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Justice News 7.24.07

CJ POLICY

Begging Bush's Pardon
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-love7jun07,0,265170...
By Margaret Colgate Love
Margaret Colgate Love was United States pardon attorney in the Justice Department from 1990 to 1997.
[Margaret C. Love is a 2004 Soros Justice Senior Fellow]
“AS SPECULATION grows about whether President Bush will pardon I. Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, or at least commute his prison sentence, it's
important to remember the hundreds of ordinary people who have been
patiently standing in line, some for many years, waiting for
presidential forgiveness. In a sense, it is these largely anonymous
applicants for executive clemency (of which pardon and commutation are
subsets) who hold the key to the president's ability to help the
well-connected Mr. Libby.”

DEATH PENALTY

North Carolina Report Examines Mental Illness and the Death Penalty
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2388&scid=64
“A new report from the Charlotte School of Law on mental illness and
the death penalty reveals that obstacles entrenched within the criminal
justice system impede efforts to identify those with severe mental
illness and treat them fairly. The report, "Mental Illness and the
Death Penalty in North Carolina: A Diagnostic Approach
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/CharlotteMI.pdf ," is based on a 2006
symposium hosted by the law school. It examines scientific studies of
mental illness and provides an overview of laws established to protect
those with mental illness from unjustly facing the death penalty. The
report concludes that current legal protections are inadequate, in
large part because mentally ill offenders are often allowed to
undermine their own defense. Additionally, the legal definitions of
mental incompetence which might spare a person from the death penalty
do not align with clinical judgments that medical practitioners have to
make. Moreover, jurors in death penalty cases often perceive mental
illness as an aggravating - rather than a mitigating - factor.”
Source: Death Penalty Information Center http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

New Report: ACLU Capital Punishment Project
http://www.aclu.org/capital/index.html and Racial Justice Project
http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/index.html
The Persistent Problem of Racial Disparities in The Federal Death
Penalty http://www.aclu.org/capital/general/30237pub20070625.html
"This paper details the profoundly troubling evidence that racial
disparities continue to plague the modern federal death penalty. Of the
next six federal inmates scheduled for execution, all are
African-American defendants. Defendants of color make up the majority
of federal death row and the majority of modern federal executions."
Source: ACLU http://www.aclu.org

Supreme Court Blocks Execution of Mentally Ill Inmate http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2380&scid=64
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 28, 2007, that Scott Panetti, a
man with severe mental illness on Texas's death row, deserves a
rehearing on his claim of mental incompetence. The Court's 5-4 ruling
overturned a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Circuit that had used an overly restrictive definition of what
constitutes insanity. The lower court had held that mere knowledge of
one's crime, without a rational understanding, was sufficient to allow
an execution to go forward. The Court also said that the Texas state
court failed to provide Panetti with the kind of review guaranteed
under the Constitution. The case is Panetti v. Quarterman
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-6407.ZS.html .”

DISENFRANCHISEMENT

New York: Disenfranchisement and the Legacy of Slavery
“Last month, the New York State Assembly passed a bill apologizing for
slavery in an effort to acknowledge the state's hand in the nation's
unfortunate legacy which, amongst many other things, restricted black
people from the polls - and continues to do so, according to an op-ed
by Te-Ping Chen and Maggie Williams. New York law currently bans those
incarcerated and on parole from voting. Hayden v. Pataki, a New York
case brought before the U.S. Court of Appeals to overturn the current
law, was unsuccessful. The court dismissed the case in February 2005
concluding that "Congress did not intend the Voting Rights Act to cover
such [felon disenfranchisement] provisions" and that such an
application "would alter the constitutional balance between the States
and the Federal Government." The NAACP Legal Defense Fund
http://www.naacpldf.org/ and the Community Service Society urged the
Court to reconsider its decision last January. For coverage, see the
Gotham Gazette
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20070709/202/2224 .”
Source: The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org

DRUG POLICY

The promise of Prop. 36 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/23/EDGF2PVK7O1....
“UCLA released a study last month on Proposition 36, the voter-approved
treatment-rather-than incarceration program, showing that many addicts
continue to fight their addictions after sentencing and are
re-arrested. The study conclusively demonstrates that addicts, no
longer warehoused in state prison at an estimated annual taxpayer cost
of $34,000, are now re-arrested earlier than their previously
incarcerated colleagues. Shocking? Hardly.”
Read the Report http://www.adp.ca.gov/PDF/SACPAEvaluationReport.pdf
Press release http://www.adp.ca.gov/Pressroom/pressrelease/2007-04-13.pdf

IMMIGRATION

New Report: Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org
US: Mandatory Deportation Laws Harm American Families http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0707
Legal Residents Often Deported for Minor Crimes
From Press Release http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/07/18/usdom16402.htm :
“(Washington, DC, July 18, 2007) – The mandatory deportation of
immigrants convicted of a crime, even a minor one, has separated an
estimated 1.6 million children and adults, including US citizens and
lawful permanent residents, from their non-citizen family members,
Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org said in a report released today.
US immigration officials have deported 672,593 immigrants because of
criminal convictions since 1997, after Congress passed legislation
making deportation a mandatory penalty for a long list of crimes,
including minor, non-violent offenses committed years before the laws
went into effect. Many of those deported arrived in the US as children
and were lawful permanent residents who had lived legally in the
country for decades.”

INDIGENT DEFENSE

Tennessee Study Reveals Need for Indigent Defense Reform http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=2385&scid=64
According to a new report released by the Tennessee Justice Project,
indigent defense attorneys in the state receive far fewer dollars and
"in-kind" resources than prosecutors. This discrepancy creates an
uneven playing field that undermines the public's confidence in the
criminal justice system. The report, Resources of the Prosecution and
Indigent Defense Functions in Tennessee
http://www.thejusticeproject.org/state/tn/reports/spangenberg-study.pdf
, is based on findings from a study conducted by The Spangenberg Group,
one of the nation's leading experts on state criminal justice systems.
The Group determined that "in the course of over three decades
conducting nationwide research on financial resources furnished to the
prosecution and the defense in indigent cases, the findings in
Tennessee are the most telling examples of disparities we have found,"
a conclusion that the Tennessee Justice Project says underscores the
need for significant criminal justice reform.
Source: Death Penalty Information Center http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

INNOCENCE

What do states owe the exonerated? http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0530/p01s02-usju.html
States' compensation for wrongful imprisonment ranges from zero to millions of dollars.
By Amanda Paulson | The Christian Science Monitor
“Chicago - This month, two men – both freed last year after DNA
evidence exonerated them of the crimes for which they'd been in prison
– received drastically different news about how they might be
compensated for those lost years.”

JUVENILES

New Report: Justice Policy Institute http://www.justicepolicy.org
Gang Wars: The Failure of Enforcement Tactics and the Need for
Effective Public Safety Strategies
http://www.justicepolicy.org/reports_jl/7-10-07_gangs/report.htm
By Judith Greene and Kevin Pranis
[Judith Greene is a 1999 Soros Justice Senior Fellow and Kevin Pranis is a 2000 Soros Justice Postgraduate Fellow]
From Press Release:
“Groundbreaking New Report: Gang suppression tactics fail to reduce
crime, can worsen problem; Pervasive myths about gang members and gang
crime debunked
Experts tell lawmakers more police, more prison and more punishment
have not stopped gang violence; advocate for science-based approach to
public safety
Washington, D.C.- A groundbreaking new report released today by the
Justice Policy Institute argues that the billions of dollars spent on
traditional gang suppression activities have failed to promote public
safety and are often counterproductive. The report is released as
lawmakers consider legislation to stiffen penalties for gang-related
crime and increase funding for gang suppression.”
Media Coverage:
The Wrong Approach to Gangs http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/opinion/19thur3.html?_r=1&oref=slo...
New York Times Editorial
Social Programs to Combat Gangs Seen as More Effective Than Police
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR200707...
Area Officials Advocate Mix of Prevention and Enforcement
By Tom Jackman | Washington Post
Antigang crackdowns are ineffective, report says
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-gang18jul18,1,...

Los Angeles Times, CA
Report:
Police hype gangs to score funding
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MCZ...

By CAROLYN SALAZAR and JASON TSAI
US gang crackdowns called a `tragic failure' http://www.thestar.com/News/article/237060
Toronto Star, Canada
Report: Anti-Gang Strategy Failing Badly http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3388271
ABC News
Report criticizes how cities deal with gangs http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/324206_gangs19.html
Seattle Post Intelligencer

LGBTQ

Persecuted Gays Seek Refuge in U.S. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR200707...
Foreigners' Abuse Increasingly Seen as Grounds for Asylum
By Pamela Constable | Washington Post
[This article features the work of Immigration Equality <http://www.immigrationequality.org> ]
“One
night in 2003, on the wintry streets of Kosovo, a group of thugs
stalked and beat Gramoz Prestreshi almost to death. Police in the
war-scarred Balkan province laughed and called him names. The emergency
room workers made him mop up his own
blood. It was a sordid but hardly unusual episode in the hostile environment homosexuals encounter in societies of all kinds.”

MENTAL ILLNESS

The Mental Health System in America is Broken
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-beth-pfeiffer/the-mental-health-syste...

By Mary Beth Pfeiffer
[Mary Beth Pfeiffer is a 2004 Soros Justice Media Fellow]
“The
family of the Virginia Tech gunman who killed 32 people has released
his mental health records to a panel investigating the shootings --
something the government was powerless to do under overly protective
privacy statutes. It's about time.”
“The public needs to know every step of the path taken by Seung-Hui Cho
on his way to the worst school shooting in American history. And while
gun laws and campus security deserve scrutiny, a central focus of
investigation needs to be the functioning of the mental health system.”

PRISON EXPANSION

New Report: The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org
The Sentencing Project Examines Racial, Ethnic Prison Disparity in New
Report http://www.sentencingproject.org/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsID=454
“A new analysis by The Sentencing Project provides a regional
examination of the racial and ethnic dynamics of incarceration in the
U.S., and finds broad variations in racial disparity among the 50
states. The report, Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by
Race and Ethnicity
http://sentencingproject.org/Admin/Documents/publications/rd_staterateso...
, finds that African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six (5.6)
times the rate of whites and Hispanics nearly double (1.8) the rate.”
“A new analysis by The Sentencing Project provides a regional
examination of the racial and ethnic dynamics of incarceration in the
U.S., and finds broad variations in racial disparity among the 50
states. The report, Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by
Race and Ethnicity, finds that African Americans are incarcerated at
nearly six (5.6) times the rate of whites and Hispanics nearly double
(1.8) the rate.””
Media Coverage:
Study Shows Racial Disparities in Prison
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/18/AR200707...

By DAVID PITT | The Associated Press [via Washington Post]
State,
advocates disagree over high black prison rates
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720/N...

By David Gram | The Associated Press
Under
the Sun | Stuffing prisons with black men is not the way to reduce
crime
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/harold_jackson/8676437.html
By Harold Jackson | Philadelphia Inquirer Columnist
Locking away minorities http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-125279
Virginia lawmakers pretend racial disparity doesn't exist in the justice system.
Roanoke Times Editorial
Study details prison disparity: Differences between races speak to a
'complex situation'
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-07-19-...

By Frank Green | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Blacks,
Hispanics imprisoned in larger numbers than whites, report says
http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18602628&amp;BRD=1281&amp...

Maria Garriga | New Haven Register Staff
Editorial:
Make prison rates of blacks a top priority
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070719/OPI...
Iowa still leader in troubling disparity.
Des Moines Register

New Report: Prison Policy Initiative http://www.prisonpolicy.org
Prisoners in the Census Skew County Government in New York http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/news/2007/07/18/nycounties
From Press Release:
“July 18 - The federal Census counts state and federal prisoners as
part of the local population, and that creates big problems for county
government, charges a new report by the Prison Policy Initiative. The
report explains that the Census Bureau wants New York county
governments to use its data but counts prisoners as residents of the
prison location, which violates the New York State Constitution.
Counting prisoners as residents, despite the fact that they can't vote
or participate in the communities where they are incarcerated, leads to
unequal distributions of political power.”
Read the Report:
Phantom constituents in the Empire State: How outdated Census Bureau
methodology burdens New York counties
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/nycounties
Media Coverage:
Editorial: Phantom Voters in New York http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/opinion/23mon3.html?_r=1&amp;oref=slog...
New York Times

On the Air: P.O.V. [premieres tonight]
Prison Town, USA http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2007/prisontown
“In the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison
opened in rural America every 15 days. "Prison Town, USA" tells the
story of Susanville, California, one small town that tries to
resuscitate its economy by building a prison — with unanticipated
consequences.”

PRISONER RIGHTS & CONDITIONS

Washington Coalition for Open Government to Present James Madison Award
to Paul Wright of Prison Legal News
http://onejustice.blogspot.com/2007/07/washington-coalition-for-open.htm...

“Self-taught
editor Paul Wright, who founded Prison Legal News
<http://www.prisonlegalnews.org/> from inside his cell at the
Washington State Reformatory in Monroe and continues to use public
records to document conditions inside jails and prisons nationwide
since his release from custody in 2003, will receive the James Madison
Award from the Washington Coalition for Open Government.”

RACIAL JUSTICE

Don't forget L.A.'s race case
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-hildebrand26jun26,0...

Magnet school programs, threatened by state and federal lawsuits, provide the best chance for equality in education.
By Charlotte Hildebrand
CHARLOTTE
HILDEBRAND, a freelance writer in Los Angeles, is writing a book about
Meredith vs. Jefferson County Board of Education.
“SUPREME COURT decisions on two school desegregation cases are expected
before the court adjourns. The rulings in both cases — in which white
parents in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle challenged districts'
desegregation plans — will determine whether school districts can
continue to assign students to schools based on their race for purposes
of integration.
While people in Louisville and Seattle are waiting on pins and needles,
here in Los Angeles, we are hardly aware that this Friday, the Los
Angeles Unified School District faces a similar legal challenge to its
own desegregation plan.”

REENTRY

Ex-cons' sentences don't always end with release http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-22-ex-cons_N.htm?POE=click-r...
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
[2004 Soros Justice Senior Fellow Margaret C. Love and Marc Mauer,
executive director of the Sentencing Project
http://www.sentencingproject.org/ , are quoted.]
In New Jersey, some ex-convicts can't get a driver's license. In
Alabama, a misdemeanor drug conviction means a ban on adopting a child.
In 12 states, former felons are ineligible for food stamps.
"If someone goes home to no house, no job, no nothing, they're probably
going to end up stealing again," says Margaret Love, who led the
American Bar Association task force on collateral punishment.
"We've created a class of people who essentially don't fit in," says
Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice think tank in
Washington.

Washington State Passes Reentry Legislation
“Washington State has passed legislation to promote collaboration
between the state’s Department of Corrections and municipalities to
establish networks and provide services for reentering individuals. The
bill, ESSB-6157, addresses services around housing, employment,
education, and drug treatment. The legislation includes an annual
appropriation of $28.3 million.”
Source: New Jersey Institute for Social Justice http://www.njisj.org
Download the bill http://www.magnetmail.net/images/clients/ICCA/attach/WA_Reentry_Law.pdf

Ex- convicts and addicts may get DoD clearance
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/ex--convicts-and-addicts-may-get-dod...

By Elana Schor and Roxana Tiron
“At
the Pentagon’s request, Senate defense authorizers tucked deep within a
defense bill a repeal of the department’s restriction on granting
security clearances to ex-convicts, drug addicts and the mentally
incompetent.
The repeal provision now is creating discord between the Senate Armed
Services and the Intelligence committees. In its markup of the 2008
defense authorization bill, the Intelligence panel voted to delete the
Armed Services provision.”

Former Prisoners Reforming Prisons http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=former_prisoners_reforming_p...
Politicians and correctional officials are recognizing that, in
conversations about prison reform, they must reserve a seat at the
table for those who have lived it.
By Beth Schwartzapfel
“Elizabeth Gaynes has worked with people involved in the criminal
justice system for more than 30 years: as a young law student in the
early 1970s, she was galvanized by the uprising at Attica, and helped
to defend some of the incarcerated people who were involved. Later, she
took the reins as executive director of the nonprofit Osborne
Association http://www.osborneny.org , which provides services to
incarcerated people and their communities.”

Get-tough policy helps bloat prison system
http://www.mlive.com/kalamazoo/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-24/118265946...

Gazette Lansing Bureau
[2003 Soros Justice Postgraduate Fellow Miriam Aukerman is quoted]
“LANSING
-- As Gov. Jennifer Granholm pushes to close prisons to reduce the
state's ballooning corrections budget, critics say some of her own
get-tough-on-crime policies are filling beds needlessly.
Legal Aid of Western Michigan attorney Miriam Aukerman, who works on
prisoner re-entry issues, said that the parole board is overworked and
appears to be applying conditions broadly without considering the
individual circumstances.
“I would say we have a schizophrenic approach as a state to the release
of prisoners,'' she said. ``We're making it harder by passing lots of
laws and restrictions that undercut the ability of people to do the
things we want them to do: find employment and reintegrate with their
families.”

SENTENCING

A Crack in the System <http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_crack_in_the_system>
“For the fourth time in 20 years, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has
asked lawmakers to reform mandatory cocaine sentencing policy. Might
this be the year Congress listens?
By Christopher Moraff | American Prospect
"If President Bush truly believes that the power of commutation is
necessary to correct injustice, there is no shortage of cases of people
languishing in federal prisons for unconscionably lengthy sentences who
are deserving of such attention," says Marc Mauer, executive director
of The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org , a
Washington-based advocacy group.”

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