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voices.con
November Newsletter
Faced with over 50 preventable deaths per year CA
prisons still fight federal takeover, how prisoners can overcome the
victim mentality, prison policies proven to fail, and a short history of
indeterminate sentencing.
The Latest
California's Secret Judges - By Jean
Arnold
The Graying of America’s Prisons
Governor
blames budget woes -judges 'going absolutely crazy'
Federal judges reject plan to cut California prison
crowding
NPR: First Lifer Granted Parole In California
Once again, politics gets in way of
reform
With the legislative session heading into the home
stretch, an ambitious plan to overhaul California's criminal sentencing
structure is facing dim prospects in the Governor's Office.
MORE
The Recession Behind Bars
By KENNETH E. HARTMAN
Published: September 5, 2009
The first inkling of financial
difficulties in here surfaced in the chow hall. All of a sudden prison
officials became concerned about our overeating.
MORE also
Schadenfreude
Proposition 9 Litigation Sheet
These cases should be
considered must read material for those who are considering
any ex post facto related litigation of California's 2008 Proposition 9
A Message From McQuillion's
Paralegal Services
Experienced
California Lifer Parole Litigation Specialist
AB
1166 - As Introduced: February 27, 2009
Authorizes the Board of
Parole Hearings (BPH), when sitting en banc to review a tie vote in
deciding parole, to review only the record of the parole hearing rather
than holding another hearing. Upon en banc review, the BPH shall vote to
either grant or deny parole and render a statement of decision.
No Exit -The Expanding Use of Life Sentences and Recommendations for Release
- 7/2009
Washington, DC - 03/02/2009 - Explosive growth in the number of people on
probation or parole has propelled the population of the American
corrections system to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults,
according to a report released today by the Pew Center on the States.
Related:
Study finds disparity in corrections spending
A Message From The Law Offices Of William L. Schmidt
California Lifer Parole Representation
Impact of Proposition 9
- San Quentin News 1-29-09
Page
1 and Page
2
The Unforgiven
By Curtis Cartier
Cheney and Gonzales Indicted in Connection
with Private Prison in Texas
Jailhouse Lawyer Paroles After 23 Years
Court Overrules
Governor, Supports A Parole, Decision Could Aid Bids For Freedom In Over
1000 Cases
State must invest in prison health-care facilities
California's Growing Prison Crisis
Prison and Parole (Little Hoover
Findings)
Increase in inmates opens
door to private prisons
Full Text of Prop 9
MORE
A Message From Attorney
Charles Carbone, Esq.
California Lifer Parole Representation
"The Writ of Habeas
Corpus - The Right To Challenge Detention"
KPFA Interview with attorney and President of the Center for
Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner. On June 12, 2008, in an historic
decision, Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled that the Center's
clients detained at Guantanamo have a constitutional right to file
petitions for habeas corpus in U.S. federal court, challenging the
lawfulness of their detention.
Prison Stock Profits
Prison stocks also are valued on a “per
bed” basis — which is based on the number of beds provided and the profit
per bed. “Per bed” is really a euphemism for people who are sentenced to
be housed in their prison.
For example, in 1996, when Cornell went public, based on the financial
information provided in the offering document provided to investors, its
stock was valued at $24,241 per bed. This means that for every contract
Cornell got to house one prisoner, at that time, their stock went up in
value by an average of $24,261. According to prevailing business school
philosophy, this is the stock market’s current present value of the future
flow of profit flows generated through the management of each prisoner.
This, for example, is why longer mandatory sentences are worth so much to
private prison stocks. A prisoner in jail for twenty years has a
twenty-year cash flow associated with his incarceration, as opposed to one
with a shorter sentence or one eligible for an early parole.
This means that we have created a significant number of private interests
— investment firms, banks, attorneys, auditors, architects, construction
firms, real estate developers, bankers, academics, investors among them—
who have a vested interest in increasing the prison population and keeping
people behind bars as long as possible.
MORE
California inmates receive wages
between 30 cents to 95 cents per hour, before deductions.
California Prison Industry
Authority
It can be hard for inmates
to keep up family relationships, but many experts say it's important that
they do. Today, we continue our prison series with a look at the
challenges families and the prison system face. Experts weigh in and
you'll hear first-hand accounts from those impacted personally.
Elderly Sentence
Adjustment Pilot Program: House Bill 5154
PAGE1
PAGE2
Rights In Question
Congress in 1867 enacted
a habeas corpus statute that authorized the writ whenever any person is
restrained or deprived of liberty in
violation of any federal right, that is, any right guaranteed by the
Constitution, acts of Congress, or treaties. The
Due Process Clause of the
Fourteenth
Amendment has been construed to secure the right to a fair hearing, thus
providing a very broad ground for granting the writ. A state prisoner is
not eligible to apply to a federal judge for habeas corpus until first
exhausting all remedies available under
state law. Similarly, a member of the armed forces may not sue for the
writ in a federal court until the remedies provided for in the military
court system have been exhausted (see
Exhaustion of Remedies).
Habeas Corpus
Defined
Back-Door Prison Finance
The secure housing,
minimal support, minimal medical care and feeding of 2.2 million people is
a costly endeavor consuming billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer's
money every year in America. Corporations are lined up to receive a
portion of the public funds used to support the self-perpetuating
incarceration industry. States such as California spend more public funds,
tax dollars, your money, my money, on prisons than for education and
schools.
California's Broken Parole System
In California, parole
violations are determined and assigned exclusively by correctional officers - in
essence, prison guards. If a parolee's parole officer says "you've violated
parole," the parolee is arrested and taken to the county jail. There's no
warrant, no proof - nothing but the parole officer's word. He then sits in jail
for 1-2 months before being transferred to a state prison, where he sits for
another 30-90 days before a "violation committee" reads the parole officer's
report and hears the inmate's response in person.
Ruling Complicates California Problems
NPR
February 21, 2007 · The entire men's state prison at Chino, Calif.
is operating at twice its capacity. Day rooms and gyms are crammed with
bunks. Conditions are similar at many California prisons.
Photos
CIM(Gym) CMF(hallway)
More
But a judge in Sacramento has
ruled against a plan to relieve overcrowding by sending prisoners to facilities
in other states. The ruling raised the possibility that prisoners may be
released early to ease overcrowding.
Reducing Recidivism
Mon, Jul 24, 2006 --
9:00 AM
Forum discusses programs that help
ex-offenders successfully reenter society upon release from prison.
Host: Michael
Krasny
Guests:
-Carl McQuillion, ex-offender
who is now a paralegal at McQuillion Paralegal in Napa, which specializes in
parole cases
MORE
ALSO
-Marc Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project and author of "Race to
Incarcerate" and "Invisible Punishment: the Collateral Consequences of Mass
Imprisonment"
-Shirley Melnicoe, executive director of the Northern California Service League,
a San Francisco-based non-profit helping ex-offenders successfully re-enter
society
More Than 2.24 Million Incarcerated as of June 30,
2006
Judges consider prison population cap
Prison Overcrowding State of Emergency Proclamation
NPR
February 21, 2007 · The entire men's state prison at Chino, Calif.
is operating at twice its capacity. Day rooms and gyms are crammed with
bunks. Conditions are similar at many California prisons.
Photos
CIM(Gym) CMF(hallway)
More
But a judge in Sacramento
has ruled against a plan to relieve overcrowding by sending prisoners to
facilities in other states. The ruling raised the possibility that prisoners may
be released early to ease overcrowding.
by the Governor of the State of California
Mandatory Sentencing Fuels Prison Overcrowding
A Families Against Mandatory Minimums in-depth analysis of the impact of
Arizona's sentencing laws finds that the state's rigid mandatory
sentencing laws fill prison cells and cost millions while doing little to
enhance public safety.
Phone Companies Rip Off Inmate Families
An Investigation by the Associated Press in California has found that
telephone companies and county governments have been bilking millions of
dollars from the families of jail and prison inmates by charging high
rates for collect calls home.
Possible Alternative?
The Prison Show
During the first hour of the program, Ray and
the gang, and occasionally a special guest, discuss related current issues and
review the weeks mailbag. In the second hour, we receive calls from the
listeners that make the show so special, as they connect to talk to their
family members, friends and loved ones within the Texas prisons, and somehow
form together to become one large family through their common experience.
Texas does not permit inmates to have access to telephones or the web.
So for many, The Prison Show is the only way an inmate can hear the voice of
his friends and relatives between the rare visits.
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