Christopher Zoukis's Blog, page 4
January 29, 2018
Food-Related Outbreaks Sicken Prisoners Six Times More Often
By Christopher Zoukis
Prison food usually makes news only when blamed for hunger strikes or riots, or a supplier is found providing rancid or insect-infested food. Yet it also poses an important but little-studied public health issue, recently tackled by a research team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which published a study showing outbreaks of foodborne illnesses disproportionately affect jail and prison inmates.
Looking at confirmed outbreaks of foodborne illness anywhere in the nation between 1998 and 2014, four epidemiologic researchers say their study is the first update in two decades on the incidence and causes of foodborne illnesses in correctional settings. They drew data from CDC’s yearly nationwide surveys of food-related disease outbreaks, then compared food-related illness outbreaks among prisoners with those affecting the general public.
Although inmates comprise less than 1% of the total U.S. population, hey accounted for nearly 6% of people made sick by outbreaks of food-related illnesses. Over the 17-year period studied, the annual rate for inmates who came down with food-linked illnesses averaged 45 per 100,000, compared with an average rate of only seven per 100,000 in the non-incarcerated population. That translates to inmates being 6.4 times more likely to become sick due to an outbreak of a foodborne illness.
The researchers classified 200 mass outbreaks of foodborne illness as “desmoteric” (corrections-related), and found those outbreaks produced 20,625 illnesses, requiring 204 hospitalizations and causing five deaths. It was also noted 37 states reported having at least one such outbreak at a correctional facility.
The most common pathogens responsible for foodborne illness outbreaks in prisons and jails were Clostridium perfringens and Salmonella, although botulism, a sometimes fatal or crippling disease, was also frequently found. Poultry products – like chicken salad or chicken tacos – were the types of contaminated food most commonly found to have been involved in an outbreak.
The study examined contributing factors most often involved in food illness outbreaks among inmates. In 37% of cases, leaving food at room temperature too long was cited. The report noted inmates involved in food preparation rarely receive food safety training, and supervisors of inmate food handlers usually give those concerns low priority. Also, many correctional institutions lack adequate space or equipment to maintain proper food handling, preparation and storage. And because for security and logistics reasons meals are often served in shifts, rather than having all inmates fed at the same time, when all food is prepared before the first shift and left without refrigeration, by the time the last shift eats, its meal may have been exposed for an unhealthy length of time.
Another lesser-recognized factor is that inmates, especially those involved in food preparation, may take food back to their cells, where it cannot be safely stored. Adding to health problem is inmates’ clandestine production of alcohol, known as “pruno” or by other names, made from fermented fruit or other sugar-containing foodstuffs. A health drink it isn’t — one former inmate recalls a batch he was brewing in a rubber boot ate through the sole.
The study, Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in Correctional Institutions—United States, 1998–2014, was published in the July 2017 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
This article first appeared on Blogcritics.com.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
Prison food usually makes news only when blamed for hunger strikes or riots, or a supplier is found providing rancid or insect-infested food. Yet it also poses an important but little-studied public health issue, recently tackled by a research team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which published a study showing outbreaks of foodborne illnesses disproportionately affect jail and prison inmates.
Looking at confirmed outbreaks of foodborne illness anywhere in the nation between 1998 and 2014, four epidemiologic researchers say their study is the first update in two decades on the incidence and causes of foodborne illnesses in correctional settings. They drew data from CDC’s yearly nationwide surveys of food-related disease outbreaks, then compared food-related illness outbreaks among prisoners with those affecting the general public.
Although inmates comprise less than 1% of the total U.S. population, hey accounted for nearly 6% of people made sick by outbreaks of food-related illnesses. Over the 17-year period studied, the annual rate for inmates who came down with food-linked illnesses averaged 45 per 100,000, compared with an average rate of only seven per 100,000 in the non-incarcerated population. That translates to inmates being 6.4 times more likely to become sick due to an outbreak of a foodborne illness.
The researchers classified 200 mass outbreaks of foodborne illness as “desmoteric” (corrections-related), and found those outbreaks produced 20,625 illnesses, requiring 204 hospitalizations and causing five deaths. It was also noted 37 states reported having at least one such outbreak at a correctional facility.
The most common pathogens responsible for foodborne illness outbreaks in prisons and jails were Clostridium perfringens and Salmonella, although botulism, a sometimes fatal or crippling disease, was also frequently found. Poultry products – like chicken salad or chicken tacos – were the types of contaminated food most commonly found to have been involved in an outbreak.
The study examined contributing factors most often involved in food illness outbreaks among inmates. In 37% of cases, leaving food at room temperature too long was cited. The report noted inmates involved in food preparation rarely receive food safety training, and supervisors of inmate food handlers usually give those concerns low priority. Also, many correctional institutions lack adequate space or equipment to maintain proper food handling, preparation and storage. And because for security and logistics reasons meals are often served in shifts, rather than having all inmates fed at the same time, when all food is prepared before the first shift and left without refrigeration, by the time the last shift eats, its meal may have been exposed for an unhealthy length of time.
Another lesser-recognized factor is that inmates, especially those involved in food preparation, may take food back to their cells, where it cannot be safely stored. Adding to health problem is inmates’ clandestine production of alcohol, known as “pruno” or by other names, made from fermented fruit or other sugar-containing foodstuffs. A health drink it isn’t — one former inmate recalls a batch he was brewing in a rubber boot ate through the sole.
The study, Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in Correctional Institutions—United States, 1998–2014, was published in the July 2017 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
This article first appeared on Blogcritics.com.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
January 23, 2018
Lawsuit: FEC Won’t Act on Private Prison Firm’s Illegal Donations to Trump Campaign
By Christopher Zoukis
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a nonprofit group filed a lawsuit Jan. 10 in federal district court in Washington, D.C. claiming the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has not acted on the group’s complaint, filed more than a year ago, that a private prison company made illegal six-figure campaign donations to a “super PAC” (political action committee) supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The lawsuit asks the court to order declare the contributions illegal and order the FEC to act on the complaint.
The Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) reversed a policy Aug. 18, 2016 that had been in effect for two decades, by directing a phase out of its use of privately-owned prisons; a week earlier, DOJ’s inspector general had issued a study claiming private prisons fall short of federally-run prisons in both safety and effectiveness.
That news, and the perceived electoral prospects for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose platform supported ending federal contracts with private prisons, slammed the three corporations running private prisons — the two publicly-traded firms saw sharp declines in their stock prices.
One of those firms, the GEO Group, Inc., based in Boca Raton, Florida, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, GEO Corrections Holdings Inc., the day after the DOJ announcement sent a $100,000 donation to Rebuilding America Now, which called itself “the largest Super PAC supporting Donald Trump” in the 2016 presidential election. The same company donated another $125,000 to the super PAC on Nov. 1, a week before the presidential election.
That was also the day CLC filed a complaint with the FEC, charging the $225,000 in donations to the super PAC violated a 75-year-old law barring political donations in federal elections by entities holding or negotiating for federal contracts.
GEO maintains that it fully complied with federal election law, noting the subsidiary which made the donations did not hold any contracts with the federal government. It also pointed to a 2012 FEC ruling which cleared similar contributions by a Chevron holding company which itself held no federal contracts., even though another Chevron subsidiary was a federal contractor.
CLC argues there’s no essential difference between the GEO Group and its subsidiary, which share the same address and staff. In its lawsuit, the nonprofit also points to a company filing with the National Labor Relations Board connected with an organizing drive at a company-operated prison in Folkston, Georgia which has a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, in which the subsidiary, not the parent company, was listed as the employer in the case. GEO says that was an error which it has corrected.
The lawsuit alleges the FEC isn’t complying with a federal election law provision directing the FEC to respond within 120 days to complaints it receives. CLC claims the agency is ignoring both that procedural requirement and the ban on federal contractors’ political contributions.
But some observers think the case raises additional undecided issues. These include whether the ban applies only to the entity holding a contract, or also to related entities. Similarly, the status of super PACs in federal election law is unsettled, as is the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which on First Amendment grounds eased some restrictions on corporate political activity.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
The Campaign Legal Center (CLC), a nonprofit group filed a lawsuit Jan. 10 in federal district court in Washington, D.C. claiming the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has not acted on the group’s complaint, filed more than a year ago, that a private prison company made illegal six-figure campaign donations to a “super PAC” (political action committee) supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The lawsuit asks the court to order declare the contributions illegal and order the FEC to act on the complaint.
The Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) reversed a policy Aug. 18, 2016 that had been in effect for two decades, by directing a phase out of its use of privately-owned prisons; a week earlier, DOJ’s inspector general had issued a study claiming private prisons fall short of federally-run prisons in both safety and effectiveness.
That news, and the perceived electoral prospects for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, whose platform supported ending federal contracts with private prisons, slammed the three corporations running private prisons — the two publicly-traded firms saw sharp declines in their stock prices.
One of those firms, the GEO Group, Inc., based in Boca Raton, Florida, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, GEO Corrections Holdings Inc., the day after the DOJ announcement sent a $100,000 donation to Rebuilding America Now, which called itself “the largest Super PAC supporting Donald Trump” in the 2016 presidential election. The same company donated another $125,000 to the super PAC on Nov. 1, a week before the presidential election.
That was also the day CLC filed a complaint with the FEC, charging the $225,000 in donations to the super PAC violated a 75-year-old law barring political donations in federal elections by entities holding or negotiating for federal contracts.
GEO maintains that it fully complied with federal election law, noting the subsidiary which made the donations did not hold any contracts with the federal government. It also pointed to a 2012 FEC ruling which cleared similar contributions by a Chevron holding company which itself held no federal contracts., even though another Chevron subsidiary was a federal contractor.
CLC argues there’s no essential difference between the GEO Group and its subsidiary, which share the same address and staff. In its lawsuit, the nonprofit also points to a company filing with the National Labor Relations Board connected with an organizing drive at a company-operated prison in Folkston, Georgia which has a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, in which the subsidiary, not the parent company, was listed as the employer in the case. GEO says that was an error which it has corrected.
The lawsuit alleges the FEC isn’t complying with a federal election law provision directing the FEC to respond within 120 days to complaints it receives. CLC claims the agency is ignoring both that procedural requirement and the ban on federal contractors’ political contributions.
But some observers think the case raises additional undecided issues. These include whether the ban applies only to the entity holding a contract, or also to related entities. Similarly, the status of super PACs in federal election law is unsettled, as is the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision, which on First Amendment grounds eased some restrictions on corporate political activity.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
January 15, 2018
Prison program cooks up opportunity for inmates
By Christopher Zoukis
America likes to play with its food. Chopped, Food Network Star, Cutthroat Kitchen – there is no shortage of entertainment on television when it comes to mixing ingredients and drama together.
For the inmates of Folsom Women’s Facility, however, food has an entirely different meaning. It’s not about fun, drama or competition. It’s about opportunity, new beginnings and self-esteem.
Folsom Women’s Facility (in Folsom State Prison) recently saw 11 women graduate from its intensive 10-month culinary arts program. The course is taught by Cosumnes River College as one of the California Prison Industry Authority Career Technical Education (CALPIA- CTE) programs. The graduates learn much more than how to prepare food. They learn accredited job skilld and attain a greater chance of employment and success upon release.
The culinary program exposes participants to all aspects of restaurant life, from cooking to serving to restaurant management. “The women will receive a culinary college certificate and receive college credit from this program,” said Jason Doolittle, adjunct professor, executive chef, and one of the teachers in the program. “We taught them everything from base management principles, cooking, using the kitchen equipment correctly, front and back-of-the-house service, to proper sanitation methods.”
One of the inmates that took the program at Folsom was Cherish Velez. She was serving in the kitchen because she loved to cook, and when the culinary program became a reality for the female inmates, she signed right up. Velez cites “learning basic cooking techniques, team work, proper sanitation andhow to use the equipment” as highlights of the program, and her favorite thing to make is risotto, in honor of her Italian heritage and love of Italian food. Upon release, Velez plans to become a chef.
The culinary program at Folsom Women’s Facility is on point for supplying a needed skill. America’s restaurant industry boasts an average of 980,000 locations with more than $660 billion in sales (4 percent of the U.S. GDP). It employs over 13 million people. In California alone, graduates of the prison program can join the 1,475,100 restaurant employees that make up 10 percent of the state’s workforce.
There won’t be a shortage of jobs either, with growth projected to be 1,615,600 employees in the restaurant industry by 2023. California generates more than $67 billion in restaurant revenue, with every dollar spend in the industry generating $1.16 to benefit the economy. CALPIA-CTE’s tapping into the successful and growing restaurant industry and creating a prison program to help released inmates take advantage of it is a great way to help them get into the workforce while doing something they enjoy. The skills they learn are practical, sustainable, and give them careers with real future potential.
The culinary CALPIA-CTE program in Folsom has proven to be a success, and it’s not the only program of its kind in the state of California. Prison education under this program also includes commercial driving, computer-aided design (CAD), computer coding, facilities maintenance, ironworking, pre-apprentice construction labor and pre-apprentice carpentry.
Prison education programs are necessary for reducing recidivism and creating a more positive and proactive environment both within and outside of the penal system. When educational programs are targeted and paced with actual employment needs, the programs and the students are sure to be much more successful.
Christopher Zoukis is the author of Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons, College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons (McFarland & Co., 2014) and Prison Education Guide (Prison Legal News Publishing, 2016). He can be found online at ChristopherZoukis.com, PrisonEducation.com and PrisonLawBlog.com.
America likes to play with its food. Chopped, Food Network Star, Cutthroat Kitchen – there is no shortage of entertainment on television when it comes to mixing ingredients and drama together.
For the inmates of Folsom Women’s Facility, however, food has an entirely different meaning. It’s not about fun, drama or competition. It’s about opportunity, new beginnings and self-esteem.
Folsom Women’s Facility (in Folsom State Prison) recently saw 11 women graduate from its intensive 10-month culinary arts program. The course is taught by Cosumnes River College as one of the California Prison Industry Authority Career Technical Education (CALPIA- CTE) programs. The graduates learn much more than how to prepare food. They learn accredited job skilld and attain a greater chance of employment and success upon release.
The culinary program exposes participants to all aspects of restaurant life, from cooking to serving to restaurant management. “The women will receive a culinary college certificate and receive college credit from this program,” said Jason Doolittle, adjunct professor, executive chef, and one of the teachers in the program. “We taught them everything from base management principles, cooking, using the kitchen equipment correctly, front and back-of-the-house service, to proper sanitation methods.”
One of the inmates that took the program at Folsom was Cherish Velez. She was serving in the kitchen because she loved to cook, and when the culinary program became a reality for the female inmates, she signed right up. Velez cites “learning basic cooking techniques, team work, proper sanitation andhow to use the equipment” as highlights of the program, and her favorite thing to make is risotto, in honor of her Italian heritage and love of Italian food. Upon release, Velez plans to become a chef.
The culinary program at Folsom Women’s Facility is on point for supplying a needed skill. America’s restaurant industry boasts an average of 980,000 locations with more than $660 billion in sales (4 percent of the U.S. GDP). It employs over 13 million people. In California alone, graduates of the prison program can join the 1,475,100 restaurant employees that make up 10 percent of the state’s workforce.
There won’t be a shortage of jobs either, with growth projected to be 1,615,600 employees in the restaurant industry by 2023. California generates more than $67 billion in restaurant revenue, with every dollar spend in the industry generating $1.16 to benefit the economy. CALPIA-CTE’s tapping into the successful and growing restaurant industry and creating a prison program to help released inmates take advantage of it is a great way to help them get into the workforce while doing something they enjoy. The skills they learn are practical, sustainable, and give them careers with real future potential.
The culinary CALPIA-CTE program in Folsom has proven to be a success, and it’s not the only program of its kind in the state of California. Prison education under this program also includes commercial driving, computer-aided design (CAD), computer coding, facilities maintenance, ironworking, pre-apprentice construction labor and pre-apprentice carpentry.
Prison education programs are necessary for reducing recidivism and creating a more positive and proactive environment both within and outside of the penal system. When educational programs are targeted and paced with actual employment needs, the programs and the students are sure to be much more successful.
Christopher Zoukis is the author of Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons, College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons (McFarland & Co., 2014) and Prison Education Guide (Prison Legal News Publishing, 2016). He can be found online at ChristopherZoukis.com, PrisonEducation.com and PrisonLawBlog.com.
January 9, 2018
Prison Workers Will Receive $7.5 Million for Riot Death, Injuries
By Christopher Zoukis
In what may be the state’s largest-ever settlement of a civil lawsuit, on Dec. 15 a federal judge approved a settlement agreement between Delaware and survivors of a correctional officer killed last February during an inmate riot and takeover at a state prison, and five other corrections officers held by rioters during an 18-hour siege.
The settlement calls for the state to pay more than $7.5 million to the family of Sgt. Steven Floyd Sr. and to the other corrections workers held hostage at the maximum-security James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna. The civil-rights lawsuit had named two former Democratic governors, Ruth Ann Minner and Jack Markell, as well as top state corrections and budget officials, claiming their years-long failure to provide staffing levels needed for workplace safety led to the inmates’ uprising that killed Sgt. Floyd and harmed the other staffers taken hostage. The complaint argued prison understaffing was the state’s official policy over a 16-year period, and defendant officials worked to hide from the state Legislature the hazards and costs of that policy, such as mandatory 16-hour shifts causing $23 million in annual overtime pay.
Other accusations in the prison workers’ lawsuit were that top officials skimped on training for prison staff and even ignored reports they themselves had commissioned that revealed serious security weaknesses and linked them to short-handed staffing and excessive use of overtime. It alleged understaffing and other neglect began when Minner became governor in 2001 – about 500,000 hours of overtime were recorded in her first year in office – but worsened substantially under Markell. By the end of Markell’s tenure, total annual overtime hours had risen to about 800,000, and staff working double shifts made up about 40 percent of total hours worked.
With many staff positions left unfilled and the workforce stretched thin by required overtime, the Department of Corrections abandoned its specialized security teams to perform random shakedowns and security sweeps to find and seize weapons and contraband at Vaughn, despite numerous reports from prison staff in the months leading up to the riot of tampering to equipment that removed many pieces of metal – obvious signs of homemade weapons being prepared. The lawsuit also noted evidence that, shortly before the February 2017 riot, inmates had been staging fights in Building C, seen in retrospect as “dry run” probing for weaknesses in security responses.
The complaint further alleged that within an hour of the riot breaking out, the then-warden had authorized an emergency response team to retake Building C, in which rioters had seized control and taken prison staffers hostage, but the current governor John Carney — who took office a month before the riot and was not named in the lawsuit as a defendant — intervened to overrule that order, thus delaying a planned rescue. A spokesman for Carney denied that claim.
The settlement followed an unsuccessful attempt by lawyers for the state to persuade the presiding judge to dismiss the case, on the grounds the state workers’ interest in having a safe workplace did not rise to the level of a constitutionally protected right. They also claimed the complaint, if allowed to proceed, would impermissibly invite a jury to become involved in reviewing how public funds are allocated.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
In what may be the state’s largest-ever settlement of a civil lawsuit, on Dec. 15 a federal judge approved a settlement agreement between Delaware and survivors of a correctional officer killed last February during an inmate riot and takeover at a state prison, and five other corrections officers held by rioters during an 18-hour siege.
The settlement calls for the state to pay more than $7.5 million to the family of Sgt. Steven Floyd Sr. and to the other corrections workers held hostage at the maximum-security James T. Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna. The civil-rights lawsuit had named two former Democratic governors, Ruth Ann Minner and Jack Markell, as well as top state corrections and budget officials, claiming their years-long failure to provide staffing levels needed for workplace safety led to the inmates’ uprising that killed Sgt. Floyd and harmed the other staffers taken hostage. The complaint argued prison understaffing was the state’s official policy over a 16-year period, and defendant officials worked to hide from the state Legislature the hazards and costs of that policy, such as mandatory 16-hour shifts causing $23 million in annual overtime pay.
Other accusations in the prison workers’ lawsuit were that top officials skimped on training for prison staff and even ignored reports they themselves had commissioned that revealed serious security weaknesses and linked them to short-handed staffing and excessive use of overtime. It alleged understaffing and other neglect began when Minner became governor in 2001 – about 500,000 hours of overtime were recorded in her first year in office – but worsened substantially under Markell. By the end of Markell’s tenure, total annual overtime hours had risen to about 800,000, and staff working double shifts made up about 40 percent of total hours worked.
With many staff positions left unfilled and the workforce stretched thin by required overtime, the Department of Corrections abandoned its specialized security teams to perform random shakedowns and security sweeps to find and seize weapons and contraband at Vaughn, despite numerous reports from prison staff in the months leading up to the riot of tampering to equipment that removed many pieces of metal – obvious signs of homemade weapons being prepared. The lawsuit also noted evidence that, shortly before the February 2017 riot, inmates had been staging fights in Building C, seen in retrospect as “dry run” probing for weaknesses in security responses.
The complaint further alleged that within an hour of the riot breaking out, the then-warden had authorized an emergency response team to retake Building C, in which rioters had seized control and taken prison staffers hostage, but the current governor John Carney — who took office a month before the riot and was not named in the lawsuit as a defendant — intervened to overrule that order, thus delaying a planned rescue. A spokesman for Carney denied that claim.
The settlement followed an unsuccessful attempt by lawyers for the state to persuade the presiding judge to dismiss the case, on the grounds the state workers’ interest in having a safe workplace did not rise to the level of a constitutionally protected right. They also claimed the complaint, if allowed to proceed, would impermissibly invite a jury to become involved in reviewing how public funds are allocated.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
December 29, 2017
IndieReader’s Best Reviewed (Non-Fiction) Books of 2017
(Proud to announce that "Federal Prison Handbook" has been named one of the Best Reviewed Non-Fiction Books of 2017 by IndieReader!)
Every year readers are faced with “best of” book lists, from outlets ranging from The New York Times to NPR. And every year they all pretty much feature the same titles.
We’re not saying those books aren’t good, but really, is that all there is? What about the indie titles? The hot romances, off-beat memoirs, the cool science fiction, fantasy and YA—worlds created and envisioned by one person, the indie author?
So while you’re trying to unwind from the year that was 2017, consider checking out a few titles below. Then find a cozy chair, take a few cleansing breaths and try to relax, because who knows what 2018 has in store?
Presenting IndieReader’s annual list of our best reviewed non-fiction titles of 2017 (fiction titles were posted yesterday).
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...
Every year readers are faced with “best of” book lists, from outlets ranging from The New York Times to NPR. And every year they all pretty much feature the same titles.
We’re not saying those books aren’t good, but really, is that all there is? What about the indie titles? The hot romances, off-beat memoirs, the cool science fiction, fantasy and YA—worlds created and envisioned by one person, the indie author?
So while you’re trying to unwind from the year that was 2017, consider checking out a few titles below. Then find a cozy chair, take a few cleansing breaths and try to relax, because who knows what 2018 has in store?
Presenting IndieReader’s annual list of our best reviewed non-fiction titles of 2017 (fiction titles were posted yesterday).
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...
December 26, 2017
Executions, Death Penalty Verdicts Stay Near Record-Low Levels
By Christopher Zoukis
The year-end report for 2017, recently released by the Death Penalty Information Center, shows that the 23 executions carried out in 2017 remain near a record-low level.
During the last 25 years, only the 20 executions carried out in 2016 was lower. Similarly, the figure of 39 death-penalty sentences expected to be handed down by the end of the year in 2017 was the second-lowest recorded in the past 45 years, trailing only the 31 handed down in 2016.
The report also notes what it calls the “geographic isolation” of the modern death penalty. Of the 39 death sentences handed down in 2017, 12 of them came from just three western-state counties: Riverside County, California, with five; Clark County, Nevada, with four; and Maricopa County, Arizona, with three. The nation’s other 3,140 counties and parishes accounted for the remaining 27 death sentences in 2017, with no county producing more than a single instance.
On the other hand, Harris County, Texas – the county which has carried out more executions than any other since 1974 – in 2017, for the first time, neither executed any prisoner nor handed down a single death penalty. The states which performed the most executions in 2017 were Texas (seven), Arkansas (four), and Florida and Alabama (three apiece).
But while just 23 executions were carried out in 2017, 81 had been scheduled. The 58 executions that were scheduled but not carried out were due to additional legal appeals, reprieves or commutations, logistical problems (many states have difficulty procuring chemicals used for lethal injections), or for other reasons (for example, Ohio had to move to 2019 an execution it tried to carry out this November, when an elderly, infirm inmate was brought into the execution chamber, but corrections staff were unable to find a viable vein for the lethal injection).
Even states most likely to resort to the death penalty are finding new curbs on its use. In Texas, courts stayed seven scheduled corrections after the state revamped its laws on appeals to allow further judicial review of evidence used to convict that could be challenged as false and misleading. Due to court decisions, Florida judges can no longer issue death sentences unless the jury recommends so unanimously, and Alabama judges lost the ability to override a jury’s recommendation of a life sentence in capital cases.
In 2017, four death-row inmates were exonerated (in cases from Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, and Louisiana), raising the number of death-row inmate exonerations since 1973 to 160. Prosecutorial misconduct figured in several of the cases. For instance, in the Louisiana case, the African-American defendant won a retrial after being convicted of murdering his one-year-old son because an appeals court ruled the prosecutor wrongly blocked blacks from serving on the jury. On retrial, additional forensic evidence reinforced an autopsy conclusion that the child had died of natural causes. A prosecutor in the Arkansas case withheld evidence, and the Delaware prosecutor was later suspended for misbehavior during the later-exonerated inmate’s trial.
According to the Gallup Poll, public support for the death penalty also continues to drop. It fell to 55 percent this October, a 5 percent decline in a year, and the lowest level since 1972. Support fell by 10 percent among those polled who identified themselves as Republicans.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
The year-end report for 2017, recently released by the Death Penalty Information Center, shows that the 23 executions carried out in 2017 remain near a record-low level.
During the last 25 years, only the 20 executions carried out in 2016 was lower. Similarly, the figure of 39 death-penalty sentences expected to be handed down by the end of the year in 2017 was the second-lowest recorded in the past 45 years, trailing only the 31 handed down in 2016.
The report also notes what it calls the “geographic isolation” of the modern death penalty. Of the 39 death sentences handed down in 2017, 12 of them came from just three western-state counties: Riverside County, California, with five; Clark County, Nevada, with four; and Maricopa County, Arizona, with three. The nation’s other 3,140 counties and parishes accounted for the remaining 27 death sentences in 2017, with no county producing more than a single instance.
On the other hand, Harris County, Texas – the county which has carried out more executions than any other since 1974 – in 2017, for the first time, neither executed any prisoner nor handed down a single death penalty. The states which performed the most executions in 2017 were Texas (seven), Arkansas (four), and Florida and Alabama (three apiece).
But while just 23 executions were carried out in 2017, 81 had been scheduled. The 58 executions that were scheduled but not carried out were due to additional legal appeals, reprieves or commutations, logistical problems (many states have difficulty procuring chemicals used for lethal injections), or for other reasons (for example, Ohio had to move to 2019 an execution it tried to carry out this November, when an elderly, infirm inmate was brought into the execution chamber, but corrections staff were unable to find a viable vein for the lethal injection).
Even states most likely to resort to the death penalty are finding new curbs on its use. In Texas, courts stayed seven scheduled corrections after the state revamped its laws on appeals to allow further judicial review of evidence used to convict that could be challenged as false and misleading. Due to court decisions, Florida judges can no longer issue death sentences unless the jury recommends so unanimously, and Alabama judges lost the ability to override a jury’s recommendation of a life sentence in capital cases.
In 2017, four death-row inmates were exonerated (in cases from Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, and Louisiana), raising the number of death-row inmate exonerations since 1973 to 160. Prosecutorial misconduct figured in several of the cases. For instance, in the Louisiana case, the African-American defendant won a retrial after being convicted of murdering his one-year-old son because an appeals court ruled the prosecutor wrongly blocked blacks from serving on the jury. On retrial, additional forensic evidence reinforced an autopsy conclusion that the child had died of natural causes. A prosecutor in the Arkansas case withheld evidence, and the Delaware prosecutor was later suspended for misbehavior during the later-exonerated inmate’s trial.
According to the Gallup Poll, public support for the death penalty also continues to drop. It fell to 55 percent this October, a 5 percent decline in a year, and the lowest level since 1972. Support fell by 10 percent among those polled who identified themselves as Republicans.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
December 18, 2017
Proposed Bill Would Allow For New Sentencing Juries
By Christopher Zoukis
After an 11-1 jury split on the penalty for the inmate convicted of killing a guard at the federal penitentiary in Canaan, Pennsylvania, two House members want to give federal prosecutors the right to empanel a new jury to decide the proper sentence, if the original jury cannot reach a unanimous decision.
On Nov. 30, Reps. Tom Marino and Lou Barletta, both Pennsylvania Republicans, introduced a bill (H.R. 4493) they call “Eric’s Law,” honoring the federal prison officer slain in February 2013 by inmate Jessie “Chino” Con-ui. The killer was already serving an 11-year sentence for gang-related drug trafficking in Arizona, and after that term expired, he faced a life sentence for murdering a gang rival in Phoenix.
The murder of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officer was especially vicious. Jurors watched an 11-minute security tape showing Con-ui kicking Eric Williams down a set of metal stairs, then stabbing him over 200 times with a pair of shanks, stomping and kicking him repeatedly in the face and head, and smashing his head against the floor. A co-worker testified that when he saw Williams’s corpse, he couldn’t recognize him.
At the trial, the killer admitted the crime, and his court-appointed defense counsel’s opening statement conceded Con-ui was “guilty of murder beyond all doubt.” The defense offered no witnesses during the trial’s guilt phase, instead concentrating on fighting a death sentence during the penalty phase. It took the jury only 30 minutes to convict Con-ui unanimously on two murder counts — in addition to killing Williams, he was also found guilty on a separate charge of murdering an on-duty federal law enforcement officer.
But after the penalty phase, throughout five hours of deliberations, all but one member of the jury backed a death sentence; the lone holdout told other jurors her son was in prison and she sympathized with Con-ui’s mother. One juror told reporters the holdout said she still “saw good in Jessie,” and so refused to impose the death penalty. Without unanimity, Con-ui received a life sentence. Federal corrections officers said they feared Con-ui might kill again if not executed.
The bill’s Congressional sponsors say it would give federal prosecutors the option, when a jury failed to reach unanimity on the penalty, to move to have another jury appointed, to hear a repeat of the sentencing phase of the trial. Prosecutors wouldn’t have to ask for a second jury to reconsider the penalty, but the trial judge would have to grant such a request if it were made. If the second jury also failed to reach a unanimous decision, the defendant would receive a life sentence, or another sentence falling short of capital punishment.
Sponsors claim this would to prevent a single juror from being to wield a veto over an entire jury. They note at least three states (Arizona, California and Kentucky) already give prosecutors the option to retry the penalty phase of a trial with a new jury when the first fails to reach a unanimous sentencing verdict. In 2016, Congress passed and President Obama signed the “Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act,” directing BOP to routinely issue pepper spray to officers and employees who might be called to respond to emergencies in prisons above minimum or low security.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
After an 11-1 jury split on the penalty for the inmate convicted of killing a guard at the federal penitentiary in Canaan, Pennsylvania, two House members want to give federal prosecutors the right to empanel a new jury to decide the proper sentence, if the original jury cannot reach a unanimous decision.
On Nov. 30, Reps. Tom Marino and Lou Barletta, both Pennsylvania Republicans, introduced a bill (H.R. 4493) they call “Eric’s Law,” honoring the federal prison officer slain in February 2013 by inmate Jessie “Chino” Con-ui. The killer was already serving an 11-year sentence for gang-related drug trafficking in Arizona, and after that term expired, he faced a life sentence for murdering a gang rival in Phoenix.
The murder of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officer was especially vicious. Jurors watched an 11-minute security tape showing Con-ui kicking Eric Williams down a set of metal stairs, then stabbing him over 200 times with a pair of shanks, stomping and kicking him repeatedly in the face and head, and smashing his head against the floor. A co-worker testified that when he saw Williams’s corpse, he couldn’t recognize him.
At the trial, the killer admitted the crime, and his court-appointed defense counsel’s opening statement conceded Con-ui was “guilty of murder beyond all doubt.” The defense offered no witnesses during the trial’s guilt phase, instead concentrating on fighting a death sentence during the penalty phase. It took the jury only 30 minutes to convict Con-ui unanimously on two murder counts — in addition to killing Williams, he was also found guilty on a separate charge of murdering an on-duty federal law enforcement officer.
But after the penalty phase, throughout five hours of deliberations, all but one member of the jury backed a death sentence; the lone holdout told other jurors her son was in prison and she sympathized with Con-ui’s mother. One juror told reporters the holdout said she still “saw good in Jessie,” and so refused to impose the death penalty. Without unanimity, Con-ui received a life sentence. Federal corrections officers said they feared Con-ui might kill again if not executed.
The bill’s Congressional sponsors say it would give federal prosecutors the option, when a jury failed to reach unanimity on the penalty, to move to have another jury appointed, to hear a repeat of the sentencing phase of the trial. Prosecutors wouldn’t have to ask for a second jury to reconsider the penalty, but the trial judge would have to grant such a request if it were made. If the second jury also failed to reach a unanimous decision, the defendant would receive a life sentence, or another sentence falling short of capital punishment.
Sponsors claim this would to prevent a single juror from being to wield a veto over an entire jury. They note at least three states (Arizona, California and Kentucky) already give prosecutors the option to retry the penalty phase of a trial with a new jury when the first fails to reach a unanimous sentencing verdict. In 2016, Congress passed and President Obama signed the “Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act,” directing BOP to routinely issue pepper spray to officers and employees who might be called to respond to emergencies in prisons above minimum or low security.
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
December 11, 2017
DOJ Inspector General Outlines Challenges for Federal Prisons
By Christopher Zoukis
As has been done annually since 1998, in October, the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general released a list of what he sees as the leading management and performance challenges confronting the agency in the year ahead. One of the eight areas identified by Inspector General Michael Horowitz was summarized as “Managing an Overcrowded Federal Prison System in an Era of Declining Resources.”
Although the federal inmate population has in fact declined in recent years, the report notes, federal prisons remain 14 percent above their rated capacity; overcrowding is even worse (25 percent) in high-security facilities. The report also notes that projections by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) foresee an approximately 2 percent inmate population increase during the fiscal year 2018 (which began this October); the increase will be due, the report says, to DOJ’s “increased enforcement and prosecution efforts.”
Aging facilities and inmates will also present management challenges, the report adds, especially considering increasing competition for DOJ resources from other identified priorities, such as protecting national security while safeguarding privacy and civil liberties, and attracting skilled professionals to DOJ positions. It also notes the federal prison system has, over the past two decades, “taken an ever-larger share” of DOJ’s overall budget, but remains overcrowded.
Noting the agency’s reversal of an Obama-administration decision to phase out use of privately-run prisons for federal inmates, the inspector general’s report cites several audit results of private prisons with which BOP had contracted as evidence DOJ and BOP both face challenges in supervising such facilities to ensure they meet contracted-for levels of security, staffing and programs. It also notes BOP’s cancellation of appropriated funds for a new prison planned for Kentucky as an example of the type of “tough budget choice” it will face.
While BOP has a $542 million backlog of repair and modernization projects (a 58 percent increase in four years), the report cautions that unplanned emergency repairs – due to events such as tornadoes and the past year’s virulent hurricane season – may affect the agency’s ability to make inroads on the backlog.
Another prison system-related challenge for the year ahead identified by the report is the potential impact that may be felt due to DOJ immigration enforcement and sentencing policies. Last April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced federal prosecutors will be encouraged to charge the most serious, readily provable offense for immigration-related offenses, and prosecutors also received a similar, even broader such mandate the following month. Since that translate into greater charges of crimes bringing mandatory minimum sentences, DOJ needs to carefully monitor the practical effects of these policies, as well as evaluate the availability and cost of detention facilities, especially those housing foreign detainees.
Finally, DOJ needs to increase its evaluation of how well programs designed to reduce inmate population and recidivism work in practice. The report notes DOJ hasn’t acted on an IG recommendation in May 2015 to consider greater use of compassionate relief, and international transfers of non-native inmates fell this year.
It also cites several earlier reports on BOP oversight lapses on residential re-entry centers, and says DOJ could benefit by working on measuring the outcomes from sentencing alternatives such as pretrial diversion programs, as well as their impact on the costs of prosecution and incarceration, and any related recidivism effects.
About Christopher Zoukis
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
As has been done annually since 1998, in October, the Department of Justice (DOJ) inspector general released a list of what he sees as the leading management and performance challenges confronting the agency in the year ahead. One of the eight areas identified by Inspector General Michael Horowitz was summarized as “Managing an Overcrowded Federal Prison System in an Era of Declining Resources.”
Although the federal inmate population has in fact declined in recent years, the report notes, federal prisons remain 14 percent above their rated capacity; overcrowding is even worse (25 percent) in high-security facilities. The report also notes that projections by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) foresee an approximately 2 percent inmate population increase during the fiscal year 2018 (which began this October); the increase will be due, the report says, to DOJ’s “increased enforcement and prosecution efforts.”
Aging facilities and inmates will also present management challenges, the report adds, especially considering increasing competition for DOJ resources from other identified priorities, such as protecting national security while safeguarding privacy and civil liberties, and attracting skilled professionals to DOJ positions. It also notes the federal prison system has, over the past two decades, “taken an ever-larger share” of DOJ’s overall budget, but remains overcrowded.
Noting the agency’s reversal of an Obama-administration decision to phase out use of privately-run prisons for federal inmates, the inspector general’s report cites several audit results of private prisons with which BOP had contracted as evidence DOJ and BOP both face challenges in supervising such facilities to ensure they meet contracted-for levels of security, staffing and programs. It also notes BOP’s cancellation of appropriated funds for a new prison planned for Kentucky as an example of the type of “tough budget choice” it will face.
While BOP has a $542 million backlog of repair and modernization projects (a 58 percent increase in four years), the report cautions that unplanned emergency repairs – due to events such as tornadoes and the past year’s virulent hurricane season – may affect the agency’s ability to make inroads on the backlog.
Another prison system-related challenge for the year ahead identified by the report is the potential impact that may be felt due to DOJ immigration enforcement and sentencing policies. Last April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced federal prosecutors will be encouraged to charge the most serious, readily provable offense for immigration-related offenses, and prosecutors also received a similar, even broader such mandate the following month. Since that translate into greater charges of crimes bringing mandatory minimum sentences, DOJ needs to carefully monitor the practical effects of these policies, as well as evaluate the availability and cost of detention facilities, especially those housing foreign detainees.
Finally, DOJ needs to increase its evaluation of how well programs designed to reduce inmate population and recidivism work in practice. The report notes DOJ hasn’t acted on an IG recommendation in May 2015 to consider greater use of compassionate relief, and international transfers of non-native inmates fell this year.
It also cites several earlier reports on BOP oversight lapses on residential re-entry centers, and says DOJ could benefit by working on measuring the outcomes from sentencing alternatives such as pretrial diversion programs, as well as their impact on the costs of prosecution and incarceration, and any related recidivism effects.
About Christopher Zoukis
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
December 3, 2017
ABA Continues to Campaign for Bail Reform
By Christopher Zoukis
The American Bar Association (ABA) has declared war on the cash bail bond system, which it sees as crowding the nation’s jails with people who have not been convicted of a crime, but because—despite their constitutional presumption of innocence—they are too poor to come up with bail payments to guarantee they’ll appear for trial.
The ABA claims pre-trial detentions cost state and local governments $14 billion annually and account for about one-third of their prisoners. Not only does this subject a defendant to the dangers and disadvantages of incarceration—including family disruption, loss of income, potential loss of employment, housing and more—but it may also coerce innocent defendants to plead guilty. Further, the ABA argues, bail money systems don’t improve the chances a defendant will show up or bring any other public benefit.
When the ABA House of Delegates met for its annual meeting in August, it adopted several resolutions calling for bail reform. The farthest-reaching of those calls on state and local governments to set procedures favoring pre-trial release on personal recognizance bonds or unsecured bonds, and to allow cash bonds only if the court finds that’s the only way to ensure the defendant’s appearance to answer charges.
This ABA resolution also proclaims pre-trial detention should never be the sole result of a defendant’s inability to pay, and would ban use of fixed-bail schedules, which set bail based only on the nature of the defense, without considering the individual defendant’s characteristics. Defendants could be held pre-trial without bail only if public safety requires, and no conditions of pre-trial release could ensure the defendant’s appearance for trial and protect the interests of justice, such as preventing intimidation of, or harm to, witnesses.
The lawyers’ group also cleared another resolution focused on juvenile courts, calling for an end to bail and bond procedures and adoption of objective standards setting the least restrictive conditions for pre-trial release, unless the court determines imposing a cash bond is the only way to ensure a juvenile defendant’s appearance in court.
Beyond supporting state and local bail-reform legislation, the ABA has also filed amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs to advance its positions in cases in federal appellate courts based in New Orleans, Cincinnati and Atlanta. In these briefs, the group claims that court systems that deprive defendants of liberty based on their ability to pay unconstitutionally violate due process and equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment.
The group also supports bills introduced in each chamber of the Congress to discourage state and local courts’ use of bail bonds. A Senate bill (S. 1593, offered by Sens. Rand Paul, R-KY and Kamala Harris, D-CA), would authorize creation of a $10 billion, three-year program at the Department of Justice (DOJ), for grants to state bail-reform programs. Participating states could tailor such programs to their own needs, but would have to monitor them, collect data and ensure they were non-discriminatory.
A House bill (HR 1437), sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-CA, and others, would bar some current DOJ grants to states which make money payments a condition of pre-trial release. It would also bar bail money requirements for release on federal criminal charges.
About Christopher Zoukis
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
The American Bar Association (ABA) has declared war on the cash bail bond system, which it sees as crowding the nation’s jails with people who have not been convicted of a crime, but because—despite their constitutional presumption of innocence—they are too poor to come up with bail payments to guarantee they’ll appear for trial.
The ABA claims pre-trial detentions cost state and local governments $14 billion annually and account for about one-third of their prisoners. Not only does this subject a defendant to the dangers and disadvantages of incarceration—including family disruption, loss of income, potential loss of employment, housing and more—but it may also coerce innocent defendants to plead guilty. Further, the ABA argues, bail money systems don’t improve the chances a defendant will show up or bring any other public benefit.
When the ABA House of Delegates met for its annual meeting in August, it adopted several resolutions calling for bail reform. The farthest-reaching of those calls on state and local governments to set procedures favoring pre-trial release on personal recognizance bonds or unsecured bonds, and to allow cash bonds only if the court finds that’s the only way to ensure the defendant’s appearance to answer charges.
This ABA resolution also proclaims pre-trial detention should never be the sole result of a defendant’s inability to pay, and would ban use of fixed-bail schedules, which set bail based only on the nature of the defense, without considering the individual defendant’s characteristics. Defendants could be held pre-trial without bail only if public safety requires, and no conditions of pre-trial release could ensure the defendant’s appearance for trial and protect the interests of justice, such as preventing intimidation of, or harm to, witnesses.
The lawyers’ group also cleared another resolution focused on juvenile courts, calling for an end to bail and bond procedures and adoption of objective standards setting the least restrictive conditions for pre-trial release, unless the court determines imposing a cash bond is the only way to ensure a juvenile defendant’s appearance in court.
Beyond supporting state and local bail-reform legislation, the ABA has also filed amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs to advance its positions in cases in federal appellate courts based in New Orleans, Cincinnati and Atlanta. In these briefs, the group claims that court systems that deprive defendants of liberty based on their ability to pay unconstitutionally violate due process and equal protection rights under the 14th Amendment.
The group also supports bills introduced in each chamber of the Congress to discourage state and local courts’ use of bail bonds. A Senate bill (S. 1593, offered by Sens. Rand Paul, R-KY and Kamala Harris, D-CA), would authorize creation of a $10 billion, three-year program at the Department of Justice (DOJ), for grants to state bail-reform programs. Participating states could tailor such programs to their own needs, but would have to monitor them, collect data and ensure they were non-discriminatory.
A House bill (HR 1437), sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-CA, and others, would bar some current DOJ grants to states which make money payments a condition of pre-trial release. It would also bar bail money requirements for release on federal criminal charges.
About Christopher Zoukis
Christopher Zoukis is an outspoken prisoner rights and correctional education advocate who is incarcerated at FCI Petersburg Medium in Virginia. He is an award-winning writer whose work has been published widely in major publications such as The Huffington Post, Prison Legal News, New York Daily News and various other print and online publications. Learn more about Christopher Zoukis at christopherzoukis.com and prisoneducation.com.
November 27, 2017
Early Release for 1,900 Louisiana Prisoners Concerns Law Enforcement
By Christopher Zoukis
New legislation passed in Louisiana led to 1,900 prisoners being released in early November. The aim of the legislation is to lower the state's incarceration rate — the highest in the country — and to give nonviolent prisoners a new chance at life on the outside. But not everyone is happy with this new development. Winn Parish Sheriff Cranford Jordan says that a lack of prisoner education programs in Louisiana means the sudden influx of former inmates into society will create a huge burden on the system.
The new legislation sees nonviolent offenders eligible for release once they have served 35 percent of their sentence. Upon release they will be monitored. But unlike other states, such as Texas, Louisiana does not have a pre-release rehabilitation process in place.
Looking to Texas, Jordan says, "Prior to releasing the inmates [Texas] had programs in place to train and to assist them. I don't see any of those programs in Louisiana. [The legislators] are just in a hurry and a rush to get [our prisoners] out. It's going to add an additional burden to law enforcement, releasing so many in such short a time. It's going to put a strain on local law enforcement to do our job properly.”
While the reformed legislation aims to reduce the state’s prison population by 10 percent over the next 10 years, most of the inmates being released are entering society with little education and very few job skills. This could easily result in a high likelihood of recidivism.
Walt Leger, a democrat, a sponsor of the new legislation, and the Louisiana state representative stated the state has "an incredibly high recidivism rate. One of the biggest challenges we have is successful re-entry.”
Louisiana's incarceration numbers are shocking. According to a 2009 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 1 in 26 adults in the state are incarcerated. This is higher than the national average of 1 in 31. As of 2013, the state was also the fifth highest for its violent crime rate and the third highest for its poverty rate. Violent crimes and poverty have been linked to a lack of education – and it shows in the statistics. Louisiana is also ranked as the fourth lowest state for adults obtaining a high school diploma. These are underlying reasons for the highest incarceration rate in America.
With statistics like that, it is easy to see why a sudden influx of offenders, nonviolent or not, is a primary concern for law enforcement, especially when those offenders have not had access to rehabilitation and education programs.
However, there may be a silver lining down the road.
The new legislation also calls for programs to help newly released inmates to stay out of jail, and the need for upgraded resources in the state's prisons has also been acknowledged. The early release program will save Louisiana $262 million over the next 10 years, and 70 percent of those savings is earmarked for prisoner training and rehabilitation programs.
While the initial solution of a mass release of prisoners is not ideal, it's clear solutions must be found to curb the burgeoning prisoner population in Louisiana. Time will tell if the situation is tough on the streets of Louisiana for a while, but looking to the long-term benefits of the money freed up for prisoner education and re-entry, the future looks a tiny bit brighter in this struggling state.
This article first appeared on Blogcritics.com.
Christopher Zoukis is the author of Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons, College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons (McFarland & Co., 2014) and Prison Education Guide (Prison Legal News Publishing, 2016). He can be found online at ChristopherZoukis.com, PrisonEducation.com and PrisonLawBlog.com.
New legislation passed in Louisiana led to 1,900 prisoners being released in early November. The aim of the legislation is to lower the state's incarceration rate — the highest in the country — and to give nonviolent prisoners a new chance at life on the outside. But not everyone is happy with this new development. Winn Parish Sheriff Cranford Jordan says that a lack of prisoner education programs in Louisiana means the sudden influx of former inmates into society will create a huge burden on the system.
The new legislation sees nonviolent offenders eligible for release once they have served 35 percent of their sentence. Upon release they will be monitored. But unlike other states, such as Texas, Louisiana does not have a pre-release rehabilitation process in place.
Looking to Texas, Jordan says, "Prior to releasing the inmates [Texas] had programs in place to train and to assist them. I don't see any of those programs in Louisiana. [The legislators] are just in a hurry and a rush to get [our prisoners] out. It's going to add an additional burden to law enforcement, releasing so many in such short a time. It's going to put a strain on local law enforcement to do our job properly.”
While the reformed legislation aims to reduce the state’s prison population by 10 percent over the next 10 years, most of the inmates being released are entering society with little education and very few job skills. This could easily result in a high likelihood of recidivism.
Walt Leger, a democrat, a sponsor of the new legislation, and the Louisiana state representative stated the state has "an incredibly high recidivism rate. One of the biggest challenges we have is successful re-entry.”
Louisiana's incarceration numbers are shocking. According to a 2009 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 1 in 26 adults in the state are incarcerated. This is higher than the national average of 1 in 31. As of 2013, the state was also the fifth highest for its violent crime rate and the third highest for its poverty rate. Violent crimes and poverty have been linked to a lack of education – and it shows in the statistics. Louisiana is also ranked as the fourth lowest state for adults obtaining a high school diploma. These are underlying reasons for the highest incarceration rate in America.
With statistics like that, it is easy to see why a sudden influx of offenders, nonviolent or not, is a primary concern for law enforcement, especially when those offenders have not had access to rehabilitation and education programs.
However, there may be a silver lining down the road.
The new legislation also calls for programs to help newly released inmates to stay out of jail, and the need for upgraded resources in the state's prisons has also been acknowledged. The early release program will save Louisiana $262 million over the next 10 years, and 70 percent of those savings is earmarked for prisoner training and rehabilitation programs.
While the initial solution of a mass release of prisoners is not ideal, it's clear solutions must be found to curb the burgeoning prisoner population in Louisiana. Time will tell if the situation is tough on the streets of Louisiana for a while, but looking to the long-term benefits of the money freed up for prisoner education and re-entry, the future looks a tiny bit brighter in this struggling state.
This article first appeared on Blogcritics.com.
Christopher Zoukis is the author of Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons, College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons (McFarland & Co., 2014) and Prison Education Guide (Prison Legal News Publishing, 2016). He can be found online at ChristopherZoukis.com, PrisonEducation.com and PrisonLawBlog.com.
