Two state leaders say they’ll ask that the U.S. Supreme Court review a federal court decision clearing the way for inmate voting in Washington. News reported in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Following Tuesday’s decision by a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel revoking the state prohibition on felon voting, Attorney General Rob McKenna and Secretary of State Sam Reed now say they’ll ask the nation’s highest court to review the decision.

The decision, hailed as a landmark win for prisoner-rights advocates, effectively removed the state’s restrictions on felon voting on civil-rights grounds.

Under the Washington law at issue, citizens convicted of a felony lose the right to vote until they are released from custody and off of Department of Corrections supervision. The 2-1 ruling by a Circuit Court of Appeals panel put those restrictions in doubt, with the majority finding that the state restrictions unfairly penalize minorities.

In an announcement Wednesday afternoon, McKenna and Reed said they believe the issue is ripe for review by the Supreme Court, and that their agencies — defendants in the lawsuit alongside the governor’s office — will ask for such a hearing. Objecting to the appeals court decision, both noted circuit courts elsewhere in the nation have come to the opposite conclusion while reviewing similar cases.

“This case began back in 1996, it’s been to the 9th Circuit twice already and now it’s time for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to resolve the split between the federal courts of appeals that the 9th Circuit has created,” McKenna said in a statement. “The felon disenfranchisement laws of Washington and 47 other states hang in the balance.”

McKenna added that, should the Supreme Court accept the case, he intends to argue it himself.

Attorneys for six Washington state prisoners, Circuit Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote, “have demonstrated that police practices, searches, arrests, detention practices, and plea bargaining practices lead to a greater burden on minorities that cannot be explained in race-neutral ways.”

Joined by Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the majority opinion, Tashima found no “race neutral” explanation for the higher incarceration rates and reversed a U.S. District Court decision in favor of the felons.

“Although (the state) criticized the experts’ studies and the conclusions, the (plaintiffs’) reports, when objectively viewed, support a finding of racial discrimination in Washington’s criminal justice system,” Tashima said in the ruling.

Writing in dissent, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Margaret McKeown said that the merits of the case should be heard at trial. Instead, her colleagues on the bench granted a summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, effectively settling the case pending an appeal.

Echoing McKeown’s contention, Reed said in a statement that prohibitions like Washington’s are on the books across the nation.

“The U.S. Constitution, the Washington Constitution and the laws of 47 other states all agree that felons may lose this important civil right when they violate the rights of others by committing egregious violations of the law,” Reed said in a statement. “I’m pleased the Attorney General will be taking this case to the U.S. Supreme Court and expect a positive outcome.”

Arguing the case, attorneys for the prisoners turned to a series of studies conducted in Seattle and elsewhere in the state showing that racial minorities were charged with crimes at rates far higher than could be explained by differences in levels of criminal activity, said Lawrence A. Weiser, a Gonzaga University law professor involved with the case since the mid-1990s.

“The issue is discrimination in the criminal justice system,” said Weiser, director of Gonzaga’s clinical law program. “The fact is that the disenfranchisement law has always been used to disenfranchise minority communities.”

Recent Department of Corrections figures show that about 28 percent of the state’s prison population is African-American, according to statistics cited in the suit. In contrast, African-Americans account for about 3 percent of Washington’s population.

A review of arrest records, the plaintiffs argued, showed that increased criminal behavior could not account for the disproportionately high incarceration rates among black Washingtonians.

“The disparities aren’t reflective of the actual participation in crime,” said Ryan Haygood, co-director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which participated in the suit. “They’re reflective of the discrimination in the criminal justice system.”

Speaking on the ruling Tuesday, Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said the court’s decision came as a surprise, in part because three circuit court panels elsewhere in the country came to opposite conclusions while reviewing similar cases.

Reed said he believes the state prohibition against prisoner voting remains appropriate.

“That’s part of the penalty,” Reed said. “A person loses their rights when they violate the rights of others by perpetrating a felony. … As long as when they get out they get a chance to rejoin society, that’s the important part.”

Reed said he supported a recent change in state law aimed at enabling felons returning to society to regain the vote. Under the new rules, felons no longer have to pay off their court-mandated fines before registering to vote.

Filed 14 years ago, the suit named Reed’s office as a defendant, as well as the Attorney General’s Office and the governor’s office.

In a July 2006 ruling in favor of the state, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley agreed that “evidence of racial bias in Washington’s criminal justice system is compelling.” Still, the Spokane judge ruled, that fact alone was not sufficient to sustain a challenge under the federal Voting Rights Act.

“Taking all of the relevant factors into account, the Court finds that the totality of the circumstances does not support a finding that Washington’s felon disenfranchisement law results in discrimination in its electoral process on account of race,” Whaley said in the decision now reversed by the U.S. Circuit Court panel.

Among the evidence offered to support the plaintiffs’ claims was a recent study on drug arrests in Seattle. The 2004 study, conducted by University of Washington sociologist Katherine Beckett, found that blacks and Latinos were disproportionately arrested on drug charges in part because of a police emphasis on street dealing of crack cocaine.

According to her statements to the court, Beckett found that most drug users and drug dealers in the city are white. Still, 64 percent of those arrested dealing “serious” drugs were black; only 17 percent of those caught in police sting operations were white.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that Beckett’s findings show that police have concentrated on outdoor drug sales areas frequented by minorities in the city’s Pioneer Square and downtown neighborhoods. At the same time, the attorneys argued, city police neglected drug sales areas frequented by whites in Seattle’s University District and Capitol Hill.

The state could have asked that an 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals review the case, rather than the Supreme Court. Instead, attorneys for the state will be filing a petition within the next 90 days requesting the high court review the case.

In the meantime, the Attorney General’s Office plans to file a motion to stay the mandate and allow the current system to remain in place until the appeal is resolved, a spokesperson said in a statement.

janchavarie County-State Issues, Washington

Lawrence County commissioners agreed to increase the number of state prisoners housed at the county jail by 10 to 15. The state pays the county $50 a day to house prisoners. News in The Vindicator.

At their Tuesday meeting, the panel amended its contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to accept a minimum of 60 and maximum of 65 prisoners. Previously, the limit had been 50.

The move could bring the jail an additional $20,000 per month, which is needed in light of the county’s possible budget shortfall for the end of this year, the commissioners said.

The state pays the county $50 per day for each prisoner, which is mostly profit, said Commissioner Steve Craig, who added that it costs the county about an additional $5 in food because the staffing is already in place.

The jail has a 275-bed capacity, but the average census is only about 165. The additional prisoners should be arriving in two to three months.

Though there had been some problems with the state prisoners initially when they discovered that they were given fewer privileges at the county jail, the problems have now been ironed out, Craig said.

The County Prison Board is expected to confirm the move when it meets in December.

janchavarie Budgets, County-State Issues, Pennsylvania

Kittitas County WA officials are considering increasing what they charge local cities to put prisoners into county jail as the result of significantly rising incarceration costs.    County Sheriff Gene Dana said the Sheriff’s Office also is looking for ways to help the cities reduce the number of people they must put in jail with a possible expansion of the electronic home monitoring program.  Reported by the Daily Record.

Dana said the major increasing cost is the shipping of more and more prisoners to jails in other counties and cities as the local inmate population rises. In August 2009 alone, it cost the county around $80,000 to transport and keep prisoners in Chelan, Okanogan and Ferry counties and in the city of Sunnyside jail. “If you do the math we’re pushing up to about $1 million a year just to ship out prisoners,” Dana said. Dana on Friday said an updated projection puts year-end costs to send prisoners elsewhere in 2009 at around $800,000.

That money is coming from “banked” funds generated by a one-tenth of 1 percent local sales tax designated to be put away for improving the county’s criminal detention facilities. The tax was approved in the mid 1990s and is also used to send juvenile offenders to a facility in Yakima County. “We have been counting on those funds to help support improving and expanding our local jail,” Dana said. “That’s money we could be spending locally on a better jail.” At the rate the county is spending to ship inmates out, Dana believes the cost could reach a point where it is exceeding the revenue coming in from the sales tax.

Dana said the county bills the cities of Ellensburg, Kittitas, Cle Elum, Roslyn and South Cle Elum quarterly for jail services. The bill is based on the number of inmates the cities brought in the year before, plus about a 2 percent increase. The cost to house a prisoner in the county jail, Dana said, averages about $50 a day. He said the county’s daily inmate population runs from 120 to 130 if all prisoners are counted at the out-of-county facilities. The overcrowded and aging county jail has been modified to safely hold around 85 inmates, Dana said. “Our costs have risen and most of the entities are now bringing us more prisoners than were expected,” Dana said. “We’re seeing a real increase, especially from the state patrol.”

The challenge, Dana said, is that the Washington State Patrol and other state agencies by law don’t have to pay to put prisoners in the county jail, including Central Washington University police and the state Fish and Wildlife Department. State government officials contend the state supplies benefits that offset that cost, including free use of the state crime lab and toxicology lab, to name a few. Yet right now, the state patrol’s prisoners make up more than 50 percent of the inmate population. The long-term hope is that the state Legislature will act to change the law to give county jails more funding.

Dana said some of the immediate options are to increase the quarterly bills to each of the cities, or begin charging a higher fee based on the actual number of prisoners and for each day they stay in the jail. The sheriff said his office and the corrections staff want to work with county judges to consider how to expand the number of prisoners who go home for “incarceration” with electronic monitoring, thus reducing the inmate population. A challenge, Dana said, is that more than 50 percent of the inmates have residences located outside the county. “That makes it pretty hard to monitor them electronically,” Dana said. “We’re looking at ways to, somehow, keep tabs on them in other counties.” County commissioners, Sheriff’s Office officials and representatives of local cities are set to meet Nov. 4 to discuss the situation. “We want to work with the cities and brainstorm how we can reduce all our costs,” Dana said.

jakking County-City Issues, County-State Issues, Economic Issues, Electronic Monitoring, Overcrowding, WA Kittitas County

The reality of a  state budget process for the Washington legislature that faced a $9 billion shortfall, solved in part with deep cuts to the prison system last July, have become reality this fall in Clark County.  Reported by KGW News.

Five hundred fewer former inmates will  get parole supervision, Washington Department of Corrections spokesman Chad Lewis said Thursday. Clark County judges will be told these people are no longer under the jurisdiction of the corrrections department. Statewide, the figure is about 8,500 former inmates, and that number could rise to as high 9,400, he said. There were about 27,000 parolees under supervision when the cuts began. The tradeoff, he said, is that those former inmates are considered the least dangerous of the state’s parolees. Those with sex offenses and a history of violence or mental illness will continue to receive supervision, he said. This includes a decision to halt all post-release supervision of sex offenders at 36 months after they leave prison. Some of them had been supervised for 48 months, depending on the circumstances, he said.

The layoffs of community corrections officers started last week. On it’s website this week, the Washington Federation of State Workers had words of caution for the public. “These cuts impact not only jobs but they compromise public safety. Our community orrections members said throughout the (legislative) session and continue to say this. We only hope we don’t have a tragedy that proves the error of this path the Legislature and administration has taken.

jakking Budgets, Community Corrections, County-State Issues, Economic Issues, Parole, WA Clark County, Washington

York County PA commissioners today approved an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to house state inmates at the York County Prison at the rate of $60 per day, according to the York Daily Record.

The state is building new facilities that should be done in three years and has asked counties to temporarily take in prisoners during that time. County prison warden Mary Sabol said she’s scheduled to meet with representatives of the Department of Corrections Thursday to discuss details such as when the prisoners will be moved to York County. Sabol said the county made the state an initial offer of 50 beds, which the prison can easily accommodate. The prisoners will be low-level-security inmates, she said. “They would be a population that would probably be with us for a year or two,” Sabol said.

The jail also houses about 700 prisoners from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sabol said.

jakking County-State Issues, PA York County, Pennsylvania

An extra $210,000 the state is giving to the Lorain County OH Adult Probation Department will help the county fend off the need for a new jail.  Reported by the Chronicle-Telegram.

The money will allow Chief Probation Officer Bart Hobart to hire a case manager to work on reducing the population at the chronically overcrowded county jail and two other employees.  Hobart said the case manager will work with judges around the county to expedite cases and get low-level nonviolent offenders out on bond quicker. He said it also will address the issue of prisoners who make bond on their local cases but remain in the jail at the request of another jurisdiction.  The grant also will provide funding to buy GPS tracking and other electronic-monitoring devices that will allow probation officers to keep closer tabs on some of the defendants who are released, Hobart said.

The Lorain County Jail often has to resort to cots for inmate overflow, as shown here in this 2005 file photo. A grant that allows the county to hire a case “expediter” may reduce jail overcrowding. (CT file photo.)

County Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski called the extra money going to the Adult Probation Department “perfect.”    “This expediter is an effort put forth to reduce or delay the need for a new jail,” he said.  Sheriff’s Capt. Rich Resendez said he was pleased to hear the jail will be getting someone to help speed cases through the system. Such a position was a key recommendation in a study of the jail the county commissioned several years ago and received in June.  “The ultimate goal is to reduce the average daily stay here,” he said.

The jail had 433 inmates on Wednesday, 11 more than its state mandated maximum occupancy of 422 prisoners.   Resendez said the average prisoner is at the jail between 22 days and 24 days at a cost of $92.56 per day.   With the expediter and other small fixes the jail study recommended, Resendez said the county could delay building a new jail, which could cost up to $75 million, for a decade or more.  “If we do these programs, it will extend our life here,” he said.

County Commissioner Ted Kalo said he’s not certain the fixes the jail study recommended will stave off the need for a new jail for more than six years or so, but he’s happy with the reprieve he believes the expediter will bring. “It’s not that we’re going to be soft on crime, but some of the low-level offenders won’t be sitting there with the county picking up their medical bills and meals,” Kalo said.   The county, which implemented $6 million in budget cuts for this year, continues to struggle financially, Kalo said, and doesn’t have the money right now to even contemplate beginning the process necessary to build a new jail.   But if the economy improves and residents vote in November to make a 0.5 percent sales tax hike permanent, Kalo said the issue of a new jail can be revisited in a few years.

Hobart lost two clerical staffers during the layoffs that followed the county’s cuts. He said his 22 employees are responsible for monitoring between 900 and 1,000 probationers at any given time. Before the state agreed to give him extra money, Hobart said about $570,000 of his approximately $1.2 million budget came from the state.  In addition to the jail expediter, Hobart said the grant also will allow him to hire another probation officer and another case manager to help deal with the large volume of criminal non-support cases.

jakking Community Corrections, County-State Issues, Early Release, OH Lorain City, Overcrowding, Pre-Trial

The Kentucky Department of Corrections has ordered the Boyd County Detention Center to dramatically lower the number of prisoners being held at the jail. Full report on the Herald Dispatch.

The jail was expanded to hold 205 prisoners last November, but the jail population was more than 360 inmates earlier this week.

County Attorney Phil Hedrick said the county had lowered that number to about 300 by Friday and is working to get the numbers lower.

“We’re already taking steps to decrease the number of prisoners,” Hedrick said Friday. “I plan to meet with the Department of Public Advocacy to see who we can recommend to the judges to release. We’re talking about people who can’t make bond on petty crimes or can’t pay fines. We might be about to get another 30 to 50 people released. We’re going to get where we need to be.”

County Jailer Joe Burchett said in a press release that with the jail at almost twice its capacity, staffing, safety, sanitation and services all were compromised.

The jail was holding more than 260 county prisoners and about 80 state and federal prisoners. The state and federal prisoners bring in between $800,000 and $1 million per year to the county. All the state prisoners have been moved out along with some of the federal prisoners, Hedrick said.

“My attempts to house paying customers to cover the cost of county prisoners were well intended, but failed in the end,” Burchett said. “We now have no paying inmates, but are still over our legal bed limit. As I look at other counties of our size, we jail twice as many inmates as our neighbors. I have no control over whom we put in here or when we let them out.”

“I don’t think this county can afford to house all of the non-violent offenders we currently house,” Burchett said. “Maybe we need a different way of punishing less dangerous inmates instead of letting them take up valuable space in the jail. Considering the public’s safety, we need to reserve those beds for dangerous people.”

He said less dangerous prisoners could instead be used as part of a county work program.

“Instead of being a burden to the taxpayers, these individuals could repay the community through work programs or alternative incarceration programs,” Burchett said.

County Commissioner Carl Tolliver said the housing of county prisoners “is a big problem for all the counties in Kentucky.”

“We’re working on it,” he said. “Maybe we can get the numbers down and then get back the state and federal prisoners who help fund the jail.”

The county can charge to house federal and state prisoners, but get no income from housing county prisoners, he said.

janchavarie County-State Issues, KY Boyd County, Overcrowding

Over-crowded conditions in Chino, one of several state prisons to release parole violators early to alleviate system-wide stress.

California prison officials, facing severe overcrowding and a financial crisis, have been releasing inmates who were serving time for parole violations before they finished their scheduled terms. Full details on the San Francisco Chronicle.

State officials said the dozens of prisoners set free from the California Institution for Men in Chino and from lockups in San Diego and Shasta counties had 60 days or less left on their terms, or had been accused of violations and were awaiting hearings. The releases were approved by the state parole board.

At least 89 inmates have been freed or approved for early release during the past two months. Others have been sent to home detention, drug rehabilitation programs or similar alternative punishments.

They were screened to ensure that they had never been convicted of the most serious crimes, such as murder, manslaughter, kidnapping or sex offenses, the officials said. They may have been convicted of grand theft, weapons possession, driving under the influence of alcohol or other crimes. Their parole may have been revoked for missing an appointment with a parole agent, shoplifting, robbery or any number of other offenses.

The moves came as county authorities in Los Angeles and elsewhere said they could no longer house – and in some cases, threatened to release – inmates awaiting transfer to state prisons from their own teeming jails. Counties routinely hold newly convicted prisoners or those picked up on parole violations until the state can take them.

But California’s huge deficit has left the state without enough money to pay for all of those its laws designate for punishment. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are considering numerous ways, including the early release of inmates, to save money by reducing a prison population of nearly 170,000.

No budget decisions have been made, and Schwarzenegger spokesman Matt David said the governor had been unaware of the recent releases, most of which were in response to complaints by Los Angeles County that the state had left nearly 2,000 prisoners in its jails. That number represents about 10 percent of the prisoners in the county’s jail system, which has a court-ordered population cap.

“This was an emergent crisis,” Terri McDonald, the state’s chief deputy secretary for adult operations at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. “We don’t want a system failure in the county jail.”

The inmates released from Chino opened up beds for some of those being held in Los Angeles. McDonald said the state, to be “good partners” with the county, put other inmates in prison gymnasiums that officials had planned to stop using as dormitories, and took additional measures to free up space.

Complete story on the San Francisco Chronicle.

janchavarie California, County-State Issues, Early Release

27 states join call to block cellular signals. Full story and a copy of the petition are available on The Post and Courier.

The state [SC] Corrections Department’s effort to jam cell phone calls to and from inmates raises the question: If prison officials can’t keep cell phones out of inmates’ hands, what else can’t they keep out?Inmates use cell phones to coordinate deliveries with their friends and family in the middle of the night or the dark morning hours. The person on the outside lobs drugs, alcohol, tobacco and other contraband over the 12-foot or higher fences and into the state’s 18 mid-level and maximum security prison yards.

The criminals’ secret deliveries come in bags, hollowed-out Nerf balls and plastic footballs carved open, stuffed with goodies and then shot over the single or double-layer fences with potato guns or other rocket launchers.

Lack of money and manpower and an outdated federal law sit at the center of the problem that Corrections Director Jon Ozmint said sprouted when X-ray machines and metal detectors were installed in recent years in the jails that house the most dangerous criminals.

Ozmint is at the forefront of a nationwide push to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to allow states to jam cell phone signals in prisons. Twenty-six other states have signed a petition that the S.C. Department of Corrections submitted to the FCC on Monday.

The jamming technology, which would cost about $250,000 for each prison, works by eliminating the cell phone signal. It is specific enough that it won’t interfere with phones outside the facility that is being blocked and does not affect law enforcement radios, Ozmint said.

The jamming technology is outlawed by the 1934 Federal Communications Act. Ozmint said the FCC has not responded to the agency’s request to jam the signals. Federal law enforcement agencies, however, are exempt from the ban and are permitted to use the technology. Ozmint said he also is pursing a possible congressional solution.

It is paramount that the state’s jails and detention centers be allowed to use the technology, Ozmint said. If an inmate has access to a cell phone, he said, he guarantees that that inmate is up to no good.

The risk for people on the outside who are delivering contraband items such as tobacco and cell phones to prisoners is low, Ozmint said. Those items are legal to possess in public settings, and the prison system is so underfunded that only one officer is assigned to patrol the perimeter of each prison, he said.

Unless the officer catches the person in the act of launching the package over the fence, it is unlikely that person will get caught, Ozmint said.

Between 1999 and 2004, the agency’s staff, including prison guards, was cut from 7,200 to 5,800 as a result of legislators balancing the budget. The ratio is now one corrections officer for every nine inmates.

But the cost of the smuggled cell phones is high. Elsewhere in the country, prisoners have used cell phones to threaten and, in two cases, kill witnesses, Ozmint said.

The agency has reviewed other ideas, such as netting on the tops of the fences, phone detection devices and search dogs, but Ozmint said no alternatives are as cost-effective and efficient as the jamming technology.

In 2008, about 2,000 cell phones were confiscated from the state prisons.

janchavarie Cell Phones, County-State Issues

Budget-strapped cities and towns are being crushed by the costs of incarceration. But there are solutions. Full article with additional pictures available at Forbes.com.

Out the 20th floor window of the Harris County Criminal Justice Center, the sprawl and elevation of buildings look like the campus of a law enforcement university, filling up the northeast corner of downtown. A juvenile justice center as big as a hospital. Two high-rise courthouses. An overrun booking tank. Beneath it all, tunnels run like veins through the complex, filled with inmates shuffling to hearings from the third biggest jail in America.An average of 10,000 inmates were held per day in the Harris County Jail in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, not including an additional 1,100 bused six hours to and from northern Louisiana. With an average stay of 45 days in three drab detention facilities, the jail is consistently overcrowded.

“This really wasn’t built for this,” says John Dyess, chief administrative officer of the sheriff’s office, which oversees the jail. “I don’t know if we can build our way out of where we are today.”

Money may decide the issue. A stunning 25% of Harris County’s annual $1.5 billion budget goes to law enforcement, with more than $750,000 a day spent on detainees. A shortage of guards means the jail shells out $35 million a year on overtime; some guards are topping out at $100,000 a year in total pay.

Houston is far from alone. Amid budget crises, falling tax revenue and national unemployment approaching 10%, jails–usually city- or county-run holding facilities for those serving short sentences or awaiting trial–saw their populations grow nearly twice as fast as state and federal prison populations during the first half of the decade, according to a 2008 report by the Justice Policy Institute. The report says that local governments spent $97 billion on criminal justice in 2004, up 347% since 1982, while detention expenses climbed 519% to $19 billion.

Complete article on Forbes.com.

janchavarie County-State Issues, Federal Systems

In what Sheriff Malcolm McMillin called an effort to rehabilitate prisoners, Hinds County MS sent state inmates, including a violent offender, off site to work.  The apparent good deed, though, was in violation of state law, and was discovered during a recent inspection. Story from the Clarion Ledger.

The Sheriff’s Department this year had three female inmates out working: two at local nonprofits and the other at the county jail’s switchboard.  Aside from one inmate being a violent offender, the others were ineligible to perform community service because they had not been approved to do so by the state.   McMillin’s office for years has sent inmates into the community to work in exchange for “good time” credit on their sentences. McMillin has said he was unaware his department was violating the law.   “There’s no answer for it,” McMillin said. “I’m not going to have any problems with it because it’s not happening anymore.”

State inmates should not be working outside the jail unless they are part of a county/state work program, Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said. Epps’ office earlier this month told the Sheriff’s Department to stop sending inmates out – or risk losing the inmates and the $20 per day the state pays the county to house them. MDOC has 23 inmates at the 173-bed detention center in downtown Jackson. Those inmates are classified to work on the jail premises only, Epps said.  The inmates sent out by the Sheriff’s Department worked in various jobs.

• [One felon] did clerical work at the Museum of Art for several weeks earlier this year. [She] is serving six years concurrent on four charges of kidnapping, with four years of probation to follow. She was convicted in Hinds County in 2006.    Museum of Art Director Betsy Bradley said the museum had no trouble with [the inmate]. “She did a good job while she was here.”
• [An inmate] was working as a switchboard operator for the Sheriff’s Department. She was convicted in Hinds County in January and is serving five years on an embezzlement charge.
• [Another inmate] is serving three years for house burglary. She was convicted in March in Hinds County. She was working at Stewpot Community Services but now answers the phones at the jail downtown.

Stewpot Director Frank Spencer could not be reached for comment. He has said it could cost Stewpot $25,000 a year to hire a replacement for [the inmate].    The Sheriff’s Department has had a standing, but not written, policy for years to use state inmates at agencies such as Stewpot, The American Red Cross and the Museum of Art, Chief Deputy Steve Pickett said.  “The sheriff believes in rehabilitation,” Pickett said. But the state first must perform mental, physical and background checks on all inmates it classifies as those who can work, Epps said. Once they pass the checks, inmates can only work on jail grounds, Epps said.   A court order filed at the beginning of June puts an end to sending inmates off site.

Since 1983, the state has renewed a standing agreement with Hinds County to house prisoners downtown without inspection of the facility or its records, prisoners’ rights attorney Ron Welch said.   The state last year changed that policy, and Welch now must inspect each facility every year before the agreement is renewed.  On a recent inspection of the downtown jail, Welch found the unclassified inmates out in the community working.

Hinds County has a joint state/county work center at the penal farm in Raymond, where about 200 male state inmates work regularly in the community doing jobs such as cleaning up garbage beside roads and mowing county rights of way. Those inmates can work at nonprofits, if the sheriff opts to do that, Epps said. He has not done so.

jakking County-State Issues, Inmate Labor, MS Hinds County, Mississippi

While Muskegon County MI officials oppose the state’s plan to close the Muskegon Correctional Facility, they admit there could be an upside. County Administrator Bonnie Hammersley told commissioners Tuesday she is exploring options to use the soon-to-be vacant prison to ease inmate overcrowding at the county jail.  Reported by the Muskegon Chronicle.

County officials say the medium-security prison could be used to house overflow jail inmates after the state abandons the facility.   The possibilities could include cooperative agreements with surrounding counties to use space in the facility to house long-term inmates, officials said.    Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler said he supports exploring options. He said it’s too early to say whether the county would purchase or lease the space.  “We have to meet with state officials to determine the most reasonable option,” Roesler said. “If they’re just going to shut it down and basically abandon it, I don’t see why the county shouldn’t try and get their hands on all or at least part of it.”

County officials have long said the county jail is overcrowded and outdated, and had planned to ask voters to foot the bill for a jail renovation and expansion. But given the state of the economy, county officials decided to not place the request on the ballot this year, conceding that it likely would go down in defeat.  Also reeling from the downturn in the economy is the state of Michigan, which is struggling with huge budget deficits. Gov. Jennifer Granholm recently announced a plan to close several state-run correctional facilities to cut expenses, including the Muskegon Correctional Facility that was built in 1974.  Officials estimate it costs the state $29 million annually to operate the prison that houses 1,326 inmates. More than 150 people work at the facility that could close this summer or fall.

“I do not want to see that facility closed,” said Commissioner Charles Buzzell. “But if the governor goes that route, I would support exploring ways to use it.”   Commissioner Marvin Engle agreed.   “Maybe there is a way for us to share it with other counties,” he said. “Who knows where it’s going? It would be a shame to have that building not utilized. There’s got to be a way to make it work.”

jakking County-State Issues, Economic Issues, Jail and Prison Construction, MI Muskegon County, Michigan

Pasadena Police Chief Bernard Melekian told Pasadena Now he is concerned that tens of thousands of  prisoners may be released back into society early due to both state and federal initiatives and that could lead to unprecedented spikes in the rate of violent crime statewide.

The California prison system could possibly release up to a third of its current prison population of 170,000 inmates out into the streets in the next three years. Though it is not known exactly how many current inmates consider Pasadena home, Melekian said during a recent meeting with members of the press that about 25 to 33 percent of state inmates are from Los Angeles County. Such initiatives would address the state’s problem on overcrowded prisons that are now operating at close to 200 percent of design capacity as well as save $803 million to $906 million each year, according to a federal ruling issued by three judges last February. However, the potential monetary savings do not justify the potential risk to citizens, Melekian says …

Melekian also noted that despite the possible ramifications, it seems that mass inmate release is inevitable given the condition of both the state’s economy and the overcrowded prison system.  “The fact of the matter is, the only other solution …  that could have some short-term results is the transfer of prisoners to …  facilities in other states that have capacity,” Melekian said. “But…there is a cost associated with that and you don’t necessarily deal with the budget issues.”  The only alternative Melekian said he envisions is the construction of additional prisons to alleviate the overcrowding. However, he noted that the financial condition of the state, plus the amount of time required to plan, approve, and build new correctional facilities, makes this virtually impossible …

State Senator Carol Liu is concerned about the implications of such plans, and is monitoring any possible cuts regarding public safety very closely, she said through her spokesman Robert Oakes. “The state is in a desperate fiscal situation and needs to look for all potential ways to reduce spending. Nonetheless, public safety must remain paramount,” Liu said in a prepared statement. “I expect the Governor to explain this budget proposal in detail and discuss how we can protect our communities and our citizens while also allowing offenders to leave prison early. I look forward to working with local elected officials and my legislative colleagues as we address the deepening fiscal crisis” …

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said in a news release regarding the state prisoners’ class action lawsuit that might in part mandate early prisoner releases that he feels federal government is intruding on the rights of states.  Brown said the judges’ ruling “is a blunt instrument that does not recognize the imperatives of public safety, nor the challenges of incarcerating criminals.”

jakking CA Los Angeles County, California, County-State Issues, Early Release, Economic Issues

More than 300 inmates awaiting trial in St. Tammany Parish LA have been released from jail this year after posting little or no bond because the Sheriff’s Office has filled more than half of the jail’s beds with “for profit” state and federal prisoners to pay for jail operations, Sheriff Jack Strain said.  Reported by NOLA.com.

The inmates join hundreds of others from past years, including a man accused of killing a Covington woman after being released, who were freed under a program known as “Code 6.” Designed as a pressure valve to prevent jail overcrowding, the Sheriff’s Office has come to increasingly rely on the system as it takes in more “profit prisoners” from the state to keep the jail in the black. In a letter to Parish Council members delivered Thursday, Strain said the situation has come to a head and that he needs several million dollars a year from parish government so he can reduce the number of state prisoners being accepted.  But parish spokeswoman Suzanne Parsons-Stymiest said that while parish officials are concerned about public safety, there’s simply no money to spare for the jail.

The jail, which can hold nearly 1,200 inmates in long-term facilities, now holds 616 prisoners for the state, causing dozens of pretrial detainees to be freed. The jail will have to accept an additional 100 state inmates next year to help make up an expected $1 million drop in the sales tax revenue that makes up about half of the jail’s $19 million budget, Strain’s letter said.   Altogether, the 716 inmates would bring in about $6.4 million for the Sheriff’s Office.  “Having such a large number of beds occupied by D.O.C. inmates, coupled with the crippling number of pretrial holds and violent offenders, eliminates the ability of local law enforcement to place and keep new arrestees behind bars,” Strain wrote. “I think we can all agree that the intent of having a jail is lost when, due to fiscal constraints, we are essentially running a state prison” …

While nearly a quarter of the 321 inmates released through Code 6 this year were held on contempt of court charges, many others faced more serious charges, including dozens of alleged drug offenders, 14 burglary defendants, an inmate booked with aggravated assault and 25 DWI offenders, according to statistics from the Sheriff’s Office.

In his letter, Strain presents the council with three options: “continue to run what amounts to a state prison, with no space for new arrestees”; significantly reduce the size of the jail, eliminating all state inmates as well as the work programs they provide to local governments; or transfer millions from the parish budget to reduce the number of state inmates.  Though the Sheriff’s Office is responsible for running the jail, parish government is charged with providing money for the facility and its maintenance. Parish officials have previously said a 1/4-cent sales tax, which provided money to expand the jail and pay for its operations, covers that obligation … The Sheriff’s Office predicts it will cost about $19 million to run the jail next year. Of that, about $9.5 million will come from the 1/4-cent sales tax and another $2.5 million from fees and reimbursements. The Sheriff’s Office plans to make up the remaining $7 million from reimbursements from the state Department of Corrections and U.S. Marshals Service …

Council Chairman Jerry Binder said he favors setting up a committee to look for alternative financial sources, such as federal and state governments, and possibly try to get the reimbursement for state prisoners increased.   “I don’t see an easy solution,” Binder said. “Money is tight, period.”

jakking County-State Issues, Early Release, Economic Issues, LA St Tammany Parish, Louisiana

North Carolina lawmakers have backed off a proposal that would have sent more state inmates to county jails, according to the News Herald.

The first jail proposal would have required counties to house all state inmates convicted of misdemeanors and sentenced to six months or less, instead of sending them to state prisons. Currently, counties jail those serving less than three months, and officials said the new proposal could have sent 1,700 more prisoners to the counties and cost them about $42 million a year. But the idea was dropped late last week by the House appropriations subcommittee for justice and public safety after opposition surfaced, including from groups representing sheriffs and counties.

However, the subcommittee is still backing a plan to cut an $18-a-day reimbursement to counties to house state inmates serving one to three months. The payments only partly cover the cost of housing inmates, which can run $50 a day or more. Mecklenburg Sheriff Chipp Bailey said losing the payments could cost the county $1.5 million. The office already has had to cut $6 million from they money it receives from the county, and Bailey said he doesn’t know how it could absorb a state cut. Said Gaston County Sheriff Alan Cloninger: “If you take away what they are paying, that’s just going to put more on the county property tax payer.”

jakking County-State Issues, Economic Issues, NC Gaston County, NC Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

The number of inmates in Mecklenburg County NC jails could jump by 20 percent. Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chipp Bailey and county leaders learned Tuesday that a budget plan in the state House could force hundreds of new inmates into Mecklenburg County’s jail system.  Report from News14Carolina.

The proposal could transfer roughly 2,700 misdemeanor offenders from state facilities into county jails. “I think in a lot of ways they are balancing the budget on the back of the counties,” Bailey said.

Bailey said it would be hard to find a place for 600 new inmates to stay. Jail Central in uptown Charlotte and Jail North are at capacity. “Jail North on the north end of the county holds 614 inmates, so if we get 600 inmates from the state, we’re essentially getting another Jail North worth of inmates,” Bailey said. County leaders said if the new inmates arrive, they most would likely be put in the second sprung jail, or the youthful offenders facility. Both are on the Jail North campus, but neither are complete. “It means we have got to look in a tight budget year how we could up fit the shell of the annex that we have now,” Bailey said.

Hundreds of new inmates would also require at least 50 new deputies. “There will be operating funds required to monitor those extra prisoners,” Mecklenburg County Chairman Jennifer Roberts said. “There is no doubt there is a fiscal impact that could be in the millions for the sheriff’s office.”

County leaders will stay up to date on the state’s budget talks, preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. “The numbers were distressing, but were just in discussions at this point,” Roberts said. “I think it’s prudent that we plan that this is the way it is, and hope that it is lesser.” County leaders said state representatives are also debating whether to cancel the daily reimbursements given to counties for inmates who stay between 30 and 45 days.
Officials said if the state takes away that funding, Mecklenburg County would lose about $2 million a year.

jakking County-State Issues, Economic Issues, NC Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Overcrowding

Center County PA officials have applied to the state to house 25 prisoners at the county correctional facility.  The deal to help ease state prison overcrowding over the next two or three years would generate revenue for the county — $55 per day per prisoner, or $500,000 a year, enough to more than make up for a projected line-item shortfall.  Report from Center Daily.

But the potential arrangement also has raised concerns from Board of Commissioners Chairman Jon Eich about inmate gang members mixing with county inmates … “I’m concerned about gang presence — we hear that gangs are present in state prisons,” Eich said in a news conference after the commissioners’ regular meeting. “I don’t want to see Centre County inmates recruited into gangs” …

Commissioners Rich Rogers and Steve Dershem downplayed the concerns without dismissing them. They said discussions with state Department of Corrections officials would precede a decision by the Board of Commissioners. “We do have the capacity to isolate these folks if we need to,” Dershem said. “Do we have concerns? Yes. Have we made a decision yet? No. It’s an opportunity that we’re looking at.”

Without the state prisoner revenue, the county is on a pace this year to bring in little more than half of what it budgeted for housing prisoners from other counties in Centre County’s 4-year-old, $20 million prison at the Benner Pike and Rishel Hill Road in Benner Township. The county took in $89,000 though April for housing other counties’ inmates, an annual rate of $266,000 against $510,000 expected in the budget line-item. Rogers said other counties have begun to find “creative ways” to avoid the expense of shipping inmates to other counties.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1309376.html#ixzz0GnxFWVSP&B

jakking County-State Issues, Economic Issues, Gangs (STGs), PA Center County, Pennsylvania

Thomas County GA Prison can house 198 inmates- 31 beds for county inmates, the other 165 are reserved for state prisoners. But Warden Robert Greer wants more state prisoners, and fewer county prisoners.  Reported by WALB News.

“I want 15 more to give me 180.” So He put in a request to the Georgia Department of Corrections. “We want to take 15 county beds and concert them to state beds. which would give us 120 per day.  [That would be] an increase of $110,000 per year.”  Money that would go directly to the county government’s general fund.

The warden says the decrease [in county inmates] comes from local judges no longer sentencing people to the local facility, instead they are sending them to state facilities. And that’s because in the 2009 budget a $35,000 program was cut to save money – community service. “By doing that the judges don’t have the option anymore to sentence them to community service at the county prison.” Plus the state reimburses the county for state prisoner medical expenses. “We’re just constantly trying to save the taxpayer money, reducing operational costs, and finding inventive ways to make money.”

jakking County-State Issues, Economic Issues, GA Thomas County

Blair County PA officials have decided not to participate in a program to house state prisoners, even though the county might have been able to make some money off the deal. Reported by the Altoona Mirror.

Blair County Commissioner Terry Tomassetti, who is chairman of the county prison board, said this week the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections wants Blair to provide 25 to 30 beds for state inmates under a new proposal to temporarily ease prison overcrowding at the state level. “We just can’t provide that number of beds,” Tomassetti said. The decision was based on advice from Warden Michael M. Johnston … Johnston said there are times the jail has 25 to 30 beds available. For example, the jail had 309 inmates Wednesday, while capacity is 342. But when the jail is not full, he said it is just a drug bust away from using many of those available beds …

In the past two years, the Blair County prison board, judges, sheriff and prison officials have stepped up efforts to reduce the number of inmates in the county jail. One way is a concerted effort to quickly transfer inmates who are sentenced to serve time in a state correctional institution. Another way is to send inmates to state facilities for drug treatment under the beefed-up state Intermediate Punishment Program.

jakking County-State Issues, Overcrowding, PA Blair County, Pennsylvania

State regulators may force Dallas County TX to move up to 900 prisoners out of its largest and most-populated jail tower because of lingering fire-safety concerns.  Report from the Dallas Morning News.

If so, the county would probably have to reopen the Decker jail that was recently depopulated so the county could centralize its jail operations on the Lew Sterrett Justice Center campus.  The moving of so many prisoners would not only be costly at a time when the county is staring at a $60 million budget shortfall, it also would create logistical headaches.  Because the north tower jail houses those accused of the most serious crimes, the question would be where to put them. Decker can hold up to 1,080 inmates but it is a minimum-security jail. The new $65 million south tower jail that recently opened can take another 400 inmates, officials say. But it doesn’t have high-risk inmates because its guards work inside inmate housing areas …

Faulty smoke-detection and removal systems there contributed to the county’s seventh-straight failed inspection in March. If the jail commissioners are not satisfied with the county’s progress, they might consider rescinding a 1994 exception to state rules that allowed the county to add 928 extra bunks to the north tower’s cells, some county officials say …

The county’s temporary plan is to install a portable exhaust fan system to help suck smoke out of the building, Price said. It will consist of gigantic fans with hoses that will plug into ports in the cells.  The longer-term solution is to hire a firm to re-balance the north tower’s air-handling system …  Ryan Brown, the county budget director, estimated that those fixes would cost a half-million dollars and take about six months to complete. Also, the county will replace about 1,600 smoke detectors at $100 each, he said.  ”My hope is that they can see we’ve done enough on a temporary basis to improve safety,” Commissioner Mike Cantrell said. “We’re trying to offer a solution.”

There is a great deal more data and background in the complete article.

jakking County-State Issues, TX Dallas County, Texas