Collective Action for Humane, Healing and Effective Criminal Justice Policy
Collective Action for Humane, Healing and Effective Criminal Justice Policy
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Important! Please read! Posted by phil on May 5, 2003 From Organizations’ testimony of 3/20/03 for H.2853 Financial Concerns. “Massachusetts spends nearly three quarters of a billion dollars per year on prisons. $44,000 per prisoner, per year in state custody.” “This bill is a modest start in the necessary effort to learn what goes on in prison and to see how this enormous amount of money is being spent, And the great news is that in these troubled financial times [the Citizens Advisory Board] costs nothing.” Leslie Walker, Ex. Dir.; Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services “Prisons are a responsibility of society and need to be more open to citizen oversight than they are at present. By having access to prison administrators, staff, and inmates, the Board will help the DOC with its correctional tasks and can be an invaluable asset to the Legislature by providing an independent judgment and source of information that will assist that body in its legislative functions.” Richard Nethercut, Sibylle Barlow; Alternatives to Violence Project, Inc. Other state agencies oversight boards “In New York and Pennsylvania, private organizations… have the statutory responsibility of visiting and reporting on the states’ prisons, responsibilities carried out by volunteer citizens. In over 25 states with Community Corrections Acts, citizens sit on county level boards along with judges and public officials to help plan and monitor the correctional programs within their counties.” Margot Lindsay, of the Center for Community Corrections in Washington, D.C. Impact on administration, correctional officers, and prisoners “In our experience, prisoners come to PLAP with concerns of their freedom, health and safety within the walls while prison guards voice concerns about order, discipline and gangs. The prisoners often do not understand the fears of the guards and administrators. Likewise, the guards and administrators are not able to comprehend the prisoners’ desires for better healthcare, better standards of life, and safety from other prisoners.” “An independent review board would be able to act as an unbiased and well informed mediator between the interest groups within prisons.” Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project “[The] local boards could be the “eyes and ears” for both the DOC and the Legislature.” Nethercut and Barlow; Alternatives to Violence Project, Inc. “Prisoner discipline and employee safety can be maintained and improved by enabling greater public information about and access to the operations of the DOC;… .” Michael D. Cutler, Esq.; Center For Public Representation. Recidivism “The recidivism rate in Massachusetts is very, very high – somewhere…between 44-60%. What are the citizens …getting for the enormous expenditure of tax dollars? Not just the tremendous expenditure on prisons but the enormous costs of new crimes which include the costs for police, prosecutors, defense counsel and further, longer periods of incarceration.” L. Walker; Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services “The failure to prepare citizens for release leaves many ex-inmates at a risk of recidivism. No doubt incarceration is expensive, but recidivism is even more costly to the Commonwealth.” Kate Cook, Anne Morse Hartner, Paula Berg, Legislative Policy Committee; Women’s Bar Association An act to create a citizen review board Posted by phil on March 6, 2003 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY COALITION 563 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02118-1476 (617)236-1188; fax 236-4399; [email protected] April 1, 2003 Dear CJPC Member, Our Eighth Annual Membership Meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 30th at the parish house of the First Church of Roxbury from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Located in historic Eliot Square* at 10 Putnam Street just outside of Dudley Square in Roxbury, this is the same location that CJPC used last year. A map is found on the reverse side of this letter. Public transportation is available via the MBTA Silver Line and bus Dudley Terminal with a four block walk west up Centre Street to Eliot Square, or from the Roxbury Crossing stop on the Orange Line with a four block walk east up Dudley Street. Street parking is available. Good conversation, meeting new activists and old colleagues, dinner catered by Mississippi's of Roxbury and a review of key legislative issues. What else do you need? Rep. Kay Khan (Newton), chair of the Legislative Women's Caucus Task Force on Criminal Justice will be the featured speaker. At the recent hearing of the Joint Committee on Public Safety, six bills specifically addressing inadequacies in the treatment of women offenders were heard. These bills will be the focus of her presentation. The intent of these bills include establishing a women's prison in Middlesex county as more accessible to inmate families who live in the eastern part of the state (H.1166- Donovan), improving female offenders' health care and environmental conditions especially for pregnant and postpartum women (H. 1911- Blumer, H.2492-Fox, H.2854-Khan) and creating certain pre-release programs for women in correctional institutions (H.1341-Walsh, H. 3024-Khan). (Rep. Khan's Act to Create an Advisory Board for the Department of Corrections (H.2853) drew a great amount of testimony. I am enclosing a particularly telling statement by Margo Lindsay, whose testimony gave critical state and national contexts for this proposal.) Equally important will be the opportunity for the Board to hear from you, to find out what issues are foremost in your mind, and allow you an opportunity to find out the Board's concerns. We can collectively set the agenda for the coming year, and explore ways to broaden our outreach and program. In order to plan the dinner, we need to hear from you no later than April 25th. The suggested donation for dinner is $5 for members, $10 for non members. $25 gets you dinner and annual membership. RSVPs should be made via (617)236-1188 or on line at [email protected]. You may pay in advance or at the door. I personally look forward to meeting as many of you as possible. Sincerely, Lloyd Fillion, Chair *Eliot Square was the starting point for African American William Dawes' 1775 ride to Concord/Lexington warning farmers of the coming British troops; Paul Revere made the same trip simultaneously via another route. Collective Action for Humane, Healing, and Effective Criminal Justice Policy March 20, 2003 In support of H. 2853 My name is Margot Lindsay, and I am affiliated with the Center for Community Corrections in Washington, D. C. For the past fifteen years I have written for and worked with correctional agencies and courts to help them involve members of the public in their work. My particular interest has been in advisory committees. This is an important bill. An advisory committee, properly constructed and maintained, brings significant benefits to all those involved with a public agency. · For legislators, an advisory committee creates a body of independent, knowledgeable citizens from whom they can learn about an agency's policies and issues, as well as the public's concerns and support. · For government administrators, an advisory committee provides a channel through which to educate the broader public about policies and issues, to links the institution to outside resources, and to create a knowledgeable constituency to whom they can turn for advice and support. · For the public, it provides a credible, disinterested voice to speak to the operations of an agency and the effectiveness of its work. An advisory committee to the Department of Corrections, such as is proposed in this bill, in addition to the benefits listed above, provides · For inmates, through committee members knowledgeable about employment and social services, and working with staff, the possibility of an enriched and targeted preparation for the difficult reentry process. The concept is not new. Back some years, this state was one of the leaders in having citizens involved with its agencies, with over 6,000 members of the public, chiefly through committees, involved in forming a partnership between the public and its government to enhance mutual understanding and effective operations. Among others, a DOC advisory committee engaged in issues of policy and procedures, and was supplemented by some institutional advisory committees to deal with the impact of a facility on the community in which it was located. Citizen involvement in corrections, however, while no longer alive in Massachusetts, is alive and well in other parts of the country. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has Community Relations Boards to each of its institutions "as a means of mutual communication and support between institutions and their local communities" and requires a community board of each of the faciities with which it contracts. In New York and Pennsylvania, private organizations, the Correctional Association of New York and the Pennsylvania Prison Society, have the statutory responsibility of visiting and reporting on the states' prisons, responsibilities carried out by volunteer citizens. Some states, such as Michigan, have citizen boards at the state level particularly focussed on community correctional issues. In the over 25 states with Community Corrections Acts, citizens sit on county level boards along with judges and public officials to help plan and monitor the correctional programs within their counties. Individual wardens with advisory committees have made good use of them. Susan Hunter, presently head of the National Institute of Corrections Prison Division, when warden of an Iowa prison, used hers to bring in community programs and to handle difficulties that arose. Some of her members, aided by some of her 200 volunteers, even put together a curriculum to teach the inmates about the individual religions represented within the institution. It is unfortunate that in this state corrections has none of this involvement at the present time. The public/public agency partnership offered by an advisory committee becomes particularly important in a time of uneasiness and tight budgets. And the public's perspective and resources the partnership brings is critical as attention increasingly focuses on the difficult transitions from prison to community. While administrators who have experienced an advisory committee believe in its value ("It's the smartest thing I ever did" according to a former Commissioner of Probation), administrators who have never worked with a group of the public can be uncomfortable with the thought. Citizen involvement when it first appeared in the sixties was adversarial, but that is no longer the case. The model today is one of collaboration, of the search together for better efficiencies and effectiveness. But because of the initial discomfort, left to their own devices administrators are not likely to develop an advisory committee on their own. For this reason legislative passage of today's bill is important. I sincerely hope you agree. New manual available on A Public Health Model for Correctional Health Car developed at the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow, MA. See the website of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, www.mphaweb.net to see many elements of the manual and an order form. To obtain a FREE copy of the manual, mail a request and your name and full address to Attn: HCCC Manual Hampden County Correctional Center 627 Randall Rd. Ludlow, MA 01056H 2853 An Act to Create a Citizen Review Board There shall be established within the Executive Office of Public Safety, but not subject to the control of said executive office, a Department of Correction Citizen Review Board, hereinafter referred to as The Board. The Board shall consist of eleven members, including one member appointed by each of the following: the Governor, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, the Parole Board, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Health, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Council of Churches and The Center for Restorative Justice at Suffolk University. The terms of the members appointed to The Board by the Governor, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court shall be for three years. The terms of the members appointed to The Board by the Parole Board, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Health, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation shall be for two years and, at the expiration of the first two-year term of the first members appointed by the Parole Board, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Health, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, for three years thereafter. The terms of the members appointed to The Board by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Council of Churches and The Center for Restorative Justice at Suffolk University shall be for one year and, at the expiration of the first one-year term of the first members appointed by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Council of Churches and The Center for Restorative Justice at Suffolk University, for three years thereafter. No member of The Board shall be appointed to serve more than two consecutive three-year terms. The Board shall annually elect a chairperson. Members of The Board shall receive no compensation but each member shall be reimbursed by the Commonwealth for necessary expenses incurred in the performance of his or her official duties. The Board shall adopt bylaws to govern its own proceedings SECTION 2. Members of The Board shall have access to all Massachusetts Correctional Institutions and all inmates therein upon furnishing a photo identification provided by the Department of Correction. SECTION 3. The Board shall have the following duties: (a) It shall study the medical services, including mental health services, and educational, vocational, employment and rehabilitation programs available to prisoners; (b) It shall review the annual plans and the budget of the Department of Correction and shall make recommendations to the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means and the Joint Committee on Public Safety in regard thereto; (c) It shall report on the general state of correctional facilities, their administration of correctional policy and practices, the living conditions of inmates therein, and, where appropriate, the impact of Department of Correction policies and inmate living conditions upon rates of recidivism; (d) It shall report on the general state of working conditions for Department of Correction employees; (e) It shall hold quarterly meetings; (f) It shall advise the Commissioner of the Department of Correction on policy development and priorities for Department of Correction facilities as well as on the Department's compliance with legislative and judicial mandates; (g) It shall issue public reports annually to the Department of Correction and the clerks of the House of Representatives and the Senate; (h) It shall create 10 subcommittees, hereinafter referred to as The Subcommittees. The Subcommittees shall each consist of five members. No person shall serve on more than one of The Subcommittees. No member of The Board shall serve on any one of the The Subcommittees. Each of The Subcommittees shall be assigned to a different facility of the Department of Correction and to one of the following facilities: Bay State Correctional Center, Massachusetts Treatment Center at Bridgewater, MCI - Cedar Junction, MCI -Concord, MCI - Framingham, MCI - Norfolk, MCI - Shirley Medium, North Central Correctional Institution at Gardner, Old Colony Correctional Center and Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center at Shirley. All Members of The Subcommittees shall be invited by the The Board to participate in not less than two of the four quarterly meetings required by subsection (e) of this section. Each of The Subcommittees created by The Board shall have at least one member who is a person of African-American heritage and at least one member who is a person of Hispanic heritage. All members of The Subcommittees shall have a demonstrated interest in corrections. SECTION 4. Members of each of The Subcommittees shall have access to the Department of Correction facility to which they are assigned and all inmates therein upon furnishing a photo identification provided by the Department of Correction. Each of The Subcommittees shall fulfill its duties by visiting the facility to which it is assigned at least two times each year. Each of The Subcommittees shall have the following duties: (a) It shall study the medical services, including mental health services, and educational, vocational, employment and rehabilitation programs available to prisoners at the facility to which it is assigned; (b) It shall report on the general state of the correctional facility to which it is assigned, its administration of correctional policy and practices and the living conditions of inmates therein (c) It shall report on the general state of working conditions for Department of Correction employees at the facility to which it is assigned (d) It shall issue annually to The Board a report, including, but not limited to, its findings relative to the duties described in subsections (a), (b) and (c) of this section. SECTION 5. Subsection (a) of section 87 of Chapter 127 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2000 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting, in line 10, after the word "correction," the following words:- "members of the The Department of Correction Citizen Review Board,". A message from the Chairperson of the Board of Directors Posted by phil on September 13, 2002 CRIMINAL JUSTICE POLICY COALITION 563 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02118-1476 (617) 236-1188; fax (617) 236-4399; [email protected] December, 2002 Dear CJPC Members and Friends, 2002 has been a year of significant transition for CJPC. Stephan Saloom departed at the end of 2001, and CJPC continued with two successive part-time directors (David Elvin and Peter Kane) for the following ten months. During this time we also relocated the office twice, and after a much appreciated stay at MCLS have come to rest in the homes of Board members until substantial and dependable funding can be secured. During these moves, computers "hid" our mailing lists for five months, temporarily prohibiting us from contacting our members and the broader community. Much Board time has been spent on administrative matters directly related to restructuring the organization in an attempt to remain viable. With the disappearance of foundation funding we are back in the condition that CJPC was in 1996 when it first began, working without staff, and relying with a core of dedicated Board members. The "bad" news reported, let me briefly relate what we intend to accomplish progammatically in the ensuing year: * We will continue our new organizational member component - 27 organizations joined CJPC in 2002 and its brown bag lunches which aid networking among the many groups active and informed about various facets of criminal justice policy; * Through a contract with a webmaster who is helping upgrade and refine our Webpage (as well as teach us the needed skills!), we will post more basic criminal justice information and increase our tracking of legislation relevant to our many constituencies. Additionally we will be developing several list serves to ensure that those who desire this information will be forwarded in a timely manner; * CJPC will be making concerted efforts towards the religious community with speakers on several key topics, particularly on the need for citizen oversight of the state and county correctional facilities; * As volunteer resources permit, we will present panels on timely topics offering the kind of in-depth education which helped build CJPC during its beginning years. In the immediate future, CJPC has agreed to co-sponsor two conferences in the coming year. February 28th, a Legislative Clearinghouse conference initiated by the Massachusetts Human Services Coalition (MHSC)will take place at the State House; CJPC is organizing a workshop on criminal justice issues. On March 3rd and all-day conference organized by the Massachusetts Chapter of NASW on methadone maintenance will be held at Boston College. (Both the MHSC and NASW are organizational members of CJPC.) Details of these and other events will be forwarded as soon as they become available. As we enter into this new organizational phase, it is our hope that you will once again offer CJPC the critical financial support which your 2003 dues and generous contributions will mean. Those who make contributions beyond membership before the close of 2002 will have those contributions doubled through a challenge grant from a private donor. Additionally, another donor has promised to match each new membership that CJPC can garner within the same time period. CJPC achieved 501(c)3 charitable status this year, so all contributions as well as dues are tax deductible on your federal returns. Beyond funding, you can help us further the programs outlined above in the following ways: * Let us know if you wish to be on our list serve for tracking of relevant legislation. There is no cost for this service. * Plese tell us if you can identify a community, religious or not, open to a speaker. * We will be working to line up citizens to attend legislative hearings in 2003, testifying where possible. Let us know via e-mail or call us if you are interested. The New Year brings the Romney/Healey administration with the Lieutenant Governor's background in criminology and with a continuing economic downturn. Therefore, all of us must keep CJPC active and redouble our collective resistance toward the almost certain bipartisan efforts at the State House to enact even more punitive and ultimately ineffective sentencing and incarceration policies. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that has." -Margaret Mead- Warmest regards, Lloyd Fillion, Chair, CJPC Board View our older announcements. |