Maryland should hold off on a planned $104 million jail for juveniles being charged as adults because the data supporting the Baltimore facility is outdated and flawed, according to a report from a research group that endorses prison and juvenile-justice reform. Full report available from The NCCD. News from Dolan Media, on behalf of the Daily Record.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency faulted the data as being from 2007, when Maryland projected that a maximum of 178 beds would be needed by 2010 for juveniles charged as adults. But as of May, only 92 youngsters slated to be tried as adults were being held in the current jail, the Baltimore City Detention Center, which also houses adults, the council said.

Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which led the state study, also failed to consider changes in policy and practice that could reduce jail commitment and lengths of stay, the NCCD added. Those alternatives include diversion programs for youth who abuse drugs or are mentally ill and other measures short of incarceration, such as community supervision, house arrest and electronic monitoring, the Oakland, Calif.-based council added in its seven-page analysis.

“A forecast in a vacuum is not as powerful as a forecast that takes into consideration potential changes to policies and practices,” said Christopher Hartney, NCCD’s senior researcher. The Department of Public Safety should not “make any big moves based on their data,” he added in an interview.

The NCCD reviewed the department’s data at the request of the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Youth Justice, another group that endorses juvenile-justice reform. In addition, the council said it is seeking funding support from other organizations that back juvenile-justice reform.

Backers of the new jail call it necessary for the safety of juvenile offenders, who are now housed in the same facility as adult defendants.

‘Enormous strides’
The department, in a statement Tuesday, defended its forecast but expressed willingness to meet with the council and other juvenile-justice advocates to address their concerns.

“While we are still reviewing the National Council on Crime and Delinquency report, the analysis that led to the recommendation for the facility as currently proposed is based on both historical data and current laws which require youth arrested for certain serious crimes to be tried as adults,” the department stated. “Additionally, the Department of Public Safety, the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Legislative Services … all agreed on the analysis.”

Even so, the statement pointed to “the enormous strides that Maryland has made in juvenile justice since 2007 — such as the increased use of community alternatives to incarceration and reductions in juvenile crime (including a 46 percent reduction in juvenile homicides),” saying they “represent dramatic improvements in the condition of the juvenile-justice system.”

“In this spirit, we are happy to meet with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, and continue to meet with youth advocates, to review our assumptions and to see if any of the changes in the past few years warrant revisiting or revising our current plan,” the statement said.

In its review, NCCD faulted the department’s forecast for having used arrest data for the general population in predicting the arrest rate for juveniles.

The data should have focused solely on arrest data for juveniles subsequently charged as adults, which is lower than the general population and more stable, the council stated.

NCCD also said the department should not have performed the study because it will be the same agency that administers the youth detention center. Such a study should have been performed by independent researchers, who could provide “the best assurance possible that no unintentional bias impacts the process,” the council stated in its analysis, “Critique of Maryland’s Population Forecast: No Call for a New Youth Detention Facility.”

“A forecast based on sound method would almost certainly produce substantially different estimates of future space needs for youth transferred to the adult system in Baltimore,” the council stated in its report. “We strongly recommend that DPS conduct a new forecast using current, youth-specific data, and more reliable methodology.”

jchev Uncategorized

State corrections officials are linking networks of corrupt prison employees to thousands of illicit cellphones being smuggled to inmates in the nation’s largest prison systems, according to the officials and public records. News reported in the Daily Record.

The employees, including guards, cooks and clerical workers, represent the most troubling source of the prohibited phones in an increasingly lucrative smuggling operation that also includes criminal gangs and prisoners’ family members, state officials say.

“It’s only getting worse,” says Texas prisons Inspector General John Moriarty.

Prison employees can earn $500 or more for each of the phones, which have become ubiquitous from minimum security camps to death row, says Richard Subia, California’s deputy director of adult prisons.

Subia says inmates use the phones to keep drugs flowing into the prisons, facilitate escapes and direct criminal activity on the outside.

The problem may be most acute in California, the nation’s largest prison system, where there is no criminal law – only prison regulations – directly prohibiting the smuggling of cellphones to inmates.

Last year, 300 employees were disciplined for suspected cellphone trafficking to inmates; about 100 workers were dismissed. An additional 150 employees have been disciplined this year. In one 2009 case, Subia says, a guard confessed to earning $100,000 in kickbacks during a 12-month period.

Because there is no criminal law, the guard resigned and could not be forced to forfeit the money, Subia says. Last year, California prison officials confiscated 6,995 phones, up from 2,800 in 2008.

Among states reporting problems:

Texas: Since 2007, 230 employees have been disciplined for cellphone-related infractions. In the past five years, 45 employees have been arrested on criminal charges, including bribery, for trafficking phones to inmates.

New Jersey: Two weeks ago, state prosecutors charged a prison cook along with 39 others – a mix of prisoners and outside associates – linked to the Bloods criminal gang with smuggling phones and drugs to inmates. The charges were announced just a week after New Jersey Prisons Commissioner Gary Lanigan urged Congress to pass a law that would permit technology designed to jam cellphone signals in prisons.

“The proliferation of (prison) cellphones . . . in New Jersey and throughout the United States has become an epidemic,” Lanigan wrote, and some prison workers have been “compromised.”

The state does not track discipline for cellphone infractions, but phone seizures in New Jersey jumped from 75 in 2008 to 575 last year, prison spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer says.

South Carolina: Prison spokesman Josh Gelinas says state officials in 2003 attempted to discourage staffers from smuggling contraband, including cellphones, by installing metal detectors at prison entrances. He believes the detectors have been effective, but phones continue to pour in.

jchev Uncategorized

Three years after a 15-year-old boy died in restraints, the youth prison where he was pinned to the floor is set to be closed.The shuttering of Tryon Boys Residential Center is due to budget gaps that plague states across the USA — but also is a sign of the intense pressure on New York to improve its deeply troubled juvenile detention system. Reported in the USA Today.

In August, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation found that the state uses excessive force on youths in custody; the federal department says it will sue the state if changes are not made. In December, a state-appointed task force said use of force and lack of mental health care are acute problems for the 1,600 children held in New York’s juvenile facilities each year. Two weeks later, the Legal Aid Society sued the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) on behalf of youths in custody.

Federal investigators found youths in four facilities, including Tryon, were routinely pinned to the ground and handcuffed for infractions as minor as laughing loudly, sneaking a cookie or refusing to get out of bed. The restraints caused concussions, broken teeth and broken bones.

“At this point, it’s pretty clear that the change needs to happen, it needs to be pervasive and it needs to happen now,” says Legal Aid Society lawyer Tamara Steckler.

In his budget proposal last month, Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, announced plans to close two facilities named by the Justice Department. That includes Tryon, where Darryl Thompson died in November 2006. In the incident, cited in the federal investigation, aides pinned him facedown and handcuffed him after he repeatedly asked for recreation time.

The economic crunch is forcing New York, like other states, to scrutinize a system that costs it $210,000 per child annually.

“One of the great ironies is that the economic crisis may be accomplishing what advocates like me have been saying for 30 years,” says Mark Soler of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, an advocacy group. “It’s just too expensive to lock up the kids.”

New York’s juvenile system, which has 31 residential facilities, is one of the nation’s largest, even though New York is one of only two states that charge youths 16 or older as adults. More than half of youths in detention are there because of misdemeanors. More than 80% are black or Hispanic.

The reports and lawsuit have “focused public attention on an area of the juvenile justice system that has gone without scrutiny for years,” says Jeremy Travis, head of the task force Paterson formed in 2008.

Common Problems
Since 2000, the Justice Department has conducted at least 11 investigations into juvenile facilities in states including California, Indiana, Ohio, Maryland and Oklahoma. Its findings illustrate that the same problems persist: overreliance on physical restraint and insufficient mental health services.

A bill before the U.S. Senate would require states to track the use of restraints in juvenile detention, which some states do voluntarily.

“The research tells us unequivocally” restraint “can result in a child’s death,” says Tara Andrews of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, which is lobbying for the bill’s passage.

Without reporting requirements, “very often abusive situations do not come to light,” Soler says. Though some kids need to be incarcerated “so they don’t hurt other people and don’t hurt themselves,” he says, use of restraints is “excessive.”

Other states that have come under federal investigation, including Louisiana, have adopted practices pioneered in Missouri. There, the juvenile system converted to small facilities more like treatment centers than prisons, focused on counseling and stopped the use of restraints. Only 8.6% of youths released from custody are recommitted within three years, the Missouri Department of Youth Services says. In New York, the figure is 45%, the task force says.

“In looking at the national picture, the old model is under serious change,” Travis says. “You have places like New York saying, we want to follow (Missouri’s) lead and recognizing we’re very much stuck in an old corrective punitive model.”

‘No Tolerance’
One of the severest critics of New York’s juvenile system is in charge of it. “I don’t think that, objectively, anybody who looks at our system and systems across the country can say we are really doing a good job,” says Gladys Carrion, OCFS commissioner.

Carrion, appointed in 2007, has installed video cameras in juvenile facilities and reinstituted the office of the ombudsman, which inspects youth prisons. She requires staff to track the use of restraints.

“I personally get a weekly report,” she says. “We have no tolerance for this.” The harsh reports, she says, are “levers for change.”

Carrion has been criticized by juvenile prison employees, who say the facilities are understaffed, they haven’t received necessary training, and the agency risks public safety by closing facilities without having adequate community-based programs to accommodate youths.

“You can’t just simply do this by fiat, say we’re going to have a different model and have it happen,” says Stephen Madarasz of the Civil Service Employee Association, which represents youth prison staff.

Travis, the task force head, is “optimistic that there will be some pretty significant change, but it will take a decade,” he says. “It took a decade in Missouri; it’ll take a decade in New York.”

Legal Aid’s Steckler says Carrion has made progress, but not enough. “The video cameras and the data reporting has decreased restraints, but it obviously hasn’t stopped them.” What’s needed, she says, is to end the notion that youths in custody are prisoners. “Until that shift occurs … we’re still talking about grown men restraining children.”

jchev Uncategorized

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed appeals by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republican legislators of a federal court order to reduce the state’s overcrowded prison population by some 40,000 inmates within two years. Reported by Reuters.

The high court’s decision to dismiss the appeals for lack of jurisdiction occurred as part of a long-running legal battle over California’s 33 adult prisons and their often-criticized medical care for inmates.

A panel of three federal judges in August ordered the state’s prison population be reduced in stages over two years to relieve the overcrowding that has caused inadequate medical and mental health care.

California’s prisons have been filled to nearly twice their designed capacity of 80,000, according to the ruling.

The Supreme Court noted the state has come up with a plan to comply with the lower court’s order but the three-judge panel earlier this month put it on hold pending the outcome of the appeals to the high court. With the appeals dismissed, the plan can go forward.

Improving conditions in the nation’s largest state prison system has become a major legal, political and budget issue in view of California’s budget crisis and high unemployment.

jchev California, Overcrowding, Uncategorized

The United States, which has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, has about one-quarter of its prisoners. But the relentless rise in the nation’s prison population has suddenly slowed as many states discover that it is simply too expensive to overincarcerate. Editorial in the New York Times.

Between 1987 and 2007 the US prison population nearly tripled, from 585,000 to almost 1.6 million. Much of that increase occurred in states — many with falling crime rates — that had adopted overly harsh punishment policies, such as the “three strikes and you’re out” rule and drug laws requiring that nonviolent drug offenders be locked away.

These policies have been hugely costly. According to the Pew Center on the States, state spending from general funds on corrections increased from $10.6 billion in 1987 to more than $44 billion in 2007, a 127 percent increase in inflation-adjusted dollars. In the same period, adjusted spending on higher education increased only 21 percent.

In 2008, the explosion of the prison population ground to a near halt, according to data released last month by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. About 739,000 inmates were admitted to federal and state facilities, only about 3,500 more than were released.

One factor seems to be tight budgets as states decide to release nonviolent offenders early. This can not only save money. If done correctly, it can also be very sound social policy. Many nonviolent offenders can be dealt with more effectively and more cheaply through treatment and jobs programs.

Michigan, which has been hard hit by the recession, has done a particularly good job of releasing people who do not need to be in prison. As the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project details in a new report, Michigan reduced its prison population by about 8 percent between March 2007 and November 2009 by taking smart steps, notably doing more to get nonviolent drug offenders out, while helping in their transition to a productive, and crime-free, life.

Not every state has gotten the message. Florida, for example, has a state law mandating that all prisoners serve a high percentage of their sentence, which is both dubious corrections policy and terrible fiscal policy.

For many years, driving up prison populations has been an easy thing for elected officials to do, popular with voters and powerful corrections officer unions. The new incarceration figures suggest, however, that in the current hard economic times, strapped states are beginning to realize that they do not have the money to keep people in prison who do not need to be there.

jchev Uncategorized

The head of the state Department of Corrections says about 4,700 department employees will begin taking unpaid furloughs in March. Reported in The Norman Transcript.

DOC Director Justin Jones says the furloughs will happen unless more funding is provided during a special legislative session or during the regular session that begins in February.

The furloughs will apply to all employees — including prison guards. Jones says employees making more than $50,000 a year will take 12 furlough days between March and June while those paid less than $50,000 will take 10 days.

State agencies have been told to cut their budgets by 5 percent and Jones says that means about $2 million a month to the Department of Corrections.

jchev Uncategorized

We apologize for the slow stream of news.  Over the Labor Day weekend we seem to have had some technical difficulties.  Hopefully they are all fixed now.

Again sorry for the delays.

jakking Uncategorized

The state’s prison system saw the smallest increase in inmate population in recent memory during the past year. Capitol changes in discipline may be making difference. Full story on The Oklahoman.

Justin Jones, OK DOC Director

The system had a net growth of 83 offenders, according to population figures for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Justin Jones, director of the Department of Corrections, reported the numbers to members of the Board of Corrections during their monthly meeting Friday.

The figure also contradicts earlier predictions by the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center that the state’s inmate population would grow at a rate of about 2.7 percent each year and top out at about 27,000 by 2009.

The state has 25,197 offenders in its prison system. Another 30,460 people are either on probation or paroled, according to Corrections Department figures from Monday. Oklahoma puts more women in jail, per capita, than any other state.

The state ranks third in its per capita rate of putting men behind bars. Jones said the recent drop in inmate population growth can be attributed to changes that provide alternatives for offenders who misbehave or do not meet the all the requirements of their probation.

In the past, inmates would lose credits needed for early release and probationers who violated the terms of release would be sent back to prison.

Jones said new policies provide more steps in the disciplinary process. Alternatives such as allowing probationers to serve time on the weekend or at night when they violate terms of their probation also are helping to stem growth in the number of people behind bars in Oklahoma.

Waiting list in jail
While Oklahoma’s inmate population growth has leveled off, the state houses about 1,585 inmates in county jails across the state. The Corrections Department pays counties a daily rate to house inmates who have been sentenced to prison and are waiting for a bed at a state prison.A new law that took effect July 1 allows officials to send certain inmates who are not in the country legally to federal officials for deportation. The move was expected to open up state beds and save the state about $4 million within the first year.

Corrections Department officials have met with federal immigration officials, but so far no state inmate has been transferred to federal custody, said Neville Massie, executive assistant. Massie said 180 Oklahoma inmates are ready to be transferred, but the department still is working out details with federal officials. There are about 230 offenders who are in the country illegally, who have served a third of their sentence for a nonviolent crime — a requirement under the new law.

jchev Uncategorized

As our readers will know, there will be a great many correctional officers, parole and probation officers, and sundry staff working this weekend to keep our communities safe.   Syscon Justice Systems and Securus Technologies wish them and you a wonderful and safe 4th July weekend!

Normal service will resume on Monday.

jakking Uncategorized

Securus Technologies, Syscon Justice Systems and the editors of  “Corrections Reporter” wish all our readers a happy, safe and respectful Memorial Weekend.  We will be back in business on Tuesday morning.

jakking Uncategorized

This week the United States formally celebrates the work and sacrifices of Correctional Officers across the nation.

The “Corrections Reporter“, Syscon Justice Systems and Securus Technologies are privileged to add our support and thanks to the men and women who strive mightily each and every day in the corrections field.  Thank you!

jakking Uncategorized

I came across this interesting video of life and work in Calipatria State Prison:

jakking Uncategorized

State prison officials, moving to address the headline-grabbing security breach caused by smuggled cell phones, on Wednesday proposed spending nearly $66 million on high-tech gear to curb contraband.

The plan is more than twice as costly as an earlier-announced plan to beef up security at Texas’ 112 state prisons and is larger than several past programs to build prisons.  Smuggled cell phones have been an issue since October, when death row convict Richard Lee Tabler was busted for possessing a phone on which more than 2,800 calls had been made in one month — including calls to a state senator.

“We have a responsibility to Texans to stop this … right now and right here,” Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, told the nine-member Board of Criminal Justice, which was meeting Wednesday at an Austin hotel. Board Chairman Oliver Bell said, “The games are over. We’ve just given everyone 66 million reasons about why we’re very serious about this.”  In August, prison officials had included in their budget request to the Legislature about $30 million for additional cameras and security equipment. That request would have been considered by legislative leaders beginning in January, but the new proposal seeks immediate funding through the Legislative Budget Board that handles emergency issues while the Legislature is not in session.

Under the new proposal, intensive high-tech screening equipment — much like the machines used at airports — would be installed at Texas’ 20 largest maximum-security prisons, along with networks of surveillance cameras to allow round-the-clock monitoring of cellblocks.  Two mobile contraband screening units would be purchased to allow for surprise sweeps.  Livingston said the 2,900-inmate Polunsky Unit, where death row is located, and 18 other maximum-security prisons would get “complete video surveillance.”  In addition, the remaining 92 prisons, parole-violator lockups, and prerelease and treatment prisons would be equipped with walk-through metal detectors and parcel screening devices — similar to those at courthouses — along with additional surveillance cameras …

“The Legislature has no choice but to approve this if we want a safe and secure prison system,” said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, who is a member of the budget board. “It’s shocking, though, that only now do they ask for this much money and only because of life-taking threats by a death row inmate who got a cell phone.”  House Corrections Committee Chairman Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, said he supports the proposal despite its cost. “They’ve got a lot of security to beef up,” he said.

There is a lot more on this at the Austin American-Statesman.

jakking Uncategorized

For the next little while, the number of posts here may be lower than usual.  Here at Syscon we are experiencing and enjoying continued growth around the world and sometimes my time gets squeezed.   However, I will continue to post as much as I can.

Thanks for stopping by!

jakking Uncategorized

Next month Alabama will start releasing sick or dying prison inmates, a move that state prison officials say immediately will start saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

Each sick or dying prisoner costs the state $60,000 to $65,000 in medical costs, and about 125 state inmates will be eligible for the furloughs that start on Sept. 1 said Prison Commissioner Richard Allen. There are about 25,000 inmates in Alabama prisons, and prisoners eligible for the program are 55 or older and have life-threatening illnesses — none convicted of capital crimes and most sex crimes will be eligible, Allen said.

But victims rights advocates say the program is so broad it will lead to dangerous criminals getting back on the streets and doesn’t save any money because it only transfers the costs from one government agency to another.

But there is a definite trend in this direction.

A [recent] review found 37 states have some program allowing for the early release of dying or infirm prisoners, according to state Department of Corrections policies … North Carolina, Wyoming and Alabama have implemented similar programs since March, and Michigan and Montana added programs in 2007 …

Gov. Bob Riley remains committed to making sure victims are included in the furlough process, said press secretary Tara Hutchison. The bill required that victims and the local district attorneys be notified, and it guarantees victims a right to file a protest. “This is a very limited program that has broad bipartisan support and includes important safeguards and conditions,” Riley said. “The prison system can set further conditions and can bring inmates back into the system if their conditions change.”

Citizens don’t like medical furloughs because they don’t understand the humanitarian benefits, said McCuan of the National Institute of Corrections. There’s little danger that sick or terminally ill inmates will continue a criminal lifestyle, he said.

There is a lot more information at the Montgomery Advertiser.

jakking Uncategorized

This is the first full week for the new Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Corrections, Edwin Buss, who took over on August 1 after the resignation of Dave Donahue. The official announcement notes:

Buss, 42, has been superintendent of the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City since 2005. He was the superintendent at the Westville Correctional Facility from 2002-2005, where he improved the operations of the state’s largest prison.

“There are greater expectations today in the Department of Correction than I’ve experienced in my 21 years. It gives you a sense of pride when you meet those expectations,” said Buss, who said he will continue efforts to improve recidivism rates in the department and expand community collaborations.

Buss began his career as a correctional officer at the Indiana State Prison in 1987 and by 1994 at the Lakeside Correctional Facility in Michigan City had been promoted to the highest rank for a uniformed officer. He joined the administrative ranks in 1997 when he was named a correctional unit team manager, responsible for three housing units and 1,850 inmates at the Indiana State Prison, then served as assistant superintendent of operations/programs from 1998 to 2001.

jakking Indiana, Uncategorized

More and more inmates are being treated via telemedicine by physicians who never come close to a prison or jail.

Between 1997 and 2006, about 50,000 corrections agency inmates were seen by doctors via telemedicine. In the year ending June 2008, the patients numbered more than 16,000.

Doctors who treat inmates say telemedicine is a win-win because it’s easier on them and the patient, more cost-efficient for the prison system and provides a patient base for medical institutions. Transporting prisoners for outpatient visits costs taxpayers a lot of money and is logistically difficult, said Dr. Thomas Nesbitt, head of the UC Davis telemedicine program. Community providers near prisons can be backlogged, but with telemedicine, “patients don’t have to wait,” said Annie Brennan, who schedules telemedicine appointments for the prison system.

Telemedicine works this way:

Patients are brought into a room with a TV monitor and video camera. They see the doctor on-screen. The doctor, often hundreds of miles away, sees them the same way. The audio is clear and picks up sound well. The video is not incredibly sharp, but sufficient. When doctors require a clear and close image – to inspect a lesion on a patient’s skin, for example – they use special cameras that can magnify about 80 times. Alongside the patient is a “presenter,” usually a nurse, who serves as the hands of the doctor, using stethoscopes and other instruments that relay information directly to the physician. The presenter also provides the doctor with medical profiles and progress notes.

Doctors in the prison system said patient feedback has been positive.

“I’m pleasantly surprised with their lack of concern about not seeing a live doc,” said Dr. Dwight Winslow, prisons medical director. “Maybe they’re getting attention they previously weren’t given. Maybe they grew up with TVs and they accept it as the way business is done.”

More details from Sacramento Bee.

jakking Inmate Health Care, Telemedicine, Uncategorized

When it first built thirty years ago, the Kane County IL jail was planned around the needs of inmates foremost. It didn’t even have bars on most windows, to make them feel more comfortable.

Back then, male guards wore blazers and female guards wore skirts. Inmates had more than arts and crafts—they had a beauty parlor, a gym and an extensive law library—all gone now … But after more than three decades, serenity has been replaced by tension, which bubbled over three years ago when an inmate grabbed an officer’s hair while other inmates pelted her with feces and bottles. Now jail officials hope that a new facility in would ease crowding and bring a fresh start. The construction of the new Kane County Jail in neighboring St. Charles is nearing completion and inmates will move in by September, Sheriff Pat Perez said last week.

The new jail will hold 768 inmates, compared with the current jail’s capacity of 450. The extra space will save the county money after spending more than $60 per day housing inmates in surrounding counties.

Officers say the new jail will give inmates less opportunity to cause mischief. The facility will be under direct supervision, meaning officers will stay in the cellblock with inmates. Under the current system, an officer walks past an inmate’s cell every 30 minutes. “For that 30 minutes, there’s no one to supervise them and that’s when they have time to ply light fixture molding or pieces of metal, anything to fashion into a weapon,” Perez said.

Instead of keys, guards will control doors with handheld computers and touch screens. And instead of one floor, the new jail will have six floors, a configuration designed to thwart escapes, Perez said. “Go ahead and jump out of a six-story window, and I’m not sure there’s much left of you when you get out,” Perez said.

There is a lot more detail at the Chicago Tribune.

jakking IL Kane County, Uncategorized