in the process of being rescheduled.
“The Administration’s rationale for dumping more money into COPS (the federal Community Oriented Policing Services program) is that we need more police while the economy improves in order to prevent crime,” stated Tracy Velázquez, executive director of JPI. “That doesn’t pass the smell test. Crime rates have been falling for the last few years and we’ve already put a billion stimulus dollars into more policing last year. If the Administration wants to buy jobs that will improve public safety, they should put that $600 million into struggling communities, schools, treatment, and social services.”
Velázquez also noted that the proposed budget will likely result in increased incarceration costs for states, with only marginal public safety benefits. This is at a time when financially-strapped states are trying to downsize prisons through such mechanisms as greater use of community supervision and more diversion programs. While Velázquez praised funding for the Second Chance Act, which helps formerly-incarcerated people with their transition back to the community, she added, “More money should be focused on programs that help to keep people out of the criminal and juvenile justice systems in the first place.” These alternatives include community-based prevention and early intervention programs for youth, education and employment training, and substance abuse and mental health treatment services.
Some of the key findings in the newly-released fact sheet http://www.justicepolicy.org/content-hmID=1811&smID=1581&ssmID=87.htm include:
* Byrne Justice Assistance Grants: JPI found that while the $500+ million proposed for this program can be used for prevention and education, in reality most money goes to law enforcement. Research has shown that increased law enforcement results in the least-effective solution-higher drug imprisonment rates-while this money could be more effectively spent on community drug treatment.
* Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Funding: The Administration is requesting $600 million in hiring and retention grants for police officers, purportedly anticipating a rise in crime as the economy recovers. Such increased policing is likely to have a concentrated impact on communities of color, who are already disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. JPI suggests this money would be better spent on creating jobs, housing, and treatment programs for increased public safety.
* Juvenile Justice Programs: Funding for essential juvenile justice programs has been declining for years, and the Administration is proposing a $133 million decrease this year. Evidence shows that youth who spend time incarcerated have decreased educational and employment opportunities. Currently, there are more than 90,000 youth imprisoned in the United States. Investments in prevention programs, by contrast, are associated with improved public safety and better life outcomes for youth. “At a time when the Administration can’t seem to find the time to hire someone to run the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,” stated Velázquez, “this lack of commitment to funding core programs that protect and help youth is discomfiting.”
* Drug Courts: JPI commends the federal government’s interest in pursuing treatment as an option for people with substance abuse problems as an alternative to incarceration. However, drug courts, and the criminal justice system generally, can’t and shouldn’t be used as a substitute for community-based treatment services through the public health system, where it is most effective and appropriate.
* Adam Walsh Act: Having failed to bully states with threats of funding cuts if they fail to comply with the Adam Walsh Act, the federal government is adding a “carrot” to the “stick”: $20 million to help states implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). A number of reports have found little correlation between the use of sex offender registries and keeping children safe. In addition, broad compliance with SORNA will increase the number of people who cannot meet their basic needs (housing, employment), which is a major risk factor for recidivism. Especially hard-hit are youth on registries that may be barred from pro-social activities that can have a positive impact on improving their lives and on public safety.
* Increased Funding for Prisons: Increased funding for prison beds will likely lead to higher prison populations and expenses without significantly improving public safety. In fact, most states are reducing prison populations due to the current economic crisis and are seeking more effective solutions.
“While I hesitate to grade the Administration,” concluded Velázquez, “we certainly were optimistic that it would use the research that groups like JPI have done over the years in developing its justice budget. We hope the Administration will more seriously engage the reform community in the budget process in the future so that budgets and policies will be prioritized to one day allow the United States – land of the free-to leave behind the shameful moniker of being the world’s largest jailor.”
The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) is a Washington, D.C.-based research and policy organization that promotes fair and rational justice policies. For more information, please visit www.justicepolicy.org
