Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Annual Prison Law Symposium to be held Saturday
http://media.www.californiaaggie.com/media/storage/paper981/news/2007/04/05/CampusNews/Annual.Prison.Law.Symposium.To.Be.Held.Saturday-2825294.shtml
By: Allie Shilin
In response to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Prison Overcrowding State of Emergency Proclamation on Oct. 4, 2006, the UC Davis School of Law will be addressing present conditions in California's prison system during their third annual Prison Law Symposium on Saturday."The state of emergency is basically just saying that the issues and problems can't be neglected anymore," said Phoebe Hyun, co-organizer and third-year UC Davis law student. "It has to be confronted and it has to be dealt with now. I think the state of emergency is just a solidification of how people are feeling. The governor and the state couldn't ignore it anymore."
The four-panel discussion will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Hall in room 2021. Sixteen speakers from diverse backgrounds and expertise, including an 18-year political prisoner and members of the public defender's office, will discuss a variety of issues, including the present prison conditions, alternatives to incarceration and post-release issues, sex and gender oppression and the death penalty.
Kimberly Huangfu, co-organizer and third-year law student, said the symposium is relevant because the government "is spending so much money on the prison system, but [the public] isn't seeing any results."
Taking money away from social welfare programs and education is not the best way to alleviate the prison problems, and money instead should be shifted to prisoner rehabilitation, she said.
Students should attend the event, according to Hyun, because every person is connected to the prison system in one way or another, even those who have not experienced it personally.
"We get huge fee hikes every year ... and we're not just paying for our education," she said. "We're in a public school system. In this case, these prisons and the costs of these prisons are a big chunk of our budget right now.... Not only the tax dollars, but it's something that you're going to have to deal with. It has a trickle-down effect. How we take care of our law in society will come back around in some way or another."
Hyun and Huangfu expressed a deep concern for the people behind bars and their possible future if they assimilate back into society.
"When you label somebody as a prisoner, it kind of dehumanizes them and we're saying that it might have been a mistake," Hyun said. "It's not just about giving them a second chance. It's about doing the right thing and making sure that the prison system actually works. That prison system only works when they're rehabilitated.
"I don't think the problem is solved when you're throwing them back and forth into prison," she said. "It's far beyond that prison time. I think it's a part of considering these people as fully human."
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Contact: prisonsymposium@gmail.com
"THE CRIME WITHIN: A KING HALL PRISON LAW SYMPOSIUM"
AT UC DAVIS School of Law
Davis, CA -- "California's correctional system is at a crisis point.” - Arnold Schwarzenegger. On Saturday, April 7, 2007, the UC Davis School of Law at Martin Luther King Jr. Hall will present "The Crime Within: A King Hall Prison Law Symposium." King Hall 3L and second-time prison law symposium co-organizer Kimberly Huangfu explains, "Considering the current state of crisis that the California Prison system is facing, conservatives and liberals alike are in agreement that something needs to be changed. Thus, we chose this year’s theme to reflect how our criminal justice system is failing to adequately serve the basic needs and rights of our nation’s prisoners."
Taking place in Martin Luther King Jr. Hall Room 2021 from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm, this third annual prison law symposium is free and open to the public. Speakers from a diversity of backgrounds and expertise have been invited to speak on four panels: Present Prison Conditions, Alternatives to Incarceration and Post-Release Issues, Sex and Gender Oppression, and Death Penalty. The first panel will include Holly Cooper, a King Hall graduate and supervising attorney for the Immigration Law Clinic on campus. This panel will also include, Ed Mead, a former political prisoner who served 18 years in prison for his participation in the George Jackson Brigade, a 1970s radical organization that engaged in armed actions against the state. Today, Ed mead is the President of the California Prison Focus and staff member of the Prison Art Project. Other panelists will include Monica Knox, a long-time public defender with the Federal Public Defender’s office whom has extensive experience with the prison system from both a professional and personal perspective, Gail Patrice from the Statewide Family Council, a group of family members and friends of prisoners that meets regularly with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to create and maintain communication and a better understanding regarding the prisons, those they incarcerate and their families, and Debbie Reyes from the California Moratorium Project, an organization that seeks to stop all public and private prison construction in California. The second panel will feature Beth Waitkus, the Director of the Insight Garden Program at San Quentin which has involved a team of local landscapers, gardeners and community members, as well as prison inmates and staff to build and maintain an organic, native California garden on San Quentin's medium-security prison yard. Other speakers will include Lisa Rea and Russ Turner from The Justice & Reconciliation Project and Candlelight Foundation, respectively, who will speak on restorative justice and legislative reform. Lisa Rea is the president and founder of The Justice & Reconciliation Project (JRP) and has an extensive background in restorative justice with a passion for restoring victims of crime and communities while holding offenders accountable. Russ Turner, an award-winning director and producer of film, has spent 30 years working in the Criminal Justice System directly with the California Highway Patrol and The California Attorney General’s Office. He is currently working as a Crime Prevention Specialist with the California Attorney General’s Office in the Crime and Violence Prevention Center. Aside from discussing reforms and alternatives, Matthew Powers, Executive Director of PRIDE Industries’ new Re-Entry Services Division, will address the ever-increasing need to provide post-release services to former-prisoners. The third panel features Andrea Bible from Free Battered Women, which seeks to end the re-victimization of incarcerated survivors of domestic violence as part of the movement for racial justice and the struggle to resist all forms of intimate partner violence against women and transgender people. Other featured speakers include, Karen Shain, Co-Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Chris Daley, a staff attorney at Transgender Law Center, Maria Ortega, a member of the Trans/Gender Variant in Prison Committee -- a community organizing project of the Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex Justice Project, and Lynsay Skiba from Justice Now. And lastly, the fourth panel, focused on facilitating open discourse regarding death penalty issues, will include Ellen Eggers, a Deputy State Public Defender in Sacramento for the past 17 years and Founder of the Sacramento California Death Penalty Focus Chapter, and Edward Bronson, Professor of Political Science and Public Law from Chico State, who has been involved in hundreds of death penalty cases for over almost 40 years.
The idea for the first prison law symposium in April of 2005 ("The Truth Unlocked: A California Prison Law Symposium") originated in a Judicial Process seminar taught by King Hall Professor Bill Hing. Always seeking to supplement coursework regarding the judicial system with other issues of legal significance, two years ago Hing sought the assistance of Susan Jordan, a 2L at the time, to present to the class regarding her expertise in the criminal justice system. A group of students in that class became inspired to create a symposium exploring the very timely and provocative issues and gathered support and funding to realize their vision for three years in a row.
With generous funding provided by the King Hall Annual Fund and American Constitution Society, breakfast and lunch will be provided on Saturday. The schedule for the symposium and more information about this effort can be found at the symposium blog: http://crimewithinpls.blogspot.com/. Any questions can be directly e-mailed to kimberly.huangfu@gmail.com.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Updated April 5, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
9:00AM - 5:00PM (Breakfast and lunch served)
UC Davis School of Law – Martin Luther King Jr. Hall, Rm 2021
9:00 am - Breakfast, registration
9:30 am - The Crime Within: Welcome Address
Professor Jennifer Chacรณn, UC Davis School of Law
10:00 am - Present Prison Conditions
- Debbie Reyes, CA Prison Moratorium Project
- Ed Mead, President of the California Prison Focus and staff member of the Prison Art Project
- Monica Knox, Federal Public Defender
- Holly Cooper, Immigration Law Clinic
- Gail Patrice, Inmate Family Council of CSP Solano
12:30pm - Reform, Alternatives, and Post-Release Issues
- Russ Turner, Candlelight Foundation, Restorative Justice
- Lisa Rea, The Justice and Reconciliation Project
- Beth Waitkus, Director of the Insight Garden Program at San Quentin
- Marci Coglianese, Co-Chair of the Statewide Family Council
- Matt Powers, PRIDE Industries
- Karen Shain, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
- Andrea Bible, Free Battered Women
- Chris Daley, Transgender Law Center
- Maria Ortega, Transgender Gender Variant and Intersex (TGI) Justice Project
- Lynsay Skiba, Justice Now
- Ellen Eggers, Attorney at the Office of the State Public Defender and Co-Founder of the CA Death Penalty Focus
- Edward Bronson, Chico State, Professor Political Science and Public Law
Office of the Dean, King Hall Annual Fund
Advocates for the Rights of Children
Agricultural Law Society
American Constitution Society
Black Law Students Association
Feminist Forum
La Raza Law Students Association
National Lawyers Guild
*This event is FREE and open to the public
Location: UC Davis School of Law -
Martin Luther King Jr. Hall
MCLE Credits
This activity is approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education Credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of one hour, which applies to the elimination of bias credit. The
Registration for the MCLE credit will begin 30 minutes before the start of the lecture.
Directions to King Hall (Law School), UC Davis
80 East
Take Exit 71 (UC Davis) towards the Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center
Turn left at the stop sign (Old Davis Road).
Pass the parking structure.
Turn left at the stoplight.
Go past the stop sign, left at the roundabout, and park in front of King Hall.
80 West
Take Exit 71 (UC Davis) towards the Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center
Turn right at the stop sign (Old Davis Road).
Pass the parking structure.
Turn left at the stoplight.
Go past the stop sign, left at the roundabout, and park in front of King Hall.
Questions? Email prisonsymposium@gmail.com
Early release of inmates a possible solution to overcrowding
Governor, lawmakers seek solutions to ballooning prisoner population
Timothy Jue, California Aggie
February 26, 2007
With a state superior court judge's ruling that blocks the transfer of California inmates to privately run, out-of-state correctional facilities still lingering from earlier in the week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would consider the early release of prisoners to ease continual overcrowding in the state's prison system.Faced with pressure from federal judges to solve the prison overcrowding problem, and at the risk of a cap on the state's inmate population this summer, Schwarzenegger told reporters at a Feb. 22 capitol news conference that he would look into the possibility that sick and nonviolent prisoners could be released before serving their full sentences.
"We have to look at a [wide] variety of different things in order to solve this problem," the governor said. "But I think the important thing is that we've got to start working on it now, and we've got to take this seriously."
In January, Schwarzenegger proposed spending $11 billion to construct more state prisons and expand existing prisons to house more inmates. However, the construction of new facilities could take years to complete.
At the news conference, the governor talked about moving additional prisoners to out-of-state prisons as another short-term solution to the overcrowding problem, despite Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Gail Ohanesian's Feb. 20 decision to block the inmate transfer plan.
In her ruling, she said the governor inappropriately used his powers to declare that the crowded state prison system was under a state of emergency. The Emergency Services Act, Ohanesian wrote in her ruling, is intended to provide state assistance to burdened local jurisdictions in the event of natural disasters and other events.
"The intent of the Emergency Services Act is not to give the governor extraordinary powers to act without legislative approval in matters such as this that are ordinarily and entirely within the control of state government," the judge wrote in her five-page order.
The Schwarzenegger administration said it would appeal the ruling and made no plans to discontinue the inmate-transfer plan, which exports prisoners to institutions in Tennessee and Arizona.
"It ought to be more concerning to the public and the press what else can he declare a state of emergency on," said Chuck Alexander, vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which sued the governor over the transfer plan along with another prison guard union.
Alexander praised the judge's decision but expressed frustration over the governor's approach in finding a solution to the overcrowding issue.
"It seems to be indicative of the style that the governor is using," he said. "He doesn't like to be told he's wrong by anybody."
Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation estimated that, by this summer, the state's 33 facilities will run out of bed space for inmates. Currently, 172,000 inmates are housed in a prison system designed for 100,000.
Reposted from The California Aggie: http://www.californiaaggie.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&uStory_id=53a76e84-59cf-4865-96de-55a2a1165f0b
Grim conditions at youth prison
Report calls Chino facility lax, dangerous 2 years after governor vowed to fix system
Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
(02-28) 04:00 PST Sacramento -- The state's largest juvenile prison provides virtually no education services to its wards, allows them to keep makeshift ropes in their cells and keeps most of them locked up 22 hours a day, according to a report Tuesday by the state inspector general.
The report, issued more than two years after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to improve conditions inside youth prisons, concludes that the environment is so bad at the Herman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino that wards could be especially prone to violence or suicide.
Among the findings are that wards at Chino are allowed to cover their cell windows -- blocking prison staff from seeing inside. The practice, the report says, is particularly troublesome in light of a 2005 suicide at a Stockton facility in which a ward covered his cell window and hanged himself with a bedsheet.
The state inspector general's office, which acts as a watchdog over California's prison system, found that many of the conditions at the Chino prison mirrored those of the Stockton prison.
"You have the same kind of recipe brewing,'' said Brett Morgan, a spokesman for Inspector General Matthew Cate.
The review brought on harsh criticism from advocates for juvenile offenders who noted that the state has missed court-ordered deadlines to implement reform plans it agreed to when Schwarzenegger settled a lawsuit in 2004 over unconstitutional conditions inside youth lockups.
State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, who has proposed shutting down the state's Division of Juvenile Justice, formerly called the California Youth Authority, said she "wanted to scream when I read this report.''
"Nothing has changed,'' Romero said. "We're dealing with an organization that is impervious to change.''
Cate's investigators visited Stark three times in 2006 and found numerous problems:
-- Inspections of cells designed for hard-to-manage wards found that more than half had prohibited items, from fabrics used to cover cell windows to makeshift ropes. One ward had constructed a large punching bag in his cell, another had 17 Styrofoam cups filled with ingredients for pruno, or homemade alcohol. Conditions at the facility "present an environment conducive to suicide attempts and potentially dangerous to staff,'' Cate wrote.
-- A review of 323 wards' records found that only seven were allowed out of their cells for more than three hours a day, and less than 1 percent of them received any educational services. There was one teacher for 54 wards in the living unit the investigators reviewed.
-- Wards received no discipline or only light discipline for sexual misconduct and appeared to receive relatively little treatment for sexual behavior problems before being released. The report notes that one ward convicted for lewd and lascivious acts exposed himself to staff members eight times and was kicked out of his treatment program but then was released from the system without any parole conditions.
The report reiterates many of the problems cited in 2004 throughout the youth prison system, when Schwarzenegger held a news conference at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton to announce the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. The suit had accused the system of warehousing juveniles in prison-like facilities instead of providing education, counseling and mental health care.
The governor said then that the juvenile justice system should work with young criminals to help them change bad habits that could land them in prison, and his administration submitted plans in 2005 and last year to make changes in all aspects of the system.
But the department has missed several deadlines outlined in those plans, according to Don Specter of the Prison Law Office, which filed the lawsuit. Specter noted that the job of director of programs for the system is vacant.
"The person who's supposed to lead the transition hasn't been hired,'' he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which includes the juvenile justice system, said the department was beginning reforms, such as reducing the number of wards in living units and creating better sexual behavior treatment programs, that would affect Stark and other facilities.
"The (inspector general's) review came as we were submitting these plans, and we are now beginning significant reforms,'' said Bill Sessa.
Schwarzenegger administration officials have pointed to Chaderjian in Stockton as an example of positive change. The facility garnered notoriety during the past few years for a videotape showing guards beating two wards and for the 2005 suicide of ward Joseph Maldonado, who had been kept in near-isolation for eight weeks before his death.
The department reduced the number of wards at Chaderjian, which has housed most of the most dangerous youth offenders in the system. In 2006, the level of violence there went down.
But many of those wards were moved to Stark, and assaults there and in other youth facilities went up last year.
"They basically just shifted the problems,'' said Sue Burrell, an attorney for the Youth Law Center in San Francisco, who said she has received numerous letters and phone calls from wards and their parents saying wards at Stark have asked to be kept in their cells at all hours because they fear for their safety.
Schwarzenegger this year has proposed reducing the size of the youth prison system by giving counties block grants to house juvenile offenders locally. The idea is supported by many advocates.
"Shrinking the system is good in the long term, but right now we seem to be sacrificing the lives of many young people,'' Burrell said.
E-mail Mark Martin at markmartin@sfchronicle.com.
Repost from SF Gate at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/28/MNGG7OCLJB1.DTL
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Don't Outsource California Prisoners
Written by: Steve Fama, Prison Law Office |
Article Last Updated:02/10/2007 07:15:46 AM PST Repost from Inside Bay Area, Daily Review, http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/oped/ci_5200960 |
CALIFORNIA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to forcibly transfer California prisoners to private prisons in other states is a bad move. Private prisons are troubling to begin with. More than 150 years ago, California took over San Quentin from a private operator because of a series of scandals over prisoner mistreatment and incompetent guards. Private prisons today too often correlate with low employment standards, poor staff training and inadequate inmate protections. Self-interested private profiteers are not answerable to the public and shouldn't be given the job of locking people up. What's next, contracting out the Highway Patrol and police? Forced transfers are equally troubling. First, they're against the law. California requires that prisoners consent to out-of-state transfers. The courts sentenced convicted defendants to California prisons, not to Tennessee or Mississippi, far from the community to which they'll be paroled. The law requires a prisoner's consent because people incarcerated out of state enter a legal twilight zone. They continue to be governed by California laws and rules, but they are thousands of miles from the California courts that can enforce those laws and from lawyers who can best advise them. State officials say they can ignore the consent law because the governor has declared a state of emergency in the prisons. This is a dangerous precedent. The governor should not be allowed to choose which laws to follow. Besides, the laws about declaring emergencies are designed for the unexpected — an earthquake, for example — not a predictable crisis that has been growing for more than a decade and has been caused by mismanagement and governmental failure. It's pathetic that the same elected officials who for years have failed to address prison overcrowding now want to outsource their failure. They know what steps are necessary to solve the overcrowding problem, but they lack the political will to act. The problem is that we incarcerate too many people, especially nonviolent offenders. New York has reduced its prison population by more than 10 percent since 1999 by moving nonviolent offenders out of the system. California's refusal to take on that task means that even the cells freed up by forcing prisoners out of state will be quickly filled again. There is a sensible way to reduce the prison population relatively quickly. The prisons are flooded with parole violators — more than 60,000 a year — whose violations are minor. According to the state watchdog Little Hoover Commission, California's parole system greatly increases the chances that many will violate parole. Parolees are offered little or no help, and any mistake can result in a return to prison, even if it doesn't involve criminal conduct. They don't stay in prison long, but each one takes up resources that could be better used. One solution is a screening process, used in many other states, to determine which violators pose the greatest risk and need to be re-incarcerated. Because the executive branch controls the parole system, the governor could immediately implement such a program. If it resulted in only a 10 percent reduction in the number returned to prison annually, it would empty more beds in one year than the forced transfer of inmates. In the long term, California legislators need to fix the state's jumble of criminal sentencing laws. Enacted over the last 30 years, these laws require too many nonviolent offenders to be imprisoned for too long. California could establish a sentencing commission to address this problem. In other states, including Virginia and North Carolina, sentencing commissions have led to smarter incarceration practices, a reduction in crime and billions of dollars in taxpayer savings. Schwarzenegger supports the concept of a sentencing commission, but it isn't clear whether he wants a commission with real authority, which would be essential. A commission that could only make recommendations would be useless. Afraid of being labeled soft on crime, California's politicians in the Legislature and the governor's office have repeatedly failed to take real steps to reduce prison overcrowding, even though they know what must be done and why. The proposal to force prisoners to transfer out of state is just another way to avoid doing the right thing.
Steve Fama, a staff attorney for the Prison Law Office in San Rafael, represents inmates in cases involving prison conditions. |