Christopher Zoukis's Blog, page 5
November 20, 2017
Shon Hopwood: From Bank Robber to Georgetown Law Professor
By Christopher Zoukis
The Georgetown University Law Center (GULC), rated among the nation’s top law schools, draws its faculty from many sources: academia, law firms, and top lawyers in government agencies. But its most recent hire, Associate Professor Shon Hopwood, doesn’t fit that pattern. As reported by CBS News’ 60 Minutes program in October, before coming to teach criminal law at GULC, the federal institution where Hopwood was most at home wasn’t a federal court or an executive office at the Justice Department (though many other GULC faculty members have those credentials), but the cells of a federal prison in Pekin, Illinois.
Now 42, Hopwood grew up in a small Nebraska town. An indifferent student, he soon dropped out of college and indulged heavily in alcohol (drugs would come later). After two undistinguished years in the Navy, in his early 20s, living with his parents and working in a cattle feedlot, he went along with a friend’s suggestion that robbing rural banks in towns too small to have their own police forces might be an easy way to obtain money with minimal risk.
But 10 months into that criminal career, the FBI apprehended him and his accomplices; winning convictions wasn’t much of a challenge for prosecutors, since the amateurs had stashed in their car about $100,000 of the approximately $200,000 taken in their five holdups, plus the guns they had brandished but not used. At age 23, after pleading guilty, Hopwood entered prison in May 1999 as Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate #15632-047.
Assigned to work in the prison library, Hopwood became fascinated with the law and read voraciously. He became known within the prison population as a “jailhouse lawyer,” a good source of advice and assistance on legal issues. That reputation moved to a life-altering new level three years later, when he researched and drafted for another inmate a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court’s unfavorable decision.
The odds of persuading the Supreme Court to hear such an appeal that year were about one in a thousand. The filing Hopwood authored so impressed Seth Waxman, a former U.S. solicitor general who argued the inmate’s case (Fellers v. US) pro bono before the high court, that he insisted Hopwood work with him on the appeal (they scored a unanimous win). A few years later, lightning struck again, as the Supreme Court opted to hear another Hopwood-drafted appeal. While still a federal prisoner in Illinois, he also drafted winning conviction appeals and sentence reduction petitions in other states.
Upon his release in 2008, a recommendation from Waxman helped Hopwood to win a job with a legal printing firm, advising lawyers on how to frame Supreme Court filings (during the same period he finished the college degree he began while incarcerated). The University of Washington law school took a chance on this unusual applicant, and a strong record there helped him pass the bar exam and win approval to practice law.
He next clerked for a federal appellate judge, won a fellowship at GULC running a criminal appeals clinic, and this April accepted a full-time faculty position. Besides teaching, with Michael Santos, another former inmate turned educator and advocate, he operates Prison Professors, a consulting service for federal criminal defendants seeking to mitigate their sentences and to prepare for a term of incarceration, as well as current inmates who require assistance with issues of prison life and policy.
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 Georgetown University Law Center (GULC), rated among the nation’s top law schools, draws its faculty from many sources: academia, law firms, and top lawyers in government agencies. But its most recent hire, Associate Professor Shon Hopwood, doesn’t fit that pattern. As reported by CBS News’ 60 Minutes program in October, before coming to teach criminal law at GULC, the federal institution where Hopwood was most at home wasn’t a federal court or an executive office at the Justice Department (though many other GULC faculty members have those credentials), but the cells of a federal prison in Pekin, Illinois.
Now 42, Hopwood grew up in a small Nebraska town. An indifferent student, he soon dropped out of college and indulged heavily in alcohol (drugs would come later). After two undistinguished years in the Navy, in his early 20s, living with his parents and working in a cattle feedlot, he went along with a friend’s suggestion that robbing rural banks in towns too small to have their own police forces might be an easy way to obtain money with minimal risk.
But 10 months into that criminal career, the FBI apprehended him and his accomplices; winning convictions wasn’t much of a challenge for prosecutors, since the amateurs had stashed in their car about $100,000 of the approximately $200,000 taken in their five holdups, plus the guns they had brandished but not used. At age 23, after pleading guilty, Hopwood entered prison in May 1999 as Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate #15632-047.
Assigned to work in the prison library, Hopwood became fascinated with the law and read voraciously. He became known within the prison population as a “jailhouse lawyer,” a good source of advice and assistance on legal issues. That reputation moved to a life-altering new level three years later, when he researched and drafted for another inmate a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court’s unfavorable decision.
The odds of persuading the Supreme Court to hear such an appeal that year were about one in a thousand. The filing Hopwood authored so impressed Seth Waxman, a former U.S. solicitor general who argued the inmate’s case (Fellers v. US) pro bono before the high court, that he insisted Hopwood work with him on the appeal (they scored a unanimous win). A few years later, lightning struck again, as the Supreme Court opted to hear another Hopwood-drafted appeal. While still a federal prisoner in Illinois, he also drafted winning conviction appeals and sentence reduction petitions in other states.
Upon his release in 2008, a recommendation from Waxman helped Hopwood to win a job with a legal printing firm, advising lawyers on how to frame Supreme Court filings (during the same period he finished the college degree he began while incarcerated). The University of Washington law school took a chance on this unusual applicant, and a strong record there helped him pass the bar exam and win approval to practice law.
He next clerked for a federal appellate judge, won a fellowship at GULC running a criminal appeals clinic, and this April accepted a full-time faculty position. Besides teaching, with Michael Santos, another former inmate turned educator and advocate, he operates Prison Professors, a consulting service for federal criminal defendants seeking to mitigate their sentences and to prepare for a term of incarceration, as well as current inmates who require assistance with issues of prison life and policy.
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 8, 2017
Washington State Names Former Inmate to Head Its Reentry Council
By Christopher Zoukis
Although it has a relatively low incarceration rates, Washington State still saw nearly a third of inmates released from its prisons in 2012 wind up re-incarcerated within the next three years, according to state corrections officials. For juvenile recidivism, the rate was even higher: among youths released in 2013, more than half (53%) had re-offended within the next 18 months.
To combat recidivism, the state legislature created a 15-member council in spring 2016, intended to find ways to ease inmates’ reentry into society. The Statewide Reentry Council was to study and make policy recommendations on a wide variety of issues, not just corrections and juvenile rehabilitation matters, but also housing, employment, education and other related areas.
The legislation directed Gov. Jay Inslee to appoint a wide-ranging group of council members, with representatives from law enforcement and corrections agencies, prosecutors and public defenders, community and technical colleges, crime victims, faith groups, employers, community leaders, an authority on tribal matters, and at least two members with experience reentering society after having been incarcerated.
On Oct. 19, the state announced its choice for the Council’s first full-time executive director: Christopher Poulos, a former adjunct professor of criminal law at the University of North Texas, who also ran a drug rehabilitation facility there. While a cum laude law student in his home state of Maine, he won appointments to posts with the Sentencing Project and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
As significant factors as those experiences may have been, Poulos also speaks freely about some even earlier ones shaping his life: homelessness, drug addiction, a felony conviction for cocaine trafficking, and serving nearly three years in the federal prison system. Growing up in Portland, Maine the child of a single mother, he was put on Ritalin for an attention-deficit disorder, and soon began abusing that prescription, plus the increasingly powerful drugs he was prescribed, along with alcohol and other drugs.
When his mother kicked him out of the house before he finished high school, the then-homeless youth’s substance abuse expanded to include opiates and cocaine, and he turned to dealing drugs to support his habit. Eventually, he ran afoul of the DEA, was convicted in 2008 of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and became Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate #04989–036.
He entered a drug rehabilitation program before being sent to prison, and while incarcerated took up his studies more seriously and began teaching other inmates.
After spending 33 months in several prisons, followed by a halfway house, he was released, and began pursuing what he at the time regarded as the “delusional” dream of getting into law school.
That dream was nearly dashed after approaching the University of Maine Law School in 2012 with the idea of applying. A frank discussion with the school’s former dean, Peter Pitegoff, left Poulos deflated after it was explained to him that even if he graduated with a law degree, gaining admission to the state bar would be a challenge due to his felony conviction. But Poulos persevered, gained admission, and graduated last year. He still faced one final obstacle: his admission to the Maine Bar would entail a 10-month process of debate and two hearings. In the end, the Maine Board of Bar Examiners voted 5–1 in his favor.
His new job heading Washington’s Statewide Reentry Council, Poulos says, is just about his ideal. With his firsthand experience of overcoming addiction, he sees the value of expanding drug and alcohol treatment in correctional facilities. Recalling his frustration when, having won a coveted fellowship and a White House internship in Washington, DC, he still couldn’t find an apartment that would rent to an ex-felon, he looks forward to working to remove barriers to getting former inmates back into a productive life in society, and to make incarceration rehabilitative in fact, not just in name.
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.
Although it has a relatively low incarceration rates, Washington State still saw nearly a third of inmates released from its prisons in 2012 wind up re-incarcerated within the next three years, according to state corrections officials. For juvenile recidivism, the rate was even higher: among youths released in 2013, more than half (53%) had re-offended within the next 18 months.
To combat recidivism, the state legislature created a 15-member council in spring 2016, intended to find ways to ease inmates’ reentry into society. The Statewide Reentry Council was to study and make policy recommendations on a wide variety of issues, not just corrections and juvenile rehabilitation matters, but also housing, employment, education and other related areas.
The legislation directed Gov. Jay Inslee to appoint a wide-ranging group of council members, with representatives from law enforcement and corrections agencies, prosecutors and public defenders, community and technical colleges, crime victims, faith groups, employers, community leaders, an authority on tribal matters, and at least two members with experience reentering society after having been incarcerated.
On Oct. 19, the state announced its choice for the Council’s first full-time executive director: Christopher Poulos, a former adjunct professor of criminal law at the University of North Texas, who also ran a drug rehabilitation facility there. While a cum laude law student in his home state of Maine, he won appointments to posts with the Sentencing Project and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
As significant factors as those experiences may have been, Poulos also speaks freely about some even earlier ones shaping his life: homelessness, drug addiction, a felony conviction for cocaine trafficking, and serving nearly three years in the federal prison system. Growing up in Portland, Maine the child of a single mother, he was put on Ritalin for an attention-deficit disorder, and soon began abusing that prescription, plus the increasingly powerful drugs he was prescribed, along with alcohol and other drugs.
When his mother kicked him out of the house before he finished high school, the then-homeless youth’s substance abuse expanded to include opiates and cocaine, and he turned to dealing drugs to support his habit. Eventually, he ran afoul of the DEA, was convicted in 2008 of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, and became Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate #04989–036.
He entered a drug rehabilitation program before being sent to prison, and while incarcerated took up his studies more seriously and began teaching other inmates.
After spending 33 months in several prisons, followed by a halfway house, he was released, and began pursuing what he at the time regarded as the “delusional” dream of getting into law school.
That dream was nearly dashed after approaching the University of Maine Law School in 2012 with the idea of applying. A frank discussion with the school’s former dean, Peter Pitegoff, left Poulos deflated after it was explained to him that even if he graduated with a law degree, gaining admission to the state bar would be a challenge due to his felony conviction. But Poulos persevered, gained admission, and graduated last year. He still faced one final obstacle: his admission to the Maine Bar would entail a 10-month process of debate and two hearings. In the end, the Maine Board of Bar Examiners voted 5–1 in his favor.
His new job heading Washington’s Statewide Reentry Council, Poulos says, is just about his ideal. With his firsthand experience of overcoming addiction, he sees the value of expanding drug and alcohol treatment in correctional facilities. Recalling his frustration when, having won a coveted fellowship and a White House internship in Washington, DC, he still couldn’t find an apartment that would rent to an ex-felon, he looks forward to working to remove barriers to getting former inmates back into a productive life in society, and to make incarceration rehabilitative in fact, not just in name.
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 3, 2017
Mississippi Prisons Scrap RID For Cognitive Therapy Program
by Christopher Zoukis
When the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) relied on a pre-release program that was steeped in military-style practices, it failed inmates miserably.
"(We found that) people who go through (that program) actually do worse than people that didn't go through, so we realized that while there were a lot of individuals who had success—they were the outliers," said Dr. Kirby Arinder, a methodologist from the Legislature's non-partisan PEER Committee, in talking about MDOC’s former Regimented Inmate Discipline (RID) program. Once carefully scrutinized, RID showed it had a negative effect on recidivism.
RID had boot camp-style training and military discipline measures. When recidivism statistics were compared between Mississippi’s RID participants and the state, RID inmates reoffended 42 percent of the time compared to the state’s 37 percent.
MDOC has now scrapped RID in favor of Thinking for a Change, a 13-week pre-release therapy-style program that has small groups of inmates coming together to discuss a variety of topics and their emotions, and learning to pause and think before making decisions.
Currently, Thinking for a Change is offered at Mississippi’s State Penitentiary at Parchman, South Mississippi Correctional Institution, Hinds County Probation and Parole Office, and the Hinds County Restitution Center. It will soon be available at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County as well.
MDOC inmates that have 6 to 12 months before they are released are provided with life, job and financial management skills, in addition to assistance with finding employment. Thinking for a Change adds a cognitive element to the pre-release program, and teaches inmates how to make better decisions.
"You know how you'll be in the streets and you'll be in a group of fellas who want to do something bad or illegal... that's the type of class it was, it taught us to stop and think before we act,” said Desmond Brown, a former inmate from Hinds County in an interview with the Jackson Free Press.
Brown's statement begs the question—how is this the first time most of the inmates are learning about empathy, compassion, communication and cognitive reasoning?
It's important to remember that the average U.S. inmate is more likely to be from a disenfranchised and underserved community. Americans with low socio-economic status are greatly overrepresented in the prison system. The school-to-prison pipeline, along with racial tensions, play into this problem. Many youth that enter the prison system are still tangled up in it when they hit middle age, after being handed long sentences, or through the cycle of recidivism.
This means the average inmate is not an upper-class Caucasian who comes from a "good home" and has enjoyed access to a well-adjusted peer groups, confidence and social skill-building extracurricular activities and schools where gang activity, drugs and other crises were not an issue. When an individual's early life is about survival, they have little time to build up skills such as patience, reliability and communication that are necessary for holding down a job, staying out of jail and making good decisions. Many Americans are, sadly, products of their environments, and many start from a place where their futures are more likely to involve incarceration than good jobs and opportunities.
Cognitive thinking is a skill, and it’s a learned one. Treating inmates with regimented programs like RID do nothing to foster cognitive development, but only serve to reinforce negative thoughts about authority and social interaction.
Thinking for a Change is a step in the right direction in the way inmates are prepared for release. Imparting job training and financial skills is important, too, but if people can’t self-regulate their thoughts and emotions or communicate effectively, they are much more likely to reoffend. Let's hope programs like Thinking for a Change become the norm in the nation's prison system.
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.
When the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) relied on a pre-release program that was steeped in military-style practices, it failed inmates miserably.
"(We found that) people who go through (that program) actually do worse than people that didn't go through, so we realized that while there were a lot of individuals who had success—they were the outliers," said Dr. Kirby Arinder, a methodologist from the Legislature's non-partisan PEER Committee, in talking about MDOC’s former Regimented Inmate Discipline (RID) program. Once carefully scrutinized, RID showed it had a negative effect on recidivism.
RID had boot camp-style training and military discipline measures. When recidivism statistics were compared between Mississippi’s RID participants and the state, RID inmates reoffended 42 percent of the time compared to the state’s 37 percent.
MDOC has now scrapped RID in favor of Thinking for a Change, a 13-week pre-release therapy-style program that has small groups of inmates coming together to discuss a variety of topics and their emotions, and learning to pause and think before making decisions.
Currently, Thinking for a Change is offered at Mississippi’s State Penitentiary at Parchman, South Mississippi Correctional Institution, Hinds County Probation and Parole Office, and the Hinds County Restitution Center. It will soon be available at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County as well.
MDOC inmates that have 6 to 12 months before they are released are provided with life, job and financial management skills, in addition to assistance with finding employment. Thinking for a Change adds a cognitive element to the pre-release program, and teaches inmates how to make better decisions.
"You know how you'll be in the streets and you'll be in a group of fellas who want to do something bad or illegal... that's the type of class it was, it taught us to stop and think before we act,” said Desmond Brown, a former inmate from Hinds County in an interview with the Jackson Free Press.
Brown's statement begs the question—how is this the first time most of the inmates are learning about empathy, compassion, communication and cognitive reasoning?
It's important to remember that the average U.S. inmate is more likely to be from a disenfranchised and underserved community. Americans with low socio-economic status are greatly overrepresented in the prison system. The school-to-prison pipeline, along with racial tensions, play into this problem. Many youth that enter the prison system are still tangled up in it when they hit middle age, after being handed long sentences, or through the cycle of recidivism.
This means the average inmate is not an upper-class Caucasian who comes from a "good home" and has enjoyed access to a well-adjusted peer groups, confidence and social skill-building extracurricular activities and schools where gang activity, drugs and other crises were not an issue. When an individual's early life is about survival, they have little time to build up skills such as patience, reliability and communication that are necessary for holding down a job, staying out of jail and making good decisions. Many Americans are, sadly, products of their environments, and many start from a place where their futures are more likely to involve incarceration than good jobs and opportunities.
Cognitive thinking is a skill, and it’s a learned one. Treating inmates with regimented programs like RID do nothing to foster cognitive development, but only serve to reinforce negative thoughts about authority and social interaction.
Thinking for a Change is a step in the right direction in the way inmates are prepared for release. Imparting job training and financial skills is important, too, but if people can’t self-regulate their thoughts and emotions or communicate effectively, they are much more likely to reoffend. Let's hope programs like Thinking for a Change become the norm in the nation's prison system.
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.
October 29, 2017
High Court Will Hear Inmate’s Challenge to Lawyer’s Admission of His Guilt
By Christopher Zoukis
During its new term started in October, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of McCoy v. Louisiana, which asks whether a Death Row inmate can appeal a death sentence because his lawyer, over the inmate’s strenuous objections, admitted his client’s guilt during his trial.
Robert McCoy was charged with murdering the mother, stepfather and son of his estranged wife at their Bossier City home in May 2008. The wife, who had earlier brought battery charges against McCoy for attacking her with a knife, had left him and was staying with her parents, but was not present when McCoy allegedly came looking for her. On a 911 call shortly before the killings, the wife’s mother was heard telling someone she called Robert “I don’t know where she is” before a gunshot was heard and the connection broken.
When captured, McCoy was given a public defender to represent him, but he sought to dismiss her and represent himself. Eventually his parents, using a loan on the title to their car, hired another lawyer, Larry English, to represent their son. The new lawyer and his client soon disagreed on basic defense strategy: English found a strong prosecution case and no evidence supporting McCoy’s alibi claim or his insistence the charges against him were part of a far-reaching plot involving local police, prosecutors and the FBI. McCoy claimed to have been out of Louisiana at the time of the murders, even though prosecutors showed that his cellphone was connecting to cell towers there; the defendant claimed others committed the crimes and got possession of his phone.
While in prison, both before and after his trial, McCoy also filed numerous lawsuits, all dismissed as frivolous, against prison officials and others. On several occasions, he also attempted suicide. Two weeks before murder trial began in the summer of 2011, English told McCoy he intended to admit his client’s guilt at trial, to give him a stronger basis for arguing during the trial’s penalty phase for a lesser sentence, based on McCoy’s mental and emotional problems. That strategy, adopted over McCoy’s vocal objections — for example, at one point McCoy in open court told the judge that English “was selling me out” — failed to persuade the jury, which convicted McCoy of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death for each. In October 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court found no merit in the 16 different objections grounds in McCoy’s appeal,
The U.S. Supreme Court appeal, in which McCoy is represented by a non-profit group serving indigents in the state charged with capital crimes, contends his lawyer’s concession of guilt unconstitutionally deprived McCoy of his Sixth Amendment right to representation. “Friend of court” briefs supporting McCoy have been filed with the high court by a Louisiana anti-capital punishment group, a Yale Law School clinic and a state criminal lawyers group. The lawyers’ group attacks the Louisiana court’s decision permitting a lawyer to concede a client’s guilt at trial over the client’s clear objection — which it admits the state’s high court has approved on at least four occasions since 2000 — as transforming “the right to counsel into a sham.”
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.
During its new term started in October, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of McCoy v. Louisiana, which asks whether a Death Row inmate can appeal a death sentence because his lawyer, over the inmate’s strenuous objections, admitted his client’s guilt during his trial.
Robert McCoy was charged with murdering the mother, stepfather and son of his estranged wife at their Bossier City home in May 2008. The wife, who had earlier brought battery charges against McCoy for attacking her with a knife, had left him and was staying with her parents, but was not present when McCoy allegedly came looking for her. On a 911 call shortly before the killings, the wife’s mother was heard telling someone she called Robert “I don’t know where she is” before a gunshot was heard and the connection broken.
When captured, McCoy was given a public defender to represent him, but he sought to dismiss her and represent himself. Eventually his parents, using a loan on the title to their car, hired another lawyer, Larry English, to represent their son. The new lawyer and his client soon disagreed on basic defense strategy: English found a strong prosecution case and no evidence supporting McCoy’s alibi claim or his insistence the charges against him were part of a far-reaching plot involving local police, prosecutors and the FBI. McCoy claimed to have been out of Louisiana at the time of the murders, even though prosecutors showed that his cellphone was connecting to cell towers there; the defendant claimed others committed the crimes and got possession of his phone.
While in prison, both before and after his trial, McCoy also filed numerous lawsuits, all dismissed as frivolous, against prison officials and others. On several occasions, he also attempted suicide. Two weeks before murder trial began in the summer of 2011, English told McCoy he intended to admit his client’s guilt at trial, to give him a stronger basis for arguing during the trial’s penalty phase for a lesser sentence, based on McCoy’s mental and emotional problems. That strategy, adopted over McCoy’s vocal objections — for example, at one point McCoy in open court told the judge that English “was selling me out” — failed to persuade the jury, which convicted McCoy of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced him to death for each. In October 2016, the Louisiana Supreme Court found no merit in the 16 different objections grounds in McCoy’s appeal,
The U.S. Supreme Court appeal, in which McCoy is represented by a non-profit group serving indigents in the state charged with capital crimes, contends his lawyer’s concession of guilt unconstitutionally deprived McCoy of his Sixth Amendment right to representation. “Friend of court” briefs supporting McCoy have been filed with the high court by a Louisiana anti-capital punishment group, a Yale Law School clinic and a state criminal lawyers group. The lawyers’ group attacks the Louisiana court’s decision permitting a lawyer to concede a client’s guilt at trial over the client’s clear objection — which it admits the state’s high court has approved on at least four occasions since 2000 — as transforming “the right to counsel into a sham.”
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.
October 24, 2017
DOJ Urges FCC to Block Contraband Cellphones
by Christopher Zoukis
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has gone on record as supporting efforts by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to block cellphones unlawfully in prisons, calling the devices a threat to public safety and prison security.
The late August letter from Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams, head of DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy, also says the issue should be a major priority for both agencies. The DOJ letter supporting FCC action also spoke of other “horrific” stories recounting how inmates could use contraband cellphones to order attacks on corrections officers or their family members, upload child pornography, run criminal enterprises while incarcerated, or assist them in planning and carrying out prison escapes.
In March, the FCC decided it would focus on the issue, and by a 3-0 vote opted to create a speedier process for contraband cellphone blocking systems to get agency approval to use commercial spectrum for their operations, and to otherwise make it easier to detect and block contraband cellphones in prisons.
Before the vote, the FCC had heard testimony on the dangers illegal cellphones can pose in prisons from the director of South Carolina’s Department of Corrections, who was accompanied by a captain in the state corrections service who survived a shooting that was ordered by an inmate possessing a contraband cellphone. The officer spoke in favor of cellphone jamming and similar technological fixes. The state corrections head had similarly raised the issue on at least two occasions with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Cellphones make their way into corrections facilities in various ways. In some instances, they are flung or launched by catapult over perimeter fences or smuggled in by staff or visitors. There have even been cases where outside accomplices delivered contraband phones to inmates by drone.
Federal law has long permitted federal agencies, but not their state or local counterparts, to operate equipment that jams public airways, with violations punishable by imprisonment and daily fines of up to $11,000. South Carolina is just one of several states supporting plans by state or local firms to, for example, block all incoming or outgoing cellphone communications at a prison. Established telecom firms oppose those plans, arguing they would set a dangerous precedent, might harm cellphone reception for nearby residents, or even interfere with other law enforcement uses of the radio frequency spectrum.
In some states, notably California, there have been legislative proposals to stiffen penalties for inmates caught with contraband cell phones. For example, by making possession of one a separate crime that could extend an inmate’s sentence, rather than treating it as a mere violation of prison rules punishable by loss of privileges. And whether or not Congress and state legislatures opt to strengthen their legislation on contraband phones, organizations are taking greater notice of the issue. For example, some institutions have stepped up searches of staff or moved to innovative methods of detecting contraband phones, such as using specially trained dogs. There may also be additional technological advances that could either make jamming less likely to cause interference with outside areas or make it easier to detect or prevent cellphone use in correctional settings.
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 Department of Justice (DOJ) has gone on record as supporting efforts by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to block cellphones unlawfully in prisons, calling the devices a threat to public safety and prison security.
The late August letter from Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams, head of DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy, also says the issue should be a major priority for both agencies. The DOJ letter supporting FCC action also spoke of other “horrific” stories recounting how inmates could use contraband cellphones to order attacks on corrections officers or their family members, upload child pornography, run criminal enterprises while incarcerated, or assist them in planning and carrying out prison escapes.
In March, the FCC decided it would focus on the issue, and by a 3-0 vote opted to create a speedier process for contraband cellphone blocking systems to get agency approval to use commercial spectrum for their operations, and to otherwise make it easier to detect and block contraband cellphones in prisons.
Before the vote, the FCC had heard testimony on the dangers illegal cellphones can pose in prisons from the director of South Carolina’s Department of Corrections, who was accompanied by a captain in the state corrections service who survived a shooting that was ordered by an inmate possessing a contraband cellphone. The officer spoke in favor of cellphone jamming and similar technological fixes. The state corrections head had similarly raised the issue on at least two occasions with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Cellphones make their way into corrections facilities in various ways. In some instances, they are flung or launched by catapult over perimeter fences or smuggled in by staff or visitors. There have even been cases where outside accomplices delivered contraband phones to inmates by drone.
Federal law has long permitted federal agencies, but not their state or local counterparts, to operate equipment that jams public airways, with violations punishable by imprisonment and daily fines of up to $11,000. South Carolina is just one of several states supporting plans by state or local firms to, for example, block all incoming or outgoing cellphone communications at a prison. Established telecom firms oppose those plans, arguing they would set a dangerous precedent, might harm cellphone reception for nearby residents, or even interfere with other law enforcement uses of the radio frequency spectrum.
In some states, notably California, there have been legislative proposals to stiffen penalties for inmates caught with contraband cell phones. For example, by making possession of one a separate crime that could extend an inmate’s sentence, rather than treating it as a mere violation of prison rules punishable by loss of privileges. And whether or not Congress and state legislatures opt to strengthen their legislation on contraband phones, organizations are taking greater notice of the issue. For example, some institutions have stepped up searches of staff or moved to innovative methods of detecting contraband phones, such as using specially trained dogs. There may also be additional technological advances that could either make jamming less likely to cause interference with outside areas or make it easier to detect or prevent cellphone use in correctional settings.
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.
October 14, 2017
Senators Ask BOP to Consider Wider Release for Older Inmates
By Christopher Zoukis
A dozen U.S. Senators have asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to consider making wider use of compassionate leave to release elderly or ill inmates as a “way to focus scarce BOP resources and improve public safety.” Federal penal institutions currently hold more than 10,000 inmates aged 60 or over.
The bipartisan group of Senators headed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) sent the letter to BOP and the Department of Justice (DOJ), noting former Attorney General Eric Holder announced back in 2013 there would be greater use of compassionate leave for federal inmates who were seriously ill, elderly, or both. Yet despite that pronouncement and BOP guidelines for an expanded compassionate leave program, the Senators’ letter pointed out, BOP wound up granting compassionate leave to just two of the first 296 elderly inmates to request it.
The Senators’ letter asked for updated statistics on BOP’s use of compassionate leave, then posed two questions for BOP and DOJ: why is compassionate leave granted so infrequently, and what can be done to expand it? It noted the U.S. Sentencing Commission had amended its own guidelines to expand the “extraordinary and compelling reasons” that can justify use of compassionate leave; that action broadened and clarified conditions already in the Commission’s guidelines, such as exceptional family conditions or terminal and debilitating health or mental conditions.
The Commission’s changes also urged BOP to begin a compassionate leave proceeding — by notifying the sentencing judge and giving the reasons when it believes a sentence reduction is merited — whenever it finds any of the multiple factors that, separately or in combination, might justify compassionate leave, believing that determination is best made by the sentencing judge, rather than by BOP.
A 2015 report by the DOJ’s inspector general noted that, over a recent five-year period in 2009-2013, inmates ages 50 and up constituted the fastest-growing segment of inmates in federally-managed prison facilities, having risen 25% over the period, compared with a 1% decline for prisoners in the 49-and-younger age group, and a 16% drop for inmates ages 29 and younger.
Not only were aging inmates comprising an ever-greater share of the overall federal prison population, the report noted, but they present particular costs and difficulties for BOP. In fiscal year 2013, for example, the average cost for an inmate age 50 or up was about $24,500, around 8% higher than the average of about $22,700 for younger inmates. Much of the disparity stems from their more extensive medical ailments, requiring more expensive medications and more highly trained staff.
In addition, the physical structure of BOP facilities – such as the relative scarcity of elevators and other features to accommodate mobility-impaired inmates, or overcrowding — which restricts the availability of lower bunks — presents particular obstacles to housing some elderly inmates, and BOP has few programs aimed at addressing the special needs of elderly inmates.
The DOJ inspector general’s report also observed that, although elderly inmates have fewer incidents of misconduct while they are incarcerated and lower recidivism rates when released, BOP policies “limit the number of aging inmates who can be considered” for an early release, and thus act to restrict the numbers of elderly patients who gain early release from federal prisons.
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.
A dozen U.S. Senators have asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to consider making wider use of compassionate leave to release elderly or ill inmates as a “way to focus scarce BOP resources and improve public safety.” Federal penal institutions currently hold more than 10,000 inmates aged 60 or over.
The bipartisan group of Senators headed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) sent the letter to BOP and the Department of Justice (DOJ), noting former Attorney General Eric Holder announced back in 2013 there would be greater use of compassionate leave for federal inmates who were seriously ill, elderly, or both. Yet despite that pronouncement and BOP guidelines for an expanded compassionate leave program, the Senators’ letter pointed out, BOP wound up granting compassionate leave to just two of the first 296 elderly inmates to request it.
The Senators’ letter asked for updated statistics on BOP’s use of compassionate leave, then posed two questions for BOP and DOJ: why is compassionate leave granted so infrequently, and what can be done to expand it? It noted the U.S. Sentencing Commission had amended its own guidelines to expand the “extraordinary and compelling reasons” that can justify use of compassionate leave; that action broadened and clarified conditions already in the Commission’s guidelines, such as exceptional family conditions or terminal and debilitating health or mental conditions.
The Commission’s changes also urged BOP to begin a compassionate leave proceeding — by notifying the sentencing judge and giving the reasons when it believes a sentence reduction is merited — whenever it finds any of the multiple factors that, separately or in combination, might justify compassionate leave, believing that determination is best made by the sentencing judge, rather than by BOP.
A 2015 report by the DOJ’s inspector general noted that, over a recent five-year period in 2009-2013, inmates ages 50 and up constituted the fastest-growing segment of inmates in federally-managed prison facilities, having risen 25% over the period, compared with a 1% decline for prisoners in the 49-and-younger age group, and a 16% drop for inmates ages 29 and younger.
Not only were aging inmates comprising an ever-greater share of the overall federal prison population, the report noted, but they present particular costs and difficulties for BOP. In fiscal year 2013, for example, the average cost for an inmate age 50 or up was about $24,500, around 8% higher than the average of about $22,700 for younger inmates. Much of the disparity stems from their more extensive medical ailments, requiring more expensive medications and more highly trained staff.
In addition, the physical structure of BOP facilities – such as the relative scarcity of elevators and other features to accommodate mobility-impaired inmates, or overcrowding — which restricts the availability of lower bunks — presents particular obstacles to housing some elderly inmates, and BOP has few programs aimed at addressing the special needs of elderly inmates.
The DOJ inspector general’s report also observed that, although elderly inmates have fewer incidents of misconduct while they are incarcerated and lower recidivism rates when released, BOP policies “limit the number of aging inmates who can be considered” for an early release, and thus act to restrict the numbers of elderly patients who gain early release from federal prisons.
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.
October 8, 2017
Roundtable Ponders Ways to Improve Ex-Inmates’ Re-entry
By Christopher Zoukis
Both while a candidate and after taking office, President Donald Trump has frequently boasted he’ll get tough on criminals and ensure the justice system promotes public safety.
On Sept. 13, he was out of Washington, inspecting hurricane damage in Florida. But back at the White House, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and close advisor, convened a roundtable on crime — but with a much different focus: exploring ways to assist former inmates re-enter society.
Kushner heads the Office of American Innovation, created by his father-in-law, and has said one of its priority issues will be improving prospects for prisoners on release from incarceration. Some commentators have noted Kushner’s father Charles, a real estate magnate, served the better part of two years in a federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama as part of a 2005 plea bargain over charges of tax evasion, illegal campaign donations and witness tampering.
The White House gathering drew several dozen attendees, ranging from Cabinet officers (HUD’s Ben Carson and Labor’s Alex Acosta), senior members of Congress from both parties (Sens. John Cornyn, R-TX and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI), governors (Kansas’ Sam Brownback and Kentucky’s Matt Bevin), and criminal justice reform advocates. The Department of Justice representatives at the roundtable session did not include Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his top deputy Rod Rosenstein, or newly appointed Bureau of Prisons director Mark Inch.
Much like the informal coalition that backed a broad-ranging criminal justice reform package which stalled in the previous Congress, those at the White House roundtable reflected diverse backgrounds and philosophies. Besides advocates from some church and criminal justice groups, the gathering also included some business and conservative policy representatives arguing for “smart on crime” measures, looking for practical changes capable of reducing recidivism. One White House official at the meeting noted that, of ex-offenders released from incarceration before the age of 25, statistics show fully 84 percent will be rearrested before they’ve been out for five years.
Participants support various steps to reshape incarceration practices to better prepare inmates to be able to find and hold productive employment. Some also want to change laws and government regulations they see as presenting serious obstacles to former inmates seeking to re-enter society. For instance, at the mid-September roundtable, the top lawyer for Koch Industries – whose top executives Charles and David Koch are top fundraisers for various conservative causes – spoke strongly in favor of “ban the box” proposals, which forbid most inquiries about criminal record history during early stages of job interviews, to prevent former offenders from being screened out from job openings before they have a chance to have their skills and qualifications considered.
The White House has not yet released further information on discussions at the roundtable, or what they may lead to. Kushner told a National Public Radio reporter it was too early for the Office of American Innovation to make policy recommendations, since it’s still in the early stages of gathering suggestions and exchanging views on how the government can work more effectively in easing former offenders back into society, to both reduce crime and reduce the costs of incarceration. So it remains to be seen if the new Trump team will be able to discover, much less adopt, innovative approaches to keeping recently released inmates from winding up back inside.
This article first appeared on Blogcritics.
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.
Both while a candidate and after taking office, President Donald Trump has frequently boasted he’ll get tough on criminals and ensure the justice system promotes public safety.
On Sept. 13, he was out of Washington, inspecting hurricane damage in Florida. But back at the White House, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and close advisor, convened a roundtable on crime — but with a much different focus: exploring ways to assist former inmates re-enter society.
Kushner heads the Office of American Innovation, created by his father-in-law, and has said one of its priority issues will be improving prospects for prisoners on release from incarceration. Some commentators have noted Kushner’s father Charles, a real estate magnate, served the better part of two years in a federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama as part of a 2005 plea bargain over charges of tax evasion, illegal campaign donations and witness tampering.
The White House gathering drew several dozen attendees, ranging from Cabinet officers (HUD’s Ben Carson and Labor’s Alex Acosta), senior members of Congress from both parties (Sens. John Cornyn, R-TX and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI), governors (Kansas’ Sam Brownback and Kentucky’s Matt Bevin), and criminal justice reform advocates. The Department of Justice representatives at the roundtable session did not include Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his top deputy Rod Rosenstein, or newly appointed Bureau of Prisons director Mark Inch.
Much like the informal coalition that backed a broad-ranging criminal justice reform package which stalled in the previous Congress, those at the White House roundtable reflected diverse backgrounds and philosophies. Besides advocates from some church and criminal justice groups, the gathering also included some business and conservative policy representatives arguing for “smart on crime” measures, looking for practical changes capable of reducing recidivism. One White House official at the meeting noted that, of ex-offenders released from incarceration before the age of 25, statistics show fully 84 percent will be rearrested before they’ve been out for five years.
Participants support various steps to reshape incarceration practices to better prepare inmates to be able to find and hold productive employment. Some also want to change laws and government regulations they see as presenting serious obstacles to former inmates seeking to re-enter society. For instance, at the mid-September roundtable, the top lawyer for Koch Industries – whose top executives Charles and David Koch are top fundraisers for various conservative causes – spoke strongly in favor of “ban the box” proposals, which forbid most inquiries about criminal record history during early stages of job interviews, to prevent former offenders from being screened out from job openings before they have a chance to have their skills and qualifications considered.
The White House has not yet released further information on discussions at the roundtable, or what they may lead to. Kushner told a National Public Radio reporter it was too early for the Office of American Innovation to make policy recommendations, since it’s still in the early stages of gathering suggestions and exchanging views on how the government can work more effectively in easing former offenders back into society, to both reduce crime and reduce the costs of incarceration. So it remains to be seen if the new Trump team will be able to discover, much less adopt, innovative approaches to keeping recently released inmates from winding up back inside.
This article first appeared on Blogcritics.
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.
October 4, 2017
Christopher Zoukis on his IRDA Winning FEDERAL PRISON HANDBOOK
Published in indiereader
October 3, 2017/in All About the Book, Guest Author, Interviews /by IR Staff
Federal Prison Handbook came in third place in the non-fiction category of the 2017 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Christopher Zoukis.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons was published by Middle Street Publishing in 2017.
What’s the book’s first line?
“Incarceration is a growing trend in American society.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch.”
The Federal Prison Handbook is the leading Federal Bureau of Prisons survival guide and policy analysis text. Simply put, if you or a loved one are heading to federal prison (or are already incarcerated), you need this book. It will keep you safe, help make your time as productive as possible, and educate you about the rules and regulations that govern life in federal prison. It will also provide you with tips and expert guidance to ensure that you come out as unscathed as possible.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
A little over a decade ago I found myself sitting in a county jail facing federal charges. At the time I was a senior in high school. I was scared, desperate to know what was to come, and didn’t have anyone to turn to. Over the twelve years that followed, I not only learned about life in federal prison, I found a way to thrive while incarcerated. From the confines of a federal prison I grew into a man. During this time I earned my bachelor’s degree in business administration and legal studies, started writing for outlets such as The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, and Prison Legal News, founded PrisonerResource.com, and figured out life behind bars.
I wrote the book in order to provide the highest quality resource that I wish I had to all new and existing federal prisoners. It is my way to help others who have nowhere else to turn.
What’s the main reason someone should read this book?
If you or a loved one are headed to prison (or already there), you should read this book to gain an informational foundation of what life will be like in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Not only will you learn about greeting cellmates for the first time, how bathrooms and showers work, and how to communicate with your loved ones, you will also learn the policies underlying each of these areas. In short, you will learn what to expect, how to handle difficult situations, and where to turn if problems present themselves.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I started writing seriously perhaps eight or so years ago. This was after I came to prison. While I did feel inclined to write before prison, it wasn’t until I came to prison that I put in the effort to refine my craft. For prisoners, the written word is powerful. It is one of the only ways that we can be heard. Once I realized this, I put a lot of time and effort to making my voice heard.
Is this the first book that you’ve written?
No. My two previous books are Prison Education Guide (Prison Legal News Publishing, 2016) and College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons (McFarland & Company, 2014). Both were traditionally published.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’m both a graduate student at Adams State University and a practicing prison journalist. So, when I’m not writing, I’m reading textbook case studies and writing responses. I do a lot of writing these days.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
While I spend an inordinate amount of time writing each day (for the media outlets and for school), the amount of time spent on a particular piece of writing depends on what it is. These days I tend to spend a few hours a day working on school work and another few hours a day working on either articles or book projects in development. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my new website, PrisonerResource.com. This site is designed to be a companion to the book. It answers many questions that prisoners and their families have about life in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The hardest part is certainly going it alone. Decisions are harder to make when they are final ones. When the buck stops with you, as the indie author, all of the decisions need to be the right ones since there is no one else there to clean up after you. This can add a lot of pressure.
The best part is the control. As an indie author you are the boss. You set the price of your book, you choose how many review copies to send out, and you reap all of the rewards. While this is a blessing, it is also a lot of responsibility. Frankly, I think that I prefer this way of book publishing.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
It depends on the publisher. I have only been published traditionally before my current project: once by McFarland & Company, a very large non-fiction publisher, and once by Prison Legal News Publishing, a smaller, specialized publisher. Both had their plusses and minuses. I would consider publishing a book with either one of them again.
As for my Federal Prison Handbook, I would have to really like the deal in order to sign a traditional publishing contract for it. The book is selling well, receiving great reviews, and is taking on a life of its own. I’m enjoying the process very much.
Is there something in particular that motivates you?
As a prisoner, the written word is so powerful. Virtually no one cares about prisoners. The guards hate us, the media hates us, and politicians hate us. As such, no one really cares enough to pay attention to what goes on in prison. It’s unfortunate. But, as someone who has made a writing career from behind bars, I feel a duty to shine a light into the depths of America’s prisons. Through my writings I honestly believe that I can make a difference. This is what motivates me to push forward. I want to give a voice to the voiceless.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Hands down Caught by Marie Gottschalk. That is one heck of a book. Another is Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John Pfaff.
October 3, 2017/in All About the Book, Guest Author, Interviews /by IR Staff
Federal Prison Handbook came in third place in the non-fiction category of the 2017 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Christopher Zoukis.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Federal Prison Handbook: The Definitive Guide to Surviving the Federal Bureau of Prisons was published by Middle Street Publishing in 2017.
What’s the book’s first line?
“Incarceration is a growing trend in American society.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch.”
The Federal Prison Handbook is the leading Federal Bureau of Prisons survival guide and policy analysis text. Simply put, if you or a loved one are heading to federal prison (or are already incarcerated), you need this book. It will keep you safe, help make your time as productive as possible, and educate you about the rules and regulations that govern life in federal prison. It will also provide you with tips and expert guidance to ensure that you come out as unscathed as possible.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
A little over a decade ago I found myself sitting in a county jail facing federal charges. At the time I was a senior in high school. I was scared, desperate to know what was to come, and didn’t have anyone to turn to. Over the twelve years that followed, I not only learned about life in federal prison, I found a way to thrive while incarcerated. From the confines of a federal prison I grew into a man. During this time I earned my bachelor’s degree in business administration and legal studies, started writing for outlets such as The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, and Prison Legal News, founded PrisonerResource.com, and figured out life behind bars.
I wrote the book in order to provide the highest quality resource that I wish I had to all new and existing federal prisoners. It is my way to help others who have nowhere else to turn.
What’s the main reason someone should read this book?
If you or a loved one are headed to prison (or already there), you should read this book to gain an informational foundation of what life will be like in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Not only will you learn about greeting cellmates for the first time, how bathrooms and showers work, and how to communicate with your loved ones, you will also learn the policies underlying each of these areas. In short, you will learn what to expect, how to handle difficult situations, and where to turn if problems present themselves.
When did you first decide to become an author?
I started writing seriously perhaps eight or so years ago. This was after I came to prison. While I did feel inclined to write before prison, it wasn’t until I came to prison that I put in the effort to refine my craft. For prisoners, the written word is powerful. It is one of the only ways that we can be heard. Once I realized this, I put a lot of time and effort to making my voice heard.
Is this the first book that you’ve written?
No. My two previous books are Prison Education Guide (Prison Legal News Publishing, 2016) and College for Convicts: The Case for Higher Education in American Prisons (McFarland & Company, 2014). Both were traditionally published.
What do you do for work when you’re not writing?
I’m both a graduate student at Adams State University and a practicing prison journalist. So, when I’m not writing, I’m reading textbook case studies and writing responses. I do a lot of writing these days.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
While I spend an inordinate amount of time writing each day (for the media outlets and for school), the amount of time spent on a particular piece of writing depends on what it is. These days I tend to spend a few hours a day working on school work and another few hours a day working on either articles or book projects in development. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time working on my new website, PrisonerResource.com. This site is designed to be a companion to the book. It answers many questions that prisoners and their families have about life in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The hardest part is certainly going it alone. Decisions are harder to make when they are final ones. When the buck stops with you, as the indie author, all of the decisions need to be the right ones since there is no one else there to clean up after you. This can add a lot of pressure.
The best part is the control. As an indie author you are the boss. You set the price of your book, you choose how many review copies to send out, and you reap all of the rewards. While this is a blessing, it is also a lot of responsibility. Frankly, I think that I prefer this way of book publishing.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
It depends on the publisher. I have only been published traditionally before my current project: once by McFarland & Company, a very large non-fiction publisher, and once by Prison Legal News Publishing, a smaller, specialized publisher. Both had their plusses and minuses. I would consider publishing a book with either one of them again.
As for my Federal Prison Handbook, I would have to really like the deal in order to sign a traditional publishing contract for it. The book is selling well, receiving great reviews, and is taking on a life of its own. I’m enjoying the process very much.
Is there something in particular that motivates you?
As a prisoner, the written word is so powerful. Virtually no one cares about prisoners. The guards hate us, the media hates us, and politicians hate us. As such, no one really cares enough to pay attention to what goes on in prison. It’s unfortunate. But, as someone who has made a writing career from behind bars, I feel a duty to shine a light into the depths of America’s prisons. Through my writings I honestly believe that I can make a difference. This is what motivates me to push forward. I want to give a voice to the voiceless.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
Hands down Caught by Marie Gottschalk. That is one heck of a book. Another is Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John Pfaff.
September 28, 2017
Tech companies roll out digital education pilot to incarcerated youth
Published on Huffpost
By Christopher Zoukis
Two tech companies are joining forces to launch a digital pilot program focusing on education, re-entry skills and vocational programming for incarcerated youth.
Endless was founded in 2012 with the mandate of making computing accessible around the globe, with or without an internet connection.
Its operating system is free to download and contains pre-installed applications aimed at the health, education, entertainment and small business sectors. Endless encourages the application, distribution and innovation of open-source technology.
World Possible was founded and is run by social entrepreneurs that provide educational support, funding and guidance in developing nations. The organization distributes open educational resources (OER) on used hardware to help disenfranchised communities connect to the internet. World Possible is building a digital library of educational resources called RACHEL (remote area community hotspot for education and learning) that can be downloaded and used offline.
In 2016, $250,000 was given to World Possible to launch World Possible Justice, a prison education initiative build around the accessible use of technology. Earlier this year, Endless and World Possible partnered to roll out a juvenile prison education initiative in five states.
“Giving juvenile offenders access to technology and digital skills is a radical idea in the world of corrections, where security concerns typically ban such activities,” Endless stated in a news release. “The program allows incarcerated youth to access online content without actually going on the internet. It takes a Linux-based OS that was field tested in developing parts of the world under conditions similar to those at U.S. prisons, where education is often constrained by infrastructure and access, and combines it with a standalone wireless content server, both of which rely exclusively on open source and creative commons technologies. This provides young offenders with an experience similar to what they might get in public schools.”
Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Florida and Utah are the states selected for the pilot project. RACHEL will be utilized to help the young offenders with their studies.
The program is “Designed to help these young people broaden their digital literacy while also showing they are trustworthy,” stated Jeremy Schwartz, executive director of World Possible. “This program is an important tool for reducing recidivism and expanding opportunity as incarcerated populations transition out of custody. Our work with Endless has had a tremendous impact.”
Michael Conn, an employee of the Willamette education service, and the district principal of MacLaren’s Lord High School, located in a youth correctional facility in Woodburn, OR, is also enthusiastic about the project, noting, “Giving these young people access to education helps prepare them for life outside, and a smooth return to society. Working with Endless and World Possible, we’re not just equipping youth with appropriate life skills and career content, but also helping to shift the foundations of criminal justice reform efforts.”
Endless expressed its thanks appreciation to Frank Martin, who is the justice education director for World Possible and a former youth authority education administrator in Oregon. Martin helped with the legislation required in Oregon that led to better access and awareness of technology that could be used safety in the prison system.
A large body of research shows that prison education systems are vital to reduce recidivism and to help inmates of all ages have better chances at being successful once released into society. The ongoing debate about prison education in America is that it’s hampered by accessibility and costs. With this joint program from Endless and World Possible, however, both roadblocks are effectively addressed. The technology is both accessible and cost effective, saving money while improving the lives of inmates in jail, and giving them a better shot at success on the outside.
“We’re proud to partner with World Possible to deliver educational opportunity, dispel the myths, and shine a light on the value of digital literacy in rehabilitating young offenders,” said Endless CEO, Matt Dalio.
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 and PrisonerResource.com.
By Christopher Zoukis
Two tech companies are joining forces to launch a digital pilot program focusing on education, re-entry skills and vocational programming for incarcerated youth.
Endless was founded in 2012 with the mandate of making computing accessible around the globe, with or without an internet connection.
Its operating system is free to download and contains pre-installed applications aimed at the health, education, entertainment and small business sectors. Endless encourages the application, distribution and innovation of open-source technology.
World Possible was founded and is run by social entrepreneurs that provide educational support, funding and guidance in developing nations. The organization distributes open educational resources (OER) on used hardware to help disenfranchised communities connect to the internet. World Possible is building a digital library of educational resources called RACHEL (remote area community hotspot for education and learning) that can be downloaded and used offline.
In 2016, $250,000 was given to World Possible to launch World Possible Justice, a prison education initiative build around the accessible use of technology. Earlier this year, Endless and World Possible partnered to roll out a juvenile prison education initiative in five states.
“Giving juvenile offenders access to technology and digital skills is a radical idea in the world of corrections, where security concerns typically ban such activities,” Endless stated in a news release. “The program allows incarcerated youth to access online content without actually going on the internet. It takes a Linux-based OS that was field tested in developing parts of the world under conditions similar to those at U.S. prisons, where education is often constrained by infrastructure and access, and combines it with a standalone wireless content server, both of which rely exclusively on open source and creative commons technologies. This provides young offenders with an experience similar to what they might get in public schools.”
Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Florida and Utah are the states selected for the pilot project. RACHEL will be utilized to help the young offenders with their studies.
The program is “Designed to help these young people broaden their digital literacy while also showing they are trustworthy,” stated Jeremy Schwartz, executive director of World Possible. “This program is an important tool for reducing recidivism and expanding opportunity as incarcerated populations transition out of custody. Our work with Endless has had a tremendous impact.”
Michael Conn, an employee of the Willamette education service, and the district principal of MacLaren’s Lord High School, located in a youth correctional facility in Woodburn, OR, is also enthusiastic about the project, noting, “Giving these young people access to education helps prepare them for life outside, and a smooth return to society. Working with Endless and World Possible, we’re not just equipping youth with appropriate life skills and career content, but also helping to shift the foundations of criminal justice reform efforts.”
Endless expressed its thanks appreciation to Frank Martin, who is the justice education director for World Possible and a former youth authority education administrator in Oregon. Martin helped with the legislation required in Oregon that led to better access and awareness of technology that could be used safety in the prison system.
A large body of research shows that prison education systems are vital to reduce recidivism and to help inmates of all ages have better chances at being successful once released into society. The ongoing debate about prison education in America is that it’s hampered by accessibility and costs. With this joint program from Endless and World Possible, however, both roadblocks are effectively addressed. The technology is both accessible and cost effective, saving money while improving the lives of inmates in jail, and giving them a better shot at success on the outside.
“We’re proud to partner with World Possible to deliver educational opportunity, dispel the myths, and shine a light on the value of digital literacy in rehabilitating young offenders,” said Endless CEO, Matt Dalio.
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 and PrisonerResource.com.
September 26, 2017
DOJ Rolls Back Obama Program Aimed at Fixing Police Problems
By Christopher Zoukis
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Sept. 15 that, effective immediately, it is making significant changes in a program launched six years ago to investigate and issue reports of problems in some local police agencies.
The Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance (CRI-TA), part of DOJ’s Office of Community Policing Services, was launched in 2011 with the stated goal of building trust between local law enforcement agencies and their communities, especially minority communities.
To date, CRI-TA has entered agreements with 16 local law enforcement agencies, beginning with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Typically, a CRI-TA review lasts several years and starts with data audits and reviews, research, interviews, direct observations by assessment and technical assistance experts and consultants from federal agencies and outside groups. Based on this review, the program team then works to identify problems and potential solutions in such areas as training, objectives, tactics and policies. After reaching a consensus of methods for improving the local law enforcement agency’s performance, the program holds public education sessions and spends at least 18 months monitoring how well the suggested reforms were implemented and showed success. When the process is completed, the team selected by CRI-TA publishes a lengthy summary of its findings.
Technical assistance agreements have been entered with local law enforcers in several large cities and counties — besides Las Vegas, these include Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis County, Milwaukee and Memphis — as well as medium and smaller communities, including Spokane, WA, Fayetteville, NC, North Charleston, SC, Pennsylvania, Fort Pierce, FL; and Salinas and Calexico, CA. At the time of DOJ’s announcement, CRI-TA was about to begin work with the St. Anthony, Minnesota police force.
The program was viewed by some as an easier alternative to more severe approaches to addressing such problems. For example, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has investigated and sued some local law enforcement agencies over what it claimed were systemic patterns or practices discriminating against protected individuals or groups, or violating constitutional rights. According to this view, a local law enforcement agency that volunteers for the CRI-TA program might avoid litigation and possibly having a court-ordered monitor appointed to supervise local police operations. That strategy does not always succeed, however. The Baltimore police department’s enrollment in CRI-TA did not prevent it from being targeted by a DOJ Civil Rights Division lawsuit.
Announcing the change, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said it would “return control to the public safety personnel… and focus on providing real-time technical assistance” to help reduce violent crime. Sessions termed it a “course correction” for the CRI-TA program to ensure its resources would go to agencies that require assistance, rather than to “expensive wide-ranging investigative assessments that go beyond the scope of technical assistance and support.” Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Congressional Black Caucus quickly sounded their opposition to the CRI-TA revamp.
In late March, Sessions ordered his department to review all its programs designed for local law enforcers, including the Collaborative Reform Initiative. The latest announcement concludes DOJ’s review of that program, although a press release said further guidance on the revised program will be forthcoming soon.
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 U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Sept. 15 that, effective immediately, it is making significant changes in a program launched six years ago to investigate and issue reports of problems in some local police agencies.
The Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance (CRI-TA), part of DOJ’s Office of Community Policing Services, was launched in 2011 with the stated goal of building trust between local law enforcement agencies and their communities, especially minority communities.
To date, CRI-TA has entered agreements with 16 local law enforcement agencies, beginning with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Typically, a CRI-TA review lasts several years and starts with data audits and reviews, research, interviews, direct observations by assessment and technical assistance experts and consultants from federal agencies and outside groups. Based on this review, the program team then works to identify problems and potential solutions in such areas as training, objectives, tactics and policies. After reaching a consensus of methods for improving the local law enforcement agency’s performance, the program holds public education sessions and spends at least 18 months monitoring how well the suggested reforms were implemented and showed success. When the process is completed, the team selected by CRI-TA publishes a lengthy summary of its findings.
Technical assistance agreements have been entered with local law enforcers in several large cities and counties — besides Las Vegas, these include Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis County, Milwaukee and Memphis — as well as medium and smaller communities, including Spokane, WA, Fayetteville, NC, North Charleston, SC, Pennsylvania, Fort Pierce, FL; and Salinas and Calexico, CA. At the time of DOJ’s announcement, CRI-TA was about to begin work with the St. Anthony, Minnesota police force.
The program was viewed by some as an easier alternative to more severe approaches to addressing such problems. For example, DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has investigated and sued some local law enforcement agencies over what it claimed were systemic patterns or practices discriminating against protected individuals or groups, or violating constitutional rights. According to this view, a local law enforcement agency that volunteers for the CRI-TA program might avoid litigation and possibly having a court-ordered monitor appointed to supervise local police operations. That strategy does not always succeed, however. The Baltimore police department’s enrollment in CRI-TA did not prevent it from being targeted by a DOJ Civil Rights Division lawsuit.
Announcing the change, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said it would “return control to the public safety personnel… and focus on providing real-time technical assistance” to help reduce violent crime. Sessions termed it a “course correction” for the CRI-TA program to ensure its resources would go to agencies that require assistance, rather than to “expensive wide-ranging investigative assessments that go beyond the scope of technical assistance and support.” Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Congressional Black Caucus quickly sounded their opposition to the CRI-TA revamp.
In late March, Sessions ordered his department to review all its programs designed for local law enforcers, including the Collaborative Reform Initiative. The latest announcement concludes DOJ’s review of that program, although a press release said further guidance on the revised program will be forthcoming soon.
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.
