text:
Second Chance for Incarcerated Kids
Young people who break the law should be held accountable for their crimes. But since youngsters who commit violent offenses, even murder, often do so when they are still mentally and emotionally immature, they should have an avenue for appealing their sentences after a reasonable time to the governor.
A new juvenile clemency review board established this week by Gov. Bill Ritter, a longtime district attorney, would provide youthful offenders just such an opportunity to make their case for release or for a reduced sentence.
We think it's a fair and judicious way of handling youth crime, considering youngsters' potential for reform and the medical experts who say teen brains aren't fully developed. The rules of the board are strict enough, requiring a majority vote before a recommendation is sent to the governor, that we don't envision a rash of clemency or commutation decisions.
The 45 youths now locked away for life under a Colorado life-without-parole law that no longer exists might or might not benefit from a board review. But at least now they will have the opportunity to bring their cases forward. At least one of the 45 is serving a mandatory life sentence for merely being in a car during a drive-by shooting, said Pendulum Foundation director Mary Ellen Johnson.
The state legislature changed the law in 2006 to allow child murderers to seek parole after serving 40 years of their sentence. The revised law also gave the governor authority to grant parole prior to the parole eligibility date in the event of "extraordinary mitigating circumstances."
John Riley, former director of the Platte Valley Youth Services Center in Greeley, says studies show that child murderers sent to juvenile facilities and eventually released do not go on to commit violent crimes.
A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling abolishing capital punishment for juvenile offenders cited medical and social science evidence that teens are too immature to be held accountable for their crimes to the same extent as adults.
"From a moral standpoint, it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult, for a greater possibility exists that a minor's character deficiencies will be reformed," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in the opinion for the court.
Studies indicate that minors have a great potential to be rehabilitated. Ritter's new clemency board would also review the cases of youth who have committed lesser crimes but were sentenced as adults to the Youth Offender System (YOS) of the Department of Corrections.
Riley cites the case of a 12-year-old girl who ended up in a juvenile facility because she ran away from home. Now 20, she has worked her way into the adult offender system by committing offenses and is currently in the YOS, having committed numerous offenses while incarcerated that she might never have committed had there been other options.
The new clemency advisory board is sure to raise the ire of people whose loved ones were killed. Their pain should not be negated and victims' families should have a say before any recommendation is made to the governor.
Ultimately, a decision to recommend clemency or a reduced sentence should be made only after comprehensive and thoughtful deliberation and only after a child offender has demonstrated his or her maturity and rehabilitation.
Justice Policy Institute - Education and Public Safety
New report released on Education and Public Safety:
The United States leads the world in the number of people incarcerated in
federal and state correctional facilities. There are currently more than 2 million
people in American prisons and jails.1 Overall, individuals incarcerated in U.S.
prisons and jails report significantly lower levels of educational attainment than
do those in the general population. Research has shown a relationship between
high school graduation rates and crime rates, and a relationship between
educational attainment and the likelihood of incarceration. The impact of
policies related to education and public safety are concentrated among people of
color, who are less likely to have access to quality educational opportunities,
more likely to leave educational systems earlier, and more likely to be
incarcerated.
TX Gov Perry Commutes Death Sentence
Wow. Well, now Kenneth Foster will be able to read as much sports history as he wants. As long as they will keep those books on the allowable reading material list.
From Grits for Breakfast:
Surprise of the Day: Parole Board recommends sparing Kennth Foster; now it's up to Gov. Perry
The courts have scheduled Kenneth Foster to die tonight, but the Parole Board today recommended he be spared in a surprising 6-1 vote.
Tim Masters Wants A Chance To Prove His Innocence
Thursday night in the Larimer County Detention Center is usually quiet, according to the receptionist bunkered down in a cinderblock and plexiglass greeting booth in the jailhouse lobby. And last Thursday night, it was quiet, considering that the brick-and-tile architecture of the jail amplifies even the most subtle noises into booming echoes.
The only thing in the waiting room that hints of comfort are the stuffed animals atop a gray industrial filing cabinet behind the receptionist; everything else puts function ahead of form. The hard surfaces make it clear that "obedience" is the expectation here.
Timothy Masters sits in a small booth behind thick ballistic glass, on a steel stool welded to the ground. His hairline is receding and he fields a short buzz-cut.
"They won't even give us a conference room or anything?" he said during an exclusive hour-long interview with Fort Collins Now, frustrated at having to converse through the phone.
It's a fleeting frustration. Such is the life of a convicted murderer, where it's usually pointless to dwell on such complaints. Although Masters has steadfastly denied killing Fort Collins resident Peggy Hettrick in 1987, when he was 15 years old, he's well accustomed to being treated as if he did.
He is trying to secure a new trial so that he can have another chance to prove he is not a murderer.
In a 1999 trial, the jury heard the prosecution's arguments that Masters, motivated by the death of his mother when he was 11, brutally killed Hettrick and mutilated her body as a form of "displaced matricide."
Hettrick was stabbed once in the back by a knife at least five inches long with a serrated blade. She bled to death within minutes, and her body was dragged from the curb of Landings Drive to the middle of a field.
Her partially disrobed body was found by a passing bicyclist; police soon discovered that a nipple and skin around her vagina had been excised with what was described in court documents as "surgical precision."
Masters lived in a trailer with his father next to the field where Hettrick was found; he became a suspect when police learned he'd seen the body on his way to school but didn't report it. Due largely to the complete lack of physical evidence connecting him to Hettrick's murder, and Masters' repeated assertion that he had nothing to do with the crime, the case went cold until he was arrested in 1997.
Although no physical evidence linked Masters to the crime, the jury heard testimony from paid expert witness Dr. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychiatrist who analyzed hundreds of pages of Masters' boyhood drawings and short stories. Many of those depicted violent death, including by stabbing. He discussed the theory of displaced matricide, in which a victim is killed as a surrogate for the murderer's mother. Masters' own mother had died unexpectedly almost four years to the day before Hettrick's death.
When the jury found him guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life in prison, "I was devastated," Masters said.
Read More At The Greeley Tribune
EDITORIAL- Sleep Easy Colorado - They Brought Jack Branson Down
Sleep easy tonight, Colorado. They finally brought Jack Branson down.
You know him - the rail-thin, 39-year-old, disease-wracked Thornton man who doctors once gave less than a year to live. They needed about a dozen agents and officers to corral the barely walking desperado, so cunning that he politely invited them into his home when they arrived with handcuffs.
His conviction Wednesday in Adams County District Court of cultivation of marijuana is one of the saddest outcomes in any metro courthouse in recent memory.
In a nutshell, for 20 years, Branson has battled HIV, must take a dozen pills a day to survive, and long ago learned the only way he can do it was by smoking marijuana. His doctors knew this.
Although Colorado voters in 2000 approved the use of marijuana for medical reasons, his doctor, from the University of Colorado, couldn't write Branson a license for the stuff because CU receives federal funds and she could lose her job if she did.
What Branson did was grow marijuana in his backyard.
The authorities arrived at his house in October 2004, confiscating what they said was more than a dozen plants.
Never once did they say he was growing the stuff for anyone else. Whom, pray tell, was this sick man hurting?
The decision by the jury of nine women and three men was bizarre: While nailing him on the cultivation charge, they acquitted him of a second felony count of possession of more than 8 ounces of marijuana.
Don Quick, the Adams County district attorney, says everyone is missing the point of the Branson case. The last thing Quick ever wanted, he said, was to hang a felony on the man.
Three times, Quick said, his office offered Branson a deferred sentence - the last time when the jury went out. If he was in compliance with the registry and stayed clean for a year, all charges would disappear.
"We know Mr. Branson is a very sick man, and we tried hard to make it work for him," Quick said. "He and his attorney, unfortunately, decided to take a different route. We can't have people out there saying, 'I'm going to use marijuana because I'm sick,' without following the law."
Margaret Branson, the man's mother, still seethed a day after the verdict.
"What were they thinking?" she asked over and over. Her son, she said, was having a bad health day and was unavailable to be interviewed.
"Trust me, he is a good man, a very good person," the 67-year-old woman said. "He was just trying to stay alive."
Dr. Cynthia Firnhaber, his primary physician back in 2004 who now practices in South Africa, had told him, his mother said, to either grow pot or pick out a hospice.
But writing a medical-use license, Margaret Branson said, was out of the question because it would jeopardize the federal funding CU received. Jack Branson would not receive a license until 2005, a year after he was charged.
It keeps him alive, his mother said.
Since the day Jack Branson was charged, his mother has been his most vocal supporter. Her son survives financially on Social Security disability payments and other benefits. She has paid all his legal costs.
He would not, she said, consider a plea agreement on the belief that he had hurt no one, and that he was growing the plants simply to stay alive - what anyone would do. But the felony conviction could jeopardize his benefits.
Of the jury verdict, she said, "I just knew they would listen to reason. This was a victimless crime, but not one person on the jury saw that. It amazes me."
Of the men who prosecuted her son, she said, "I think they wanted to make a statement about medicinal marijuana, and they picked Jack. What a terrible statement."
Jack Branson was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation. He must pay $5 a month in court costs.
In the end, maybe it did go down the way Quick says it did, giving the man a chance to acknowledge his error, to serve a year's probation, his record then wiped clean.
Or maybe it didn't. Maybe Branson honestly believed he was a victim of a system where doctors - fearful of losing federal dollars - told him to do something now that could not wait for later.
In his shoes, I'm not sure I would have done differently.
So yes, as Quick said, Branson broke the law.
But he broke it because he is dying and suffering pain no human being should endure.
We can all debate the merits of cultivation and other marijuana laws.
Yet you have to think any reasonable person would assume that such laws were not written to hang felonies and possibly imprison the sick and dying Jack Bransons of the world.
Now other arms of the government will likely come in the days ahead to take away felon Branson's medical and disability payments, without which he most certainly can't survive.
I'm guessing that will be described as justice, too.
Rocky Mountain News
CSP II Breaks Ground
No one to build it yet- I do wonder at the fact that they can't get any current legislators to show up to this event. Just former ones.
CANON CITY - The Colorado Department of Corrections will break ground Friday for the long-awaited high-security correctional facility planned at the East Canon Prison Complex.
The event is open to everyone and is set for 11 a.m. at the East Canon Prison Complex, U.S. 50 and Evans Boulevard. Former Colorado House Speaker Lola Spradley and former state Sen. Norma Anderson, both Republicans, are scheduled to be guest speakers along with DOC Executive Director Ari Zavaras and other corrections officials.
The new prison, dubbed Colorado State Penitentiary II, will be built just west of Centennial Correctional Facility and will consist of 948 administrative segregation beds, the highest security available in the Colorado prison system.
CSPII was funded in 2003 through certificates of participation, but litigation called into question the suitability of using the certificates. The courts found it was a legal means to fund the project, but because it was slowed three years by the lawsuit, cost to build the prison has gone up to $145 million from an estimated $101 million.
Pueblo Chieftain
Prison Yard Pot Plagues Japan
TOKYO—A Japanese prison is scrambling to eradicate marijuana plants that keep sprouting up on its exercise ground, officials said Tuesday.
The marijuana plants started sprouting at Abashiri Prison on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido about a year ago, said prison official Takeshi Okamura. He said officials plucked out as many as 300 marijuana plants and treated the ground last year, but several more sprouted again this year.
Prisoners reported them to the guards.
Officials believe the plants are wild.
"Apparently, somebody knew how to tell marijuana from other plants," Okamura said.
Local botanical experts concluded the marijuana seeds were inadvertently brought in with the soil used for the exercise ground, Okamura said.
"It's a headache," Okamura said. "This isn't a farm."
Abashiri Prison, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) northeast of Tokyo, currently has about 1,080 male inmates serving terms of up to eight years in prison.
Jack Branson Gets Probation For Cultivation
A Brighton jury today found Jack Branson guilty of cultivating marijuana, but not guilty of possession of more than 8 ounces of the drug.
He was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.
Branson was growing the plants in the backyard of his Thornton home. He claimed he had the right to grow the plants under Colorado's medical marijuana law. His lawyers contended a physician verbally recommended he use the drug to deal with the effects of the HIV virus he has lived with for 20 years.
What is Governor Ritter's Juvenile Clemency Board
I don't know who the appointed members are, but I will try to find out.
Gov. Bill Ritter announced today he has established a seven-member Juvenile Clemency Advisory Board to review clemency and commutation requests by juveniles who were tried as adults and sentenced to state prison.
"As a former prosecutor, protecting the people of Colorado and ensuring the fair administration of justice are extremely important to me," Gov. Ritter said upon issuing Executive Order B-009-07, which creates the Juvenile Clemency Board.
"We can further those goals by subjecting our criminal justice system – including the punishment of juvenile offenders who were tried, convicted and sentenced as adults – to regular review and scrutiny," said Gov. Ritter, who served as Denver's District Attorney from June 1993 to January 2005. "This Juvenile Clemency Board will bring an added level of expertise to the review process and help ensure that the interests of justice are served in cases where juveniles are tried and sentenced as adults."
Petitions for clemency and commutation by juveniles tried as adults are currently handled by the Executive Clemency Advisory Board. The new Juvenile Clemency Board will review petitions for commutation at the request of the Governor and consider several factors when making decisions, including:
Recognizing exemplary rehabilitation and institutional behavior;
Aiding offenders suffering from catastrophic or terminal medical, mental or physical conditions;
Rewarding acts of heroism by inmates who prevent risk or injury to staff, citizens or other inmates;
Addressing sentencing disparities and correct inequities within the Colorado criminal justice system.
Final decisions on clemency petitions will still be made by Governor. Board members will serve at the pleasure of the Governor; will include at least one crime victim or victim advocate and state criminal justice and corrections officials; and will meet at least twice a year.
The Governor has appointed the following seven people to the Juvenile Clemency Board:
Jeanne Smith, director for the Division of Criminal Justice, to serve as chairman;
Jeaneene Miller, director for the Division of Adult Parole, Youth Offender System and Community Corrections;
Gunnison County Sheriff Rick Murdie;
Dr. John Nicolleti;
Randy James Saucedo;
Dr. Richard M. Swanson;
Former Denver County and District Court Judge Federico C. Alvarez.
Here is the complete text of Executive Order B-009-07: Pursuant to the authority vested in me under Article IV, Section 7, of the Colorado Constitution and the laws of the state of Colorado, I, Bill Ritter, Jr., Governor of the State of Colorado, do hereby issue this Executive Order creating the Juvenile Clemency Board.
1. History and Purpose
The Executive Clemency Advisory Board ("the Board") was created by statute on July 1, 1969. The statute authorizing the Board was repealed in 1975. The organization and duties of the Board have been changed by a series of executive orders dated February 13, 1975, October 12, 1975, September 17, 1981, March 16, 1987, and February 16, 1999. The Executive Clemency Advisory Board shall continue under Executive order dated August 28, 2007. This addition of the Juvenile Clemency Board, will review cases of juvenile offenders, tried as adults.
The purpose of the Board is to make advisory recommendations of executive clemency to the Governor, specifically for persons who were juveniles tried as adults and are serving sentences(s). This Board shall advise the Governor on the screening of applications for juveniles offenders, tried as adults, requesting or petitioning for a commutation of sentence.
2. Membership
A. The Juvenile Clemency Board consists of seven members. The members of the Juvenile Clemency Board shall be appointed and serve at the pleasure of the Governor.
B. The Chairperson of the Juvenile Clemency Board shall be appointed and serve at the pleasure of the Governor. The Chairperson shall exercise the usual and necessary duties and powers of such an office. In the absence of the Chairperson an Acting Chairperson from among the members of the Juvenile Clemency Board may be designated by the Chairperson or by the Governor.
C. The Juvenile Clemency Board members shall include but are not limited to:
i. The Director for the Division of Criminal Justice;
ii. The Director for the Division of Adult Parole, Community Corrections, and the Youth Offender System;
iii. At least one member who is a crime victim or represents victims of crime.
3. Powers and Duties
A. The Juvenile Clemency Board may review and make recommendations of clemency for commutations of sentence of juvenile offenders. This review process shall be limited only to juvenile offenders who were tried as adults, under Colorado law and for which they are serving a sentence(s). The Juvenile Clemency Board shall not be required to review, process or respond to any requests for clemency, unless specifically directed by the Governor.
B. The Juvenile Clemency Board shall meet at least twice every year and may meet more frequently as the Chairperson deems appropriate. A recommendation by the Juvenile Clemency Board to grant clemency must receive favorable votes from at least four members of the Juvenile Clemency Board.
C. The Juvenile Clemency Board shall establish the policies and procedures it deems appropriate for conducting its meetings and for providing advice to the Governor. These procedures shall not be subject to the provisions of the State Administrative Procedures Act; the Opens Records Act, the Open Meetings Act; or any other requirement of state law. All board proceedings and records shall be confidential and shall be available solely to the Governor and his staff.
4. Scope of Authority
A. The Juvenile Clemency Board may make favorable recommendations for clemency to serve the interests of justice as determined by the Juvenile Clemency Board and make favorable recommendations for commutation of sentence to:
i. Recognize exemplary rehabilitation and institutional behavior;
ii. Aid offenders suffering from catastrophic or terminal medical, mental or physical conditions as determined by the Juvenile Clemency Board;
iii. Reward acts of heroism by inmates who prevent risk or injury to staff, citizens, or other inmates;
iv. Address sentencing disparities and correct inequities within the Colorado criminal justice system.
Staffing and Resources
The Board is hereby established within the Office of the Governor, with the staff assistance to be provided by the Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Safety as needed. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation shall provide the Governor's Director for Executive Clemency all assistance with clemency application background investigations, applicant fingerprint analysis, criminal history record information, court disposition information, driving record histories and all other assistance or records required to complete the clemency process.
All departments, committees, commissioners, or officers of this state or of any political subdivision of this state shall provide the assistance required by the board, in the performance of its duties. Free access shall also be given to any books, inmate records, archive records, material or documents in their custody, relating to matters within the scope of inquiry, study or review of the Executive Clemency Advisory Board.
STATE OF COLORADO WEBSITE
Governor Has Established Juvenile Clemency Board
In a response to the public outcry to excessive sentences imposed as children are tried as adults, Governor Ritter has started a juvenile clemency board to look at those sentences. He will still have the final say on whether the recommendations of the board will be adhered to. Like one well-known lawyer put it, "it's like asking the arsonist to put out the fire."
Gov. Bill Ritter has created a juvenile clemency advisory board that will re-examine cases of youths sentenced as adults in the state prison system.
The seven-member panel is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. and comes as some local and national groups raise alarms about long sentences imposed on teens.
"We feel that it's an important thing for us to do," Ritter said. "I think there are issues regarding juvenile justice that warrant a separate clemency board."
As Denver District Attorney in 1993, Ritter helped lead the charge for changes in state law that made it easier for prosecutors to try juveniles as adults. Those laws, enacted by a special session of the state legislature, came in response to a surge in youth and gang violence in the so-called "summer of violence".
Last night, however, Ritter said his executive order creating the youth clemency panel does not represent a shift in his view of juvenile justice.
"It's still the governor's decision," he added, noting that the panel can only make recommendations on cases, but that he has the final say on any pardons or commutations of sentences.
Ritter's order comes after a public policy debate over the last two years, in which some advocates have questioned the wisdom of locking up teenagers for life.
Sun Herald Obtains Video Of Prisoner Beating
The Sun Herald on Tuesday made public the videotaped beating of a Harrison County jail inmate whose death 18 months ago spawned a federal investigation and a growing list of civil lawsuits.
Harrison County jail trial verdict (Aug. 16)
Jail trial who's who
Jessie Lee Williams Jr. incident at the Harrison County jail (25 mins)
Jessie Lee Williams Jr. being taken out on a gurney (18 sec.)
Complete Harrison County jail trial coverage
Editorial: Public's right to know is upheld at last
Until the recent trial of two former jailers, the graphic images of what happened under color of law to Jessie Lee Williams Jr. have been kept secret, sealed by federal court orders. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. made the video available in response to the Sun Herald's public-records requests and a resulting lawsuit that asked for the documents to be unsealed and returned to the public domain.
The public's first access to the video of Williams' beating was at sunherald.com, where it was posted Tuesday afternoon.
Filmed by booking-room surveillance cameras, the tape has no sound, but shows pictures snapped every two or three seconds from the time Williams was brought in to the booking room at 10:30 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2006 until an ambulance crew picked him up around midnight.
Jurors in a nine-day trial ending Aug. 17 found former jailer Ryan Teel guilty of conspiring to deprive inmates' rights, using unnecessary, excessive force in Williams' fatal beating and obstructing justice by writing a false report. Williams, 40, of Gulfport, died of brain trauma. Co-defendant Rick Gaston was acquitted of a conspiracy charge and other assaults that didn't involve Williams.
Nine former jailers await sentencing in the federal investigation, which, according to prosecutors, proves a culture of violence existed at the Harrison County jail and may produce another indictment.
Commission Meets To Study Rockefeller Drug Laws
NEW YORK, NY August 28, 2007 —The New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform will meet tomorrow to study recommendations on changing the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which advocates for drug reform say are the most severe in the nation.
REPORTER: In a press teleconference, several advocates urged the commission to make a major overhaul in the laws which strictly limit judges' discretion in sentencing non-violent drug offenders. Many convicted first-time felony offenders are mandated to serve seven to 21 years. Bob Gangi, of the Correctional Association, a prisoners' rights group, says the laws need to be drastically changed or repealed.
GANGI: The drug laws are outdated, wasteful, ineffective, unjust and marked by racial bias - they distort law enforcement practices and foster imbalance in the adjudication of drug cases.
REPORTER: After reviewing the recommendations, the commission will submit a preliminary report to Governor Eliot Spitzer October First.
Drug Testing Sewage?
Now they've just gone to far. And who wants this job to begin with?
BOSTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. health officials may soon be able to make estimates on illegal drug use in communities by testing for drug residues in sewage.
The approach could provide a fast, reliable and inexpensive way to track drug trends at the local, regional or state levels -- eliminating the need to rely on surveys, medical records and crime reports to assess a community's drug abuse problem -- said lead researcher Jennifer Field of Oregon State University, who is working with researchers at the University of Washington.
Preliminary tests conducted in 10 U.S. cities show the method can simultaneously quantify methamphetamine and metabolites of cocaine and marijuana, and legal drugs such as methadone, oxycodone and ephedrine, the researchers said.
Field said the new screening method under development in her lab improves upon the utility of the laboratory tools currently used to identify traces and metabolites of drugs in waterways.
Supermax Staffing Unsafe
Pueblo Democrat Rep. Buffie McFayden and union officials Tuesday called upon the federal government to fully staff the Supermax prison in Florence, saying employee levels are dangerously low.
Staffing at the Supermax, which has been the scene of disturbances this year involving 60 inmates, has dropped to the point that many shifts and posts are not being covered, said union representatives for federal correction officers during a news conference at the Capitol.
Units that house some of the nation's most notorious terrorist go unsupervised for up to 24 hours in some cases, said McFayden and Mike Schnobrich, president of the prison council with the American Federation of Government Employees.
"It's my understanding that whole housing units have gone unstaffed for eight hours or longer, including the terrorist unit," said McFayden. "I'm calling on President Bush and the Congress to personally take note what's happening at Supermax.
"The problem is causing tensions between correctional officers and inmates. We need to protect our employees and our communities here in Colorado."
Union officials claim staffing levels have dropped from 92 percent at the facility to 75 percent.
The charge comes six months after outgoing U.S. Attorney General Roberto Gonzales toured Supermax in February amid security concerns.
Abu Gharib Cases Over?
Following the conviction of a few low-ranking soldiers for their roles in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, Lt. Col. Steven Jordan was found guilty Tuesday by a 10-member jury of only a single charge — failing to obey an order. The case is supposed to be the last of the criminal proceedings concerning this dark chapter of the Iraq war, but sources close to the Abu Ghraib legal drama tell TIME that two key civilians who worked as private contractors in the notorious facility's cell blocks could still face prosecution.
The only U.S. military officer facing a court-martial in the controversy, Jordan was charged with ordering dogs to be used for interrogations; cruelty and maltreatment of prisoners who were allegedly subjected to forced nudity and intimidation by dogs; dereliction of a duty to properly train and supervise soldiers in interrogation rules; and disobeying an order not to discuss the case with other witnesses. He could face five years in prison on his single conviction, but most observers believe his sentence will be lighter. The verdict represents a victory for the defense, which, amid prosecution missteps, managed to get dismissed before trial a series of charges that Jordan had lied to Army investigators.
But there may yet be more Abu Ghraib cases ahead. One person told TIME that during a recent appearance before a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia he answered questions about the role at Abu Ghraib of Steven A. Stefanowicz, a former employee of the U.S. defense contractor, CACI, that supplied interrogators to the prison, as well as of another civilian contractor. A variety of new materials obtained by TIME also offers evidence of Stefanowicz's role at the prison, in addition to whatever testimony the grand jury in eastern Virginia has heard.Time Magazine
Ft. Collins Closer To Early Release Program
It's amazing how programs can be developed when people are put into a crunch. The new jail bond issue was defeated in Larimer County last year and since then the city officials have really stepped up to the plate as far as defining what alternatives there are out there. Working to really reduce recidivism will keep the jail population down more than anything else. Now, if we could just get some treatment beds in Larimer County we will go a lot further.
After a meeting Monday, judges and jail administrators in Larimer County are one step closer to reaching a compromise regarding the early release program at the Larimer County Detention Center.
Sheriff Jim Alderden and Maj. Gary Darling, who heads the jail, met with Chief District Court Judge James Hiatt and Chief County Court Judge C. Edward Stirman to discuss the program, which some judges have been reluctant to utilize.
During the meeting, the four discussed transitioning offenders from the jail to alternative sentencing programs - such as work release or electronic home monitoring - rather than releasing them outright when they became eligible.
"I think all the judges are on board with this," Hiatt said. "What we'd like to see is that (early release) didn't exist at all, but I believe this is the best solution."
Facing jail overcrowding, Alderden launched the program in 2004, releasing certain inmates after they'd served 75 percent of their sentences. Under the program, the inmates could not be violent or sexual offenders or serving mandatory jail sentences and the sentencing judge had the final say whether the inmate would be released.
Both Alderden and Darling said they feel the compromise is a good one and it could have some added benefits. The inmates would be serving more of their sentence, but they'd also be under supervision as they transitioned out of jail, Alderden said.
"If we have work release and can transition all those inmates, I think that would be better than just kicking them out the door."
Transitioning out of jail is the one place where the system has really "dropped the ball," Darling said.
"We're not doing anything for them," he said
Policy Disagreements With The Guidelines
This is a great post from Doug Berman over at Sentencing Law and Policy. As a matter of fact he has several up this week. It is important that we watch what happens with Sentencing Commission Guidelines especially as we start our own commission here.
Most critically, as previously highlighted here, the Government's brief (Gall) repeatedly explains that district courts can vary from the Guidelines "based solely on policy disagreements with the Guidelines." Gov't Brief in Gall at 36; accord id. at 37 n.11 ("sentencing courts may impose non-Guidelines sentences based on policy disagreements with the Sentencing Commission"); see also id. at 32 ("variances need not be justified solely on factual grounds but may ... be based on reasoned policy considerations").
In light of this important concession, I decided to begin a list of "reasoned policy considerations" for disagreeing with certain Guidelines. Notably, as highlighted below, some policy reasons for varying from the Guidelines are suggested by the Commission's own research. For now, I have started this list without detailed explanations, though I may annotate this list in future posts (and readers are encouraged to add to the list in the comments).
Policy Reasons for Variances Suggested by the Commission
1. Crack guidelines are much too harsh relative to powder guidelines, especially for low-level offenders
2. Career offender guidelines are too harsh, especially for offenders with relatively minor prior offenses
3. Criminal history category I may overstate the risk of recidivism for "true" first offenders
Policy Reasons for Variances Suggested by Many Others
4. The guidelines unduly emphasize quantities (like loss calculations and drug weights) and ignore true culpability considerations based on a defendant's mental state
5. The guidelines too readily rely on uncharged (and even acquitted) conduct to greatly increase offense levels
6. The guidelines categorize many minor prior offenses as "crimes of violence" to enhance sentences
7. The guidelines fail to encourage alternatives to incarceration, especially for non-violent first offenders
8. The guidelines fail to incorporate relevant personal circumstances, such as mental conditions, prior good works (like military service), family circumstances, drug dependence
9. The guidelines generally fail to give voice and attention to victims' interests or to the interest of other third parties impacted by the crime and punishment
Council Sends Pot Initiative to Voters
I attended this council meeting tonight. I was thrilled to see over a hundred people packed into Council Chambers to hear compelling and moving testimony from both sides.
Denver City Council voted unanimously tonight to let voters decide in November if marijuana possession should be the lowest law enforcement priority for police.
The council heard emoitonal testimony from people on both sides of the issue.
Supporters of the ballot initiative, including one man with AIDS, said that people who use small amounts of marijuana were still being targeted by Denver police.
Opponents argued that marijuana could be a dangerous substance, especially when used by adolescents.
Several councilors said they thought the proposed change would have little or no impact because state law makes the possession of marijuana illegal.
Some of the councilors described the ballot initiative as a "circus" to garner media attention.
In a related story, medical marijuana advocates rallied around Jack Branson at his trial today in Brighton.
Year Long Investigation Nets 20 Pounds of Pot
How much does a year long investigation cost? I hope that they confiscated enough to pay for that investigation, but I doubt if they did. (Just by comparison-the bag of dog food in my kitchen weighs nearly 40 pounds).
A year-long undercover drug investigation by Denver police has netted 20-pounds of marijuana, more than $240,000 and a dozen arrests.
The investigation, which targeted an interstate ring that allegedly shipped about 1,000 pounds of marijuana through Denver monthly, was wrapped up on Thursday, Denver police said in a press release.
Detectives watched locations in west Denver and served search warrants simultaneously, police said.
The Denver Police Metro SWAT Team, narcotics detectives, patrol officers, West Metro Task Force members and ICE agents carried out the raids and arrests.
CA -Using Muscle To Improve Health Care
Now this is the job you want to get. He makes a half a million dollars a year.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Last year, shortly after receiving extraordinary powers to overhaul the medical system in California's prisons, Robert Sillen, armed with a stack of court papers, issued a blunt warning to cabinet officials at the governor's office in Sacramento.
"Every one of you is subject to being in contempt of court if you thwart my efforts or impede my progress," said Mr. Sillen, a silver-haired former hospital administrator chosen to carry out the overhaul of the prison medical system as the result of a class-action suit brought by a prison advocacy group.
Backing up his warning, Mr. Sillen handed out copies of a federal court order that named him the health care receiver for the California prison system.
In a subsequent warning, Mr. Sillen threatened to "back up the Brink's truck" to the state's treasury, if need be, to finance better medical services for the state's 173,000 inmates.
State figures show that court-ordered changes to California's prison system, including those in Mr. Sillen's health care domain, have cost more than $1.3 billion, and the meter is still running.
For decades, California officials have tried to bring order to the state's prison system, which is the largest in the nation. There have been lawsuits, special legislative committees and a declaration of a state of emergency by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but never has one person attacked a problem, piece by piece, with such blunt force and disregard for political convention as Mr. Sillen has the prison system.
Mr. Sillen, whose $500,000 annual salary puts him among California's highest paid public officials, said he had never visited a prison or thought much about the penal system until a recruiter called last year to persuade him to accept what the recruiter called a "mission impossible."
Now he has the power to hire, fire, raise salaries, build facilities, waive laws, tap the state treasury and have jailed any bureaucrat who tries to thwart him.NY TIMES
Pot, the Mayor, and the City Council
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and four City Council members have admitted using pot in the past, a newspaper reported today.
Others, such as council members Carol Boigon and Chris Nevitt, were more coy.
"I'm going to go on record saying I've never smoked pot. I've also never parked illegally and never sped," Nevitt jokingly told the Denver Daily News.
"I'm 60 years old. I went to school at the University of Michigan. Do a little research," Boigon said, according to the newspaper.
The report comes in advance of a vote tonight on whether or not to refer to voters an initiative that would make adult possession of less than an ounce of marijuana the "lowest priority" for police.
Hickenlooper told the paper he made "personal choices" when he was younger that he neither supports nor condones now.
Council members Rick Garcia, Marcia Johnson, Carla Madison and Jeanne Robb also told the paper they've "smoked or ingested" pot.
"I had a brownie once. There may have even been a bowl going with it ..." Johnson said, according to the report. "I got a good taste and even a case of the giggles."
Council President Michael Hancock and council members Jeanne Faatz and Paul Lopez said they've never smoked weed.
Charlie Brown, Peggy Lehmann, Doug Linkhart and Judy Montero declined to say whether or not they've ever used pot.
This snippet is from the Denver Daily News who ran the entire article...
Gateway to what?
Tvert pointed to the fact that at least four on Council and the mayor all smoked marijuana, but never became addicted to drugs.
"Councilman Hancock claims marijuana is a 'gateway drug,' but our mayor and council members never went on to use harder drugs, with the exception of alcohol, of course," Tvert said.
Councilman Charlie Brown, who led the opposition effort in 2005 to Initiative 100, refused to comment on whether he ever used marijuana, stating that he's "sick" of the issue and that the proponents never admit to using marijuana themselves.
Tvert said he has smoked pot: "I've certainly used marijuana, and I think it's unfortunate that the only drug I can use legally in Denver — alcohol — is far more harmful," he said.
Symbolic, unenforceable
For most elected officials, however, the issue is with supporting an initiative that is symbolic and unenforceable. Officials argue that marijuana is illegal statewide and by federal law and therefore police officers are sworn to uphold those laws, despite the will of local voters.
SAFER Hearing At Denver City Council
SAFERDenver.com - Donate - Blog & Press
We have a hearing before the Denver City Council this Monday, Aug. 27, and
Please come out and help us send a message to Denver city officials. We have notified the press that there will be a HUGE crowd there, so we need AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE!
WHAT: Press conference and City Council hearing
WHEN: This MONDAY, Aug. 27, 4:45 p.m.
WHERE: Denver City-County Building, 1437 Bannock St. (map)
WHO: As many professional-appearing marijuana reform supporters as humanly possible -- PLEASE bring friends, family, and co-workers!
Targeting Gang Life
Gilberto Juarez said he almost lost his son to gangs.
The 54-year-old father of three said he learned of his son's gang activities only after the boy was arrested on robbery charges.
His son was 14 years old.
"He had joined the gang when he was 8 years old," Juarez said. "He was heading in the wrong path."
Juarez's son, now 24, no longer is in a gang. He is married with children, has a steady job and has joined a local baseball team.
On Sunday, while Juarez's son played baseball in another area of Garfield Lake Park, Juarez took his 4-year-old grandson to The Rock the Block Neighborhood Outreach Ministry. The faith-based initiative uses the "block party" concept to build community ties to tackle gangs, drugs and violence, and to listen to the music and see the clowns.
Juarez said he supports any community effort to curb gangs and drugs in Denver.
Angel Barrientos, the organizer, said faith-based groups and churches share an equal responsibility, along with others in the community, to get young people away from drugs and gangs and to provide alternative activities.
"Drugs and violence are affecting negatively the quality of life for the family," he said.
Gonzales Resigns
WASHINGTON—Alberto Gonzales, the nation's first Hispanic attorney general, announced his resignation Monday—ending a nasty, monthslong standoff over his honesty and competence at the helm of the Justice Department.
Republicans and Democrats alike had demanded his resignation over the botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firings of U.S. attorneys, but President Bush had defiantly stood by his Texas friend until accepting his resignation Friday.
"It has been one of my greatest privileges to lead the Department of Justice," Gonzales said, announcing his resignation effective Sept. 17.
Bush planned to discuss Gonzales' departure at his Crawford, Texas, ranch today.
Solicitor General Paul Clement will be acting attorney general until a replacement is found, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the announcement.
Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was among those mentioned as possible successors. However, a senior administration official said the matter had not been raised with Chertoff. Bush leaves Washington next Monday for Australia, and Gonzales' replacement might not be named by then, the official said.
"Better late than never," said Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, summing up the response of many in Washington to Gonzales' resignation.
The Nation - Locked Up In New Orleans
The Nation: Locked Up in New Orleans
It's not so far from the way things were more than a century ago. Antebellum city records refer to what is now the Orleans Parish Prison as the Workhouse. In addition to those arrested for crime, the jail was a repository for slaves whose masters chose to lease them to the Workhouse. The same archives also reveal that African-Americans were committed to the Workhouse for "claiming to be free": In the space where the master's name was usually recorded, these inmates were referred to as "so-called free." After the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, African-Americans arrested in New Orleans for black-code crimes like vagrancy and unemployment were taken to the parish Workhouse. During Reconstruction, the incarcerated former slaves provided a critical pool of forced labor for railroad companies, agriculture and industry. In its first regular session post-Katrina, the state legislature amended a law regulating parish jail labor in order to grant immunity to prison authorities "for injuries or damages caused or suffered by prisoners participating in any work program during incarceration at parish jail facilities." When I asked a legislative staffer about the origins of the post-Katrina amendment, she said, "I believe it was because there was a labor shortage."
Justice Commission in Arapahoe?
I am glad that the meetings are open to the public. Anything that Carol Chambers is a part of in regards to justice is something that needs to be watched. There doesn't seem to be a lot of community input into this process. "One resident to be appointed at a later time" doesn't seem very inclusive.
The Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners established a new Justice Coordinating Committee that will create a forum to review, recommend and advise the board on issues concerning the county's justice system.
The committee will oversee a continuing dialogue among residents, the courts, law enforcement and local, state and county government on such issues as space needs and efficiencies in Arapahoe County's courts and jail.
Establishment of the committee comes after the completion of a two-year study that addressed jail overcrowding and space needs in the courts. The report outlined a variety of short- and long-term solutions to address the problems.
"The [committee] is just another step by Arapahoe County to ensure we have the most efficient justice system in the state," said commissioner Jim Dyer, of Centennial, who will serve on the committee. "The committee will advise the board of county commissioners on any necessary steps needed to ensure we are getting the best use of our facilities and our tax dollars before we move forward with any expansion plans."
The other members of the committee are eastern Centennial's commissioner Rod Bockenfeld, Sheriff Grayson Robinson, Chief Judge William Sylvester, District Attorney Carol Chambers and Greenwood Village Mayor pro tem Ron Rakowsky. One Arapahoe County resident will be appointed later.
Officials say the committee's goals will be to provide a better understanding of civil-justice problems, enhance cooperation among local governments, establish clear objectives and priorities and improve planning to help agencies improve efficiency.
Meetings are open to the public.
Dem Candidates Support Med Marijuana
Everyone is on board now..
It's about time Barack Obama took the right position on a drug policy issue. Last night he concurred with the other democratic presidential hopefuls that the federal medical marijuana raids must stop:
MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE — In his first public statement on the subject, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged to end medical marijuana raids in the 12 states that have medical marijuana laws Tuesday at a campaign event during a Nashua Pride minor league baseball game.
Obama's pledge came as a response to a question from Nashua resident and Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana volunteer Scott Turner, who asked the senator what he would do to stop the federal government from putting seriously ill people like Turner in prison in states where medical marijuana is legal.
"I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users," Obama said. "It's not a good use of our resources." [MPP]
Alberto Gonzales Done?
h/t to Talk Left
The buzz among top Bushies is that beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales finally plans to depart and will be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Why Chertoff? Officials say he's got fans on Capitol Hill, is untouched by the Justice prosecutor scandal, and has more experience than Gonzales did, having served as a federal judge and assistant attorney general.
US World News
Boxing Great Ron Lyle To Speak At Conference
When a youth was killed in a Denver gang fight more than 45 years ago, Ron Lyle's world seemed over. The teenager was sent to prison for most of the decade in connection with the death.
But within six years of freedom, he was throwing punches at Muhammad Ali and going 11 rounds with the legendary boxer.
"Usually prison's the end of the line, they say," said Lyle, now 66. "But I'm a believer that prison's the starting point. That's how I looked at it and it turned out to be that way."
Lyle will be the keynote speaker next month at the 2nd annual Freedom Conference, which helps men reentering society transition from prison life.
Tonya Rozencwajg, coordinator of the conference, said she was inspired to hold such an event because of the high recidivism rate of prisoners.
Two out of three offenders released from prison in 1994 committed at least one serious crime within three years, according to a U.S. Department of Justice recidivism study on its website.
In Colorado, the recidivism rate of prisoners released in 2004 was 41 percent after just one year, according to the Colorado Department of Corrections.
"Guys come out and don't have the tools they need to be successful," Rozencwajg said. "They re-offend because it's all they know. There's not much to help them along."
Recent prisoners will learn about reintegration into family and society, job opportunities and other helpful resources to get their lives in order, she added.
James Manuel, 41, served about 10 years in prison on robbery and drug-related charges. When he got out, he found it difficult to connect with his children again.
"Getting out was one of my biggest fears," he said. "My oldest held a grudge."
But he now speaks with his children a few times a month, has a management job at a Denver piping company, and has stayed out of trouble since he got out of prison in 2005, he said.
"Every day is a challenge," he said. "But if you put yourself around the right people, they will help."
The conference is scheduled for Sept. 14from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.at the Blair Caldwell Library at 2401 Welton Street. It's sponsored by It Takes a Village, a non-profit group whose aim is to reduce health disparities among minorities in the metro area.
Manuel had a message for those trying to make a living after a prison sentence: "Life is what you make it," he said. "A lot of people want to point fingers at society, but we still are the only ones who can make decisions for ourselves."
When Cops Are Bad
"Departure From The Truth" now that is some spin...How many cases in ten years? How many people may be sitting in jail or prison? How many lives may have been destroyed?
Denver allowed at least 25 of its police officers to remain on the force in the past decade despite "departing from the truth," prompting concerns for prosecutors, defense attorneys and city officials striving to ensure the integrity of criminal court cases.
On any given day, one of those officers could be testifying in a criminal case, and neither prosecutors, defense lawyers nor jurors would ever know that these officers have earned a reputation for dishonesty in their own department.
An eight-month, behind-the-scenes struggle remains unresolved over whether Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey's office is legally required to provide information about those officers to defense lawyers. Morrissey's own office says it doesn't have a list of the officers, even though top prosecutors in his office told the city in February that they believed Morrissey should receive the information.
Defense lawyers in Denver say they have struggled for years to get easy access to the internal-affairs files of those officers to challenge their testimony in criminal court cases.
"If a police officer has a history of being dishonest or lying under oath, I don't recall ever receiving that up front in discovery," said Michael Vallejos, the head of the Denver trial office of the Colorado Public Defender's Office.
Other police departments view departing-from-truth cases as among the most serious offenses for an officer and grounds for automatic firing because a sustained violation could be used to challenge the credibility of their criminal court testimony.
1963 case led to debate
Further, Denver differs from other jurisdictions in other respects.
In Arapahoe County, District Attorney Carol Chambers has a committee that continually reviews officer conduct and determines when defense lawyers should be alerted of discipline that could be favorable to the defense.
In Los Angeles, where police scandals prompted reforms, the district attorney's office maintains a database of such violations that prosecutors must check before a criminal case goes to trial. When a relevant violation is found on the database involving an officer in the case, the prosecutor there is required to alert a defense lawyer.
Although those responsible for the sustained cases make up a fraction of Denver's 1,400-officer force, such departure- from-truth cases are generating serious discussion because of a 1963 court case, Brady vs. Maryland. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that prosecutors are required to divulge evidence favorable to a defendant.
In Denver, the issue surfaced last year, when internal-affairs investigators determined that police Officer John Diaz failed to tell the truth during an investigation into whether he failed to show up to testify in a criminal trial.
Diaz received a 4½-month suspension without pay for the violation, but the case had other ramifications.
Richard Rosenthal, the city's independent monitor who oversees the city's handling of police internal-affairs files, alluded to the case in his annual report released in March. He stated in the report that the Police Department had returned many officers disciplined for "departing" back to their prior assignments. No system existed to evaluate whether testimony from those officers could be challenged by defendants, Rosenthal said in the report.
An analysis of the Police Department's discipline database shows that from January 1997 through September 2006, the city sustained 42 departing- from-the-truth cases. Of those, the city fired eight officers. About a dozen officers retired or resigned. Another 11 cases were never reviewed, in keeping with the city's long-standing policy of not completing an internal-affairs investigation if an officer resigns while it is ongoing.
The names of the officers involved are not included in the database and remain unknown to prosecutors, defense attorneys and the public, but details of some cases can be pieced together from other publicly available documents and interviews.
One officer, John Albo, kept his job after internal-affairs investigations twice determined he had departed from the truth - once for failing to be truthful when confronted about why he gave chase in his squad car without emergency lights or his siren. Albo retired with full benefits in 2005 after an internal- affairs investigation was launched to determine whether he had "departed" a third time.
A fight for the defense
Doug Wilson, the Colorado public defender, said that under the current system, a defense lawyer must file a subpoena with the Police Department to view internal-affairs discipline records.
Usually that results in a costly fight with the city attorney's office, which strives to quash the effort, Wilson said. A judge usually ends up reviewing the officer's records and decides which material could be relevant for the defense. Often, the judge bars the defense counsel from sharing the discipline records with other lawyers if the records are deemed relevant.
"We have to reinvent the wheel every time," Wilson said.
And, at times, Denver judges have weighed in on officers' side.
Denver District Judge Raymond Satter testified in 2002 on behalf of one officer in the policeman's civil-service appeal to get his job back. The city eventually succeeded in firing the officer, Paul Hoskins, who had staged a hit-and-run accident to cover up a drunken-driving wreck with a parked car, but not without a fight.
Satter, then presiding judge of the criminal court, testified that he doubted that the violation by Hoskins, nor an earlier violation in which the officer poured sugar in the gas tank of the car of his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend, would prevent the officer from being effective in court.
Satter testified that he doubted the incidents would ever come up if the officer were called to testify during a criminal trial. "I think police officers are human beings, like all of us, and make mistakes. Some make bigger mistakes than others. Some make littler mistakes than others," he testified. "It does not prevent them from being effective police officers."
Still, after Rosenthal's annual report in March, the city's safety manger, Al LaCabe, who oversees the Police Department, and Police Chief Gerry Whitman agreed to let Rosenthal weigh in on duty assignments of officers when investigations determine they departed from the truth. Whitman would continue to have the final say on where an officer would work.
The agreement, though, did nothing about the past cases involving police who remain on the force despite past sustained complaints of untruthfulness.
"It's not my job to correct historical mistakes," Rosenthal said. "If I were to take on that job, I wouldn't be able to do my current job effectively."
(Why isn't the information as easy as getting anyone's record? Especially when they are public servants.)
Police-union objections
Now, negotiations continue over whether the internal-affairs files should be forwarded to Morrissey's office, which then would be charged with releasing them to defense lawyers.
Morrissey referred questions to his assistant, Chuck Lepley.
Lepley said that after Rosenthal raised the question, discussions were held in January.
"We asked, and the city agreed, that there should not be a piecemeal sending of parts of an officer's personnel file or lists until there was an opportunity to do due diligence to ensure we did not improperly come into such information," Lepley said.
In mid-February, the DA's office asked the city to start providing information about officers found to have departed from the truth.
But months after that decision, no names have been delivered from the city to the DA.
Whitman said he was prepared to send the information to the DA, when lawyers for the police union raised objections, fearing that if officers couldn't testify in criminal cases, the city would fire them. He said he asked for an opinion from the city attorney's office but never got an answer.
"At this time, no cases have come to us," Lepley said in the statement. "It is my understanding that the city continues to work on determining the manner in which this will occur."
Acting City Attorney Arlene "Sam" Dykstra said that she didn't know why the city had provided no information to the DA's office but that even if the city had settled on a policy, she would consider it confidential and would decline to release it.
Another Congress Forgets Prisoners
With our son in prison, we held out hope that a Democratic Congress would usher in a return to reason and would reform federal prison sentencing.
Eight months later, nothing has happened. Drug addicts and mentally ill people continue to be incarcerated, and tax dollars continue to be wasted.
We had hoped to see Congress reinstate parole in the federal prison system and outlaw mandatory minimum sentences, which take discretion away from judges. We had hoped to see the release of nonviolent offenders who had served more than 10 years and are over age 45. Beyond wasting money, continuing to warehouse them past that age is just plain criminal.
Forgotten in all of this, of course, are the prisoners, rotting away at taxpayer expense. They work at less than slave wages, with no hope of parole and no treatment for their mental illnesses or addiction.
Here's a glimpse at a rare visit:
They stare out through bars as their families drive into the parking lot. We wave toward the window that we know to be theirs, smiling through our tears. We fill out forms and take off our shoes and belts. Rings and watches go through metal detectors. We're not allowed to wear toeless shoes, sleeveless blouses or jackets past a certain date, even though it's chilly in the visitors room. We can't carry purses, only clear plastic, with $20. Everyone runs for the vending machines. We'll be here six or eight hours, and that's the only food available.
We wait, nervous, anxious for our son to come through the door from the cell area. There he is, smiling, hurrying toward us, arms outstretched for our far-too-seldom hugs and kisses. That's all we're allowed. We long to hold him, touch him, make sure he's still whole, body and spirit. We're not allowed. Only one hello hug and kiss, and one in saying goodbye.
We talk about everything and nothing. He catches up on family doings. He longs to attend the Koontz family picnic, play ball with cousins, visit with aunts, see all the new "little ones" born in the past 11 years.
Unless Congress acts to remember our forgotten sons and daughters, we won't live to see our son at our table again.
Prison building is a growth industry in the United States today. Once a prison is built, it's a capital investment and must be filled. The jobs, once created, must be sustained for those working them. Small towns compete for "prison industries," while we outsource real manufacturing jobs overseas.
Sons and daughters of the working class fill these prisons, kids who drank too much and used illegal drugs, hurting themselves and those who loved them. Forty-five percent of federal prisoners suffer from mental illness, according to the most recent Department of Justice data. Fifty percent reported using illegal drugs in the month before their offense, but less than half of those classified as drug dependent or abusing took part in any drug treatment since their admission to prison, the department reported.
These mentally ill people and drug abusers have been forgotten by lawmakers who get elected on "tough on crime" platforms.
Many people say, "Well, they broke the law." Yes, and they destroyed themselves and their families in the doing. Should taxpayers spend millions each year "protecting" themselves from people who themselves need protection - but only from themselves and their illnesses?
Our kids are sick. Let's stop locking them away. Contact your representatives in Congress to demand changes in federal prison laws. Are representatives meeting the needs of their constituents and these forgotten prisoners, or are they meeting the needs of special interests? At election time, we should not forget those who let this terrible travesty of justice continue.
Now, the presidential hopefuls are coming to town, promising job protection, health care and education. Some want to protect the "sanctity" of the unborn while ignoring the lives of those already here. The poor, jobless, homeless, mentally ill, addicted and imprisoned are all ignored. Oh well, they won't vote anyway.
The candidates have to raise big bucks to buy TV time to keep K Street vendors as friends. Yet, after November 2008, the prisoners, our loved ones, will be forgotten again for another four years.
Please let our son come home.
RAY and FRAN KOONTZ live in Des Moines. Their son, John, 51, is serving his 11th year in federal prison on drug and weapons charges. He was sentenced to 25 years. There is no parole in the federal system, and prisoners must serve 85 percent of their sentences. Unless the laws are changed, John Koontz will be 62 when he's released.
Ritter Touts Recidivism Reduction
Mesa County has been dealing with their meth problem successfully and let the Governor know about it when he tried to tell them about the difficulty of dealing with it. We also know that Sheriffs are worried about their daily population going up if we change sentencing schemes for drug crimes. We have to start putting treatment centers in play where people can be sentenced to directly so the prison population and the jail populations are reduced. In cases where drug crimes are treated as misdemeanors instead of felonies, bond amounts can also be reduced and people will have a better chance of getting out jail while they are awaiting trial.
By AMY HAMILTON The Daily Sentinel
Reducing the rate of repeat criminal offenders and providing alternatives to prison can help keep the state's corrections budget in check, Gov. Bill Ritter said Friday to a group of law enforcement officers and officials from the 21st Judicial District.
Inmates' needs have grown to 9 percent of the state's general fund and continued growth would probably take away from the state's higher education dollars, he said.
"We've said that the place we can make the most difference is in the recidivism rate," Ritter said during his address at the Two Rivers Convention Center. "In Colorado, about 50 percent of the people released from prison return in about three years. We're looking at that rate and thinking about things we can do."
Earlier this year the governor signed a bill establishing a 26-member Colorado Criminal and Juvenile Justice Commission. Group goals include examining Colorado's sentencing guidelines, gathering information on the state's prison populations, seeking alternatives to prison and making policy recommendations.
Ritter, a former trial lawyer, said his experience showed the difficulties of treating methamphetamine users.
The forum Friday gave officials an opportunity to inform Ritter about progress being made on a countywide effort against methamphetamine abuse.
Meth use has been identified as a common denominator among various crimes, with meth users often committing a number of other crimes, District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said.
Hautzinger told Ritter that cooperation from a number of agencies helped create the county's meth treatment center, the first such government-run agency in the state.
"The idea has been if you can eliminate the behavior, then you can eliminate the criminal," he said. "It takes a lot of foresight to make a treatment facility."
Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey said after the meeting he would be closely watching the state's action on sentencing schemes.
Sentences for misdemeanor charges can include jail time, but felony charges can carry prison sentences.
Hilkey said he's worried about the possibility of more inmates serving misdemeanor sentences, adding to an already crowded jail population.
"I think sheriffs around the state are nervous about that," he said. "There's talk about putting more misdemeanor cases in jail for longer."
Some county jails, such as Mesa County Jail, make money by holding prisoners who are awaiting beds at Department of Correction facilities.
Council Won't Let SAFER Pull Initiative
The marijuana interest group that was furious last week because the Denver City Council did not like its initiative is now ticked off that the city won't let the group kill it.
Citizens for a Safer Denver collected more than 10,000 signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot asking voters to make marijuana possession the "lowest law enforcement priority" in Denver.
But Thursday the group offered to spike the initiative if the city would agree not to ticket people for marijuana possession during the 2008 Democratic National Convention and state that pot is less harmful that booze.
So far, there are no takers.
"Absolutely not," Councilman Charlie Brown said. "I think it's a publicity
stunt."
City officials pointed out that under city rules, Citizens for a Safer Denver has no authority to pull an initiative signed by thousands of residents - despite the fact that the group collected the signatures.
"Just days ago, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey was openly calling for the City Council to keep the initiative off the ballot," said Mason Tvert, who heads the marijuana group. "Now, because city officials live in fear of acknowledging the simple truth that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, they are hiding behind the law rather than accepting our offer to withdraw the initiative."
State law does allow for initiatives to be pulled. But David Broadwell, assistant city attorney, said as far as city laws go, the initiative is past the point of no return. In effect, the group is just a conduit for the thousands of residents who want the initiative.
The City Council on Monday must vote to either send the issue to voters in November or adopt the policy as a city ordinance.
It's the latest odd twist over the initiative. Last week, City Council members - who are overwhelmingly opposed to the change - considered passing the language into law in order to fight it in court.
Kids Try To Get Their Parents Back
Part of the collateral damage in the drug war is the children. It's pretty easy to lose your kids forever in Colorado if you have your parental rights removed. There is also a law on the books that states if you have been sentenced to a certain amount of time (depending on the age of your kids it can be as little as three years) you can lose your kids if you don't have anyone to take care of them. The devastating part is that they split up your children and they don't have any rights as siblings either.
When Timothy Wolcott was 10, the state took him away from his parents, alleging he and two siblings were neglected. Now 15, he's trying to get his mom and dad back.
Wolcott and his twin brother, Jesse, are believed to be the first youths in Washington to test a new law allowing adolescents to ask a court to reinstate their mother's and father's parental rights.
So far, the boys have filed a petition and had a hearing in Kitsap County Juvenile Court, where a commissioner appointed them lawyers. The law is so new that rules for it still haven't been written, so no one is exactly sure what will happen next.
Nonetheless, the boys' story illustrates the difficulties of keeping kids in foster care, and the tremendous pull that family can have over a child. It also shows the dilemmas faced by courts when parents transform themselves after they've lost rights to their children.
Timothy and his parents maintain that the family never should have been broken apart. But in any case, Elaine Wolcott-Ehrhardt and Robert Wolcott are completely different from when they lost the three children, Timothy said.
"My mom's done 180 degrees," he said. "My dad's done a 540."
Jesse, meanwhile, was in juvenile detention Monday on a drug-related burglary charge, his mother said. Her 11-year-old daughter, who was also removed from home, has since been adopted.
Timothy, a thin boy whose teenage getup belies a surprising level of maturity, said he'd do anything to get back home.
"I want to be with my family that I know loves me, regardless," he said.
Parents divorced in '01
Last year, about 1,400 children in Washington state became "legally free," as their parents' rights were taken away due to abuse or neglect. Sometimes parents relinquish their children voluntarily. Other times, as with the Wolcotts, a court terminates a parent's rights after a legal battle.
Timothy and Jesse's parents were divorced in 2001, when the state took their children. Shortly before that, Wolcott-Ehrhardt had gotten in an alcohol-related accident with children in the car. And before that, she said she was found by Child Protective Services to have neglected her kids' dental care. She said she got a deferred prosecution for driving under the influence, completed treatment and complied with all requirements.
Meanwhile, Wolcott said he was trying to kick a drug habit in 2001, adding that he's been clean since then.
It was impossible to verify much of the family's information Monday evening because neither the juvenile court nor CPS records could be inspected. Monday, Wolcott-Ehrhardt, who manages two convenience stores, presented a clean-cut image, dressed in a suit with her hair pinned up. Wolcott, a ponytailed roofer wearing jeans and a T-shirt, spoke as clearly as his ex-wife.
The two lost their parental rights in 2003. Wolcott-Ehrhardt said she kept filing motions asking the court to return the children. But since her rights were terminated, she had no standing to do so.
Meanwhile, her boys weren't doing well. Timothy said he left school in seventh grade, got addicted to drugs and did several stints in juvenile detention.
"I did drugs because I hated reality," he said. "Being in foster care is not that fun."
He spent much of his time on the run, panhandling and living on the streets.
Over and over again, he and Jesse ran away to their mother's or father's. Family made him feel good, he said. While in foster care, he said, "I have a cold, sinking feeling in my heart."
Authorities soon figured out where they could find the boys, and a cycle began.
"They would put them back in foster care," Wolcott-Ehrhardt said. "Then they'd run, and I'd pick them up again."
On occasion, Timothy said, he was sent to juvenile detention for running away.
Finally, Timothy just ran away without going back home. He missed birthdays and Christmases as he saw no further than his next hit of meth. He said he's been clean for five months.
Lawmakers get involved
Wolcott-Ehrhardt was scared for her boys and felt she could get them back on track, if only the state would let her. She heard about a California law that allowed parents to win back their rights, and approached several state legislators trying to get one passed here.
Sen. Phil Rockefeller and Rep. Ruth Kagi both agreed to sponsor legislation. The resulting bill was signed by the governor in May and took effect last month.
Now her boys are the first to use it, supporters of the law say.
At a preliminary hearing Monday, the lawyer representing the state said there are no plans to oppose the boys' petition. In order to reinstate parental rights, the commissioner must find that it is in the best interests of the children and that there is no other permanent plan for them.
Another hearing is scheduled for Sept. 17
Harvard News
JBC Prison Tour - Crowley
By ANTHONY A. MESTAS
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
OLNEY SPRINGS - Some of the 1,600 inmates at the Crowley County Correctional Facility can tap a variety of programs to help them after they do their time.
The Colorado Legislature's Joint Budget Committee toured the facility Thursday, getting a better understanding of its programs from prison staff and state Department of Correction officials.
Four of the six JBC members were in attendance, Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, and Sen. Moe Keller, D-Jefferson County.
Tapia, who had never visited the prison before, said that the facility's vocational programs impressed him the most, particularly the Habitat for Humanity program.
The prison, which is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America, has partnered with Habitat for Humanity on a program at CCCF that is the largest in the nation with 120 students.
Through the program, offenders have the opportunity to volunteer with Habitat affiliates and homeowners in house construction.
Police Chase in Lakewood Under Scrutiny
Lakewood and Denver officials will meet today to discuss a Denver police chase that ended when the undercover officer struck and injured a bystander within Lakewood's borders.
Edith Mack, a tutor in English as a second language at Molholm Elementary School, suffered a broken hip when the unmarked Dodge pickup struck and flipped her car Wednesday afternoon.
According to Denver's written policies, cars without lights and sirens aren't permitted to engage in pursuit.
"The investigation has already started to make sure the policies were followed. Simultaneously, we will use this to review the policies," Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said Thursday. He added: "Safety is our highest priority. We will address this as quickly as we can."
Lakewood Mayor pro tem Bob Murphy and representatives of the Lakewood Police Department and Jefferson County Public Schools expect to meet with representatives of Denver's Police Department and mayor's office about the incident.
Ethan Nadelman On Fox News - Legalize Drugs
"The Global War on Drugs Can Be Won"
High in demand: Prohibition does little to stem the desire for drugs.
No, it can't. A "drugfree world," which the United Nations describes as a realistic goal, is no more attainable than an "alcoholfree world"—and no one has talked about that with a straight face since the repeal of Prohibition in the United States in 1933. Yet futile rhetoric about winning a "war on drugs" persists, despite mountains of evidence documenting its moral and ideological bankruptcy. When the U.N. General Assembly Special Session on drugs convened in 1998, it committed to "eliminating or significantly reducing the illicit cultivation of the coca bush, the cannabis plant and the opium poppy by the year 2008" and to "achieving significant and measurable results in the field of demand reduction." But today, global production and consumption of those drugs are roughly the same as they were a decade ago; meanwhile, many producers have become more efficient, and cocaine and heroin have become purer and cheaper.
It's always dangerous when rhetoric drives policy—and especially so when "war on drugs" rhetoric leads the public to accept collateral casualties that would never be permissible in civilian law enforcement, much less public health. Politicians still talk of eliminating drugs from the Earth as though their use is a plague on...
FOREIGN POLICY (you have to register)
If you are supportive of the latest marijuana reform initiative in Denver -- or if you want to attend one of the more exciting City Council meetings you will ever see -- please consider helping us out and attending this event.
Thank you for your time and consideration, and I hope to see some of you on Monday.
Mason Tvert
Citizens for a Safer Denver
This Monday, Aug. 27, the Denver City Council will be holding a public hearing on the latest marijuana policy reform initiative. The measure would create a new city ordinance designating adult marijuana possession as the city's "lowest law enforcement priority," and it would establish a Marijuana Policy Review Panel to oversee its implementation. The City of Seattle adopted a virtually identical measure in 2003, and since then the city has significantly reduced the number of marijuana arrests and prosecutions for simple marijuana possession.
The Denver City Council has been trying to derail this very important initiative, and they have publicly stated they will be using Monday's hearing to campaign against the measure. The initiative's sponsors, Citizens for a Safer Denver, are working to counter this effort and use the hearing to send a huge message to Denver officials and voters.
You can help this campaign by attending Monday's hearing and demonstrating your support for this latest initiative. The more people who show up and show their support for this effort, the better. Thus, you are encouraged to bring as many friends or family members as possible, but please be sure everyone you bring appears professional.
WHEN: This coming Monday, Aug. 27, 4:45 p.m.
WHERE: Denver City-County Building, 1437 Bannock Street, Denver (map)
A short press conference will begin at 5 p.m. out front (please, NO signs). The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., but there is no way to know exactly when the Council will consider the initiative. If you cannot make it at 5 p.m., please still consider attending the hearing any time before 6:30 p.m. Or, if you can make it at 5 p.m. but cannot stay for the hearing, that would also be helpful.
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This is outdated. Take a look at stainless steel shims.
First off I would like to thank the author of http://bt3000.com/ along with the wonderful descriptions of alignment of this great table saw. I especially like the "permanent" solution he has for his shims. He simply glues them into place! It is genius and have done it myself and am very impressed with the ease with which the saw raises and lowers the blade.
I am going to attempt to bend my own so I can rescue the saw I bought for parts. Stay tuned, I might be able to sell you my fabricated version.


Printer suddenly not working? Super IT Solutions can help!
Home » Printer suddenly not working??
Was your printer working yesterday but today is suddenly not connected to your computer?
Even if you are sure nothing else has changed and you didn't alter anything, it is possible for your printer to be working one day, and then not responding the next.
Any number of things could make your printer not respond, most typically a recent Windows Update has upset the drivers and has decided to remove the printer.
Best option is to uninstall and reinstall your printer on your computer.
If you have any queries, don't hesitate to call us on 13 TOBOOK (13 86 26)… we deal with this problem on a daily basis.
https://superitsolutions.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/logo-super-it-439x100.png 0 0 Super Web Master https://superitsolutions.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/03/logo-super-it-439x100.png Super Web Master2011-03-02 23:45:292019-03-18 16:41:07Printer suddenly not working??
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Most of us are familiar with the notion of reading labels when we grocery shop but paying extra attention to what we put in our on our bodies is just as important as what we put in them.The thing is reading the label is only the first step and with all the marketing jargon out there it's tough to know what's what and if we should invest in certain products or not. We hit the books hard to find out what it all means, what to look out for, and most importantly where to splurge vs. save.
This term gets tossed around so much in the beauty as well as the food industry but what does it really mean and is it even that important? First of all, just because it says it's organic doesn't mean that it is. Generally the word organic means that the product was made or grown without using synthetic additives like pesticides. The important thing to remember here is often times the word organic is used as a form of "green washing" to generate more interest in certain products. Any company is allowed to say something is organic because there are no guidelines put in place to prevent them from doing so. When you read your labels be sure to look out for a USDA Organic logo or an Eco Cert logo. If a product has either of those it means that the product was made of at least 95% certified organic agricultural ingredients and it was made in a certified organic manufacturing facility.
There have been many debates on the benefits of using or consuming organic foods or products. We say, if you already eat organic then it's probably a good idea to keep the theme running when it comes to your beauty regime. However, there are no concrete studies that show that organic is healthier or better for you. If you are interested in learning more about organic beauty or changing to an organic lifestyle, we definitely recommend doing your research and asking the right questions before making any drastic decisions.
If you were surprised with what we shared on the term organic this might really shock you. Adina Grigore, noted author of Skin Cleanse, says, "… a product can be legally labelled as "natural" and contain up to 30 percent synthetic ingredients." The word natural was around long before organic became a thing and though it seems like it has good intentions, it's one of the biggest green washers of all. How can you spot if it's natural or not? Usually, a product will have a list of ingredients. If the first 5-10 ingredients are words you can barely pronounce (let alone remember) it's safe to assume that there is nothing natural about it.
We vote NO. 100% natural = 100% bogus.
In a nutshell, parabens are preservatives, ie. they prevent bacteria from growing in your favourite products. Though there is no hard scientific proof it has been linked to breast cancer and reproductive issues, particularly in women. Many countries are trying to enforce limits on the use of parabens but the FDA says it's all good as long as they are used in small amounts.
We say yes. The DIY beauty trend is piping hot at the moment making it much easier to find products that are paraben-free and if you're having a hard time finding products you can always make your own in the safety of your kitchen. If you are finding it hard to cut back at first just take baby steps while you figure out the best thing for you. Real Simple suggests investing in a paraben-free moisturizer first, since it covers the most area – your skin. Fun fact: it only takes 20 seconds for your skin to absorb the products you put on your skin everyday.
This is what makes your soaps and shampoos all sudsy. It's what gives you that "clean" feeling post shower. So what's the problem? It is a great degreaser commonly used in manufacturing and construction industries as well as the detergents that you use to clean your dishes and clothing. Harsh. You're body naturally generates oils that are essential in the health and growth of both your hair and skin. Sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium laurel sulfate essentially strips your hair and skin of these vital oils leaving them dry, brittle, and itchy and can lead to a multitude of problems.
Since SLS gives you that squeaky-clean feeling it can be hard to give up. The best thing to do is to limit your use of it. If you think about it, isn't it kind of weird to use the same stuff on your body as you do for your dishes? Look for sulfate-free shampoos and body washes. Just try it for a week. Trust us – once you see how much it will change your hair/skin you will never go back. We l-o-v-e Dr. Bronners.


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Project Type: Education, K-12
Service: Architectural, Forensic A/E, Project Management and Construction Management, Roof Designs and Repairs, Roofing/waterproofing investigations, design reviews and repair design, Structural component assessments
Davidson Middle School is a sixth- through eighth-grade school serving approximately 1,200 students, located in central San Rafael, California. The San Rafael City Schools district retained the services of Interactive Resources to provide forensic architectural design services for roof replacement, flashing and waterproofing systems. Our firm has decades of experience working with public schools and has successfully provided design and construction administration services for dozens of K-12 projects.
The first phase of the project included an assessment of existing conditions, structural evaluation and code analysis, followed by production of site and roof plans and recommendations to address deficiencies. Phase two involved removing the existing roof membrane system from low-slope and steep slope roofs to expose the substrate; making necessary modifications and repairs to the existing substrate to accommodate the new roof membrane system, and providing a new membrane system. Our work also included accommodating the extensive above-roof ducting in the Administration wing and replacing the improperly designed built-in gutter systems for both the Administration and Classroom buildings.
A portion of the completed roof at Davidson Middle School. CC by ND

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Our President Ronnie Clark founded Advantex Security Inc in 2004. He was retired as a Master Police Officer and a Master in Martial Arts. Several years later he brought George Brickey on board as Manager and CEO. George was a Judge and Commissioned Security Officer,Together they both had over 40 years of experience. Ronnie also operates a Security Training School, he was an instructor at the Texoma Regional Police Academy for seven years. He was also certified as a national police defense tactics instructor. Ronnie Trains his Security Officers to a very high standard as he did with his police academy students.
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