A Needless Charge for Prison Families

After nearly a decade of delay, the Federal Communications Commission is finally focusing on the private telephone companies that charge outrageously high rates for the calls that many of the nation’s 1.6 million prison inmates make to stay in contact with their families. The commissioners are considering a proposal to seek public comment on prison phone regulation. They need to act to end the burdensome charges that can make a single phone call from prison as expensive as an entire month of home phone service. Prison calls are so expensive because inmates must place them through independent companies that pay the state corrections departments a “commission,” essentially a legal kickback. A 15 minute call can cost a family as much as $17. For struggling families who want to keep in touch with loved ones behind bars, this can sometimes mean choosing between a phone call and putting food on the table. The high cost discourages contact with loved ones behind bars, which, in turn, makes it all the more difficult for ex-offenders to fit in at home when they are released. For this reason, more than a half-dozen states have already lowered rates by barring their corrections departments from requiring “commission” arrangements in telephone contracts. Even so, some prison officials and telephone companies defend the commission system, arguing that the extra charges are necessary to pay for security screening of inmate calls. But that is not a problem in states like New York, which requires companies to provide prison telephone service at the lowest possible rate. Nor is it a problem in the federal prisons, which use an inexpensive, computerized system that allows inmates to place monitored calls to a limited number of preregistered people. The F.C.C. should move quickly to bring fairness to the system, and it should consider imposing rate caps on what the phone companies can charge.

Ex-Baylor athlete admits trying to extort $1 million from RG3

A former Baylor University basketball player pleaded guilty Thursday to trying to extort $1 million from former Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III. Richard Khamir Hurd, 26, who was arrested by FBI agents in June, faces up to five years in federal prison and up to $500,000 in fines after his guilty plea to extortion and receiving money from extortion. U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. will sentence Hurd on Nov. 21. When asked for comment as he was leaving the courthouse, Hurd, who remains free on bond, said only, “Sic ’em, Bears.” Hurd’s attorney, Russ Hunt Sr., deferred comment until after Hurd is sentenced. Former Baylor basketball player Richard Hurd faces up to five years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine for his extortion attempt of Robert Griffin III. According to details recited in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Gloff, Hurd contacted Ben Dogra, Griffin’s agent in St. Louis, and threatened to release information about the Heisman Trophy winner’s relationship with his fiancee that he claimed would damage the current Washington Redskins quarterback’s reputation. Hurd is a former boyfriend of Griffin’s fiancee, according to court records, which remained sealed Thursday evening on orders from Smith. Dogra contacted the FBI, which started an investigation to expose Hurd’s extortion attempt. At the direction of the FBI, Dogra contacted Hurd and told him that the information wasn’t worth $1 million since Griffin was not married and had no children. He negotiated Hurd’s original demand down to $120,000, which Hurd agreed to accept along with agreeing to sign a “nondisclosure” agreement, according to records from which the federal prosecutor read. Waco attorney Ben Selman agreed to help federal investigators and drafted the agreement, Gloff said. Hurd came to Selman’s office at the Naman, Howell, Smith and Lee law firm, signed the agreement and took the check for $120,000, all while being videotaped by the FBI. FBI agents arrested him after the meeting at the law office. Dogra did not return phone messages left at his St. Louis office Thursday. Selman declined comment about his participation in the case. Hurd played basketball at Heritage Christian Academy in Cleveland, Texas, before earning a spot on Baylor’s team. The 6-foot-5-inch forward was a walk-on at Baylor beginning in 2004, starting 10 games as a freshman. Hurd lettered four years, playing his last season in 2008.

Gay prisoner sues after inmate bites off part of his nose

'Crunching sound' Gay prisoner sues after inmate bites off part of his nose

This photo provided by the Kentucky Equality Federation shows the injury to former Warren County Regional Jail inmate Brandon Milam's nose when he was attacked. A lawsuit Milam filed Tuesday claims that he lost his sense of smell and has to undergo extensive reconstructive surgery. A gay man sued a Kentucky jail and a fellow inmate Tuesday, saying the other prisoner bit off part of his nose after harassing him for days. Follow @NBCNewsUS The suit says that Brandon Milam, of Bowling Green, Ky., was sitting on his bed on July 2 when Timothy Schwartz, the other inmate, approached him, pinned him against the wall and began punching his face. Milam, 26, said that he “heard a crunching sound as Defendant Schwartz bit part of (his) nose off, severing it from (his) face,” the suit claims. “Schwartz then spit the piece of (his) nose out onto the floor.” Milam said he was disfigured, lost his sense of smell and was still in pain from the July attack in the Warren County Regional Jail, according to his lawsuit. Read the lawsuit : Milam also claims that Schwartz, 41, and other inmates used gay slurs and threatened him for about a week before Schwartz bit off his nose. The men had been placed in a single cell with about 14 other men, according to the suit. The severed piece of nose was found by another inmate. Doctors at a hospital in Nashville, Tenn., tried to reattach it but were unsuccessful, the lawsuit said. Now Milam faces a series of reconstructive surgeries that could cost $26,000, according to The Daily News in Bowling Green. "It's a real tragedy that this would happen in a protective custody setting, this outrageously violent act," M. Austin Mehr, one of Milam's attorneys, said this week. "It was just like an animal." "I was also called queer several times," Milam said, according to a statement released by the Kentucky Equality Federation. "I was in jail for a probation violation over a shoplifting charge. I wasn't a flight risk and I had no violent history." The Kentucky advocacy group has assisted Milam in his suit and has urged federal authorities to pursue a case against Schwartz as a hate crime. "The deliberate indifference that the jail facility seemed to maintain when placing Mr. Milam in the cell with the attackers while being aware of his sexual orientation opens them to civil liability," attorney Jillian Hall, vice president of legal for Kentucky Equality Federation, said in the statement. The advocacy group says there has been a "growing trend" of gay inmates being harassed by Kentucky law enforcement. Schwartz was indicted on an assault charge and has pleaded not guilty. He was in jail for an alleged scheme to forge signatures of family members of disabled people, file false Medicaid claims and charge Medicaid for services not provided, according to the News. He remains in jail. His attorney, Walter Hawkins, did not immediately return a call. Milam was jailed for violating his probation for a guilty plea to felony theft, the suit said. He has since been placed on house arrest. This article includes reporting by NBC's Isolde Raftery and The Associated Press.

Bus a vehicle to urge students to choose school, not prison

IVA — A school bus of a different stripe idled in front of Crescent High School on Tuesday. The first half looked like a typical yellow school bus. But the rest was painted a dull white, the color of prison buses in Alabama. Inside, eight 11th-grade girls sat listening to Chet Pennock tell them why they need to stay in school. Reason No. 1 is to avoid prison. At the back of the bus, the girls walked inside an 8-foot by 8-foot replica of a cell that held a metal bunk bed, toilet and water fountain once used by prisoners in Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala. Some of the students whispered. Others said nothing and stared blankly at a schedule posted on the wall. Wake-up time at most prisons is 3:30 a.m. Work begins at 7 a.m. Lights must be out at 10:30 p.m. “No cellphones, no iPods, no video games, no curling irons, no hair products,” Pennock said. “A typical cell this size will almost always have four people, all out in the open to see, hear and smell the things we do in private.” Pennock is a lead presenter with the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation based in Birmingham, Ala. The nonprofit drives its Choice Buses to middle schools and high schools across the nation to reduce the dropout rate. The message is simple, and tangible: Stay in school or you could go to jail.

Before students walk into the jail cell the bars never close on them — they watch a short movie that presents sobering statistics. According to the Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, 75 percent of inmates nationwide are high school dropouts, and college graduates earn $1 million more than high school dropouts over a lifetime. Student reactions tend to be candid, said program manager Lynn Smelley, from an age group that generally has little to say. “It goes from ‘Oh, I don’t want to be here,’ to ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” he said. The bus stayed at Crescent for the entire school day and will be in Greenville, Union and Sumter the rest of the week. It is in South Carolina free because of a partnership with State Farm Insurance and Personal Pathways to Success, a statewide education program. Since the foundation began in 2007, more than 1.5 million students have stepped on its buses. The bus is not a scare tactic, said Phil Christian, executive director of the foundation. “You hear them tell them all the time, hey you’ve got to stay in school, but do we ever tell them why? I think it’s just assumed.” Phil Christian, Mattie C. Stewart Foundation executive director “It’s simply there to remind you that this is the likely consequence of people who drop out,” he said. “You hear them tell them all the time, hey you’ve got to stay in school, but do we ever tell them why? I think it’s just assumed.” The foundation does not keep track of the dropout rates of schools visited by its soon-to-be four buses, but it has a 100 percent ask-back rate, Christian said. “We’ve got a waiting list so long we can’t accommodate all of them,” he said. Crescent Principal Devon Smith is staging his own intervention to motivate students to take charge of their futures. He keeps a wirebound notebook full of the names of about 50 students who are behind on classwork, homework, projects and essays. Students must stay after school to complete projects, and sometimes that means missing football practice. If he has to, Smith said, he will drive home a student or two. “We want to start changing that culture to, ‘I will do my work, I will be successful,’” Smith said. “The main reason kids fail is because they don’t get all the work in. It’s amazing.” Students slack off because they’re bored, lazy — the list goes on, the principal said. But he saw improvements almost immediately following the first week of after-school academic detention last week. Parents are supportive of the effort, but it is tiring. Smith spent most of Tuesday communicating with students. Iva-based Anderson School District 3, which includes Crescent as its only high school, has had a dwindling number of dropouts. According to statistics from the South Carolina Department of Education, the number dropped to 14 during the 2011-12 school year from 33 in 2007-08. Christopher Bowling, an 11th-grader, will not be part of that number. He plans on attending college, a plan affirmed by watching video interviews of prisoners while he was aboard the bus. “Hearing other peoples’ stories make me want to do the right thing,” he said. By Jennifer Crossley Howard Posted October 17, 2012

Prison guards arrested for taking bribes

(Raleigh, NC) -- Two guards at a private prison in North Carolina have been charged with accepting bribes to smuggle in cellphones and cigarettes. Rhonda Boyd and Raye Lynn Holley worked as correctional officers at Rivers Correctional Institution, a 1,450-bed prison in Winton, N.C. According to a federal criminal indictment made public Wednesday, Boyd is charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and acceptance of a bribe, while Holley is charged with accepting a bribe. The indictment alleges that the two had been smuggling contraband into the prison since early 2011. Rivers is a private prison owned by The GEO Group, Inc., a Florida-based company that contracts with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house federal inmates and detainees. Many of the prisoners housed at the facility are from the District of Columbia.

What Jerry Sandusky can expect in Pa. prison

By Associated Press, Published: October 7 HARRISBURG, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky will walk into state prison with little more than a watch and wedding band. He’ll be able to work a 30-hour week to make a few dollars. He’ll be able to watch Penn State football but not violent movies. If the former Penn State defensive coach is sentenced Tuesday to a long state prison term, he will find himself far removed from the comfortable suburban life he once led, placed under the many rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Even Sandusky’s own attorney believes that whatever sentence he gets, at age 68 Sandusky will likely live out his days inside a state prison. Prison officials, written policies and former offenders provided a detailed look to The Associated Press about the regimented life behind bars that Sandusky faces. Sandusky has been housed in isolation inside the Centre County Correctional Facility in Bellefonte since his conviction in June on 45 counts of child sexual abuse, and he has spent his days reading and writing, preparing a statement for sentencing and working out twice a day, defense attorney Joe Amendola said. “Jerry is a very likable guy — he gets along with everybody,” Amendola said last week, as he worked with Sandusky to help get his affairs in order, including a power of attorney and updated will. “He’s a model inmate. He doesn’t cause problems, he’s sociable, he’s pleasant.” Assuming Judge John Cleland gives him at least two years — the minimum threshold for a state prison sentence — Sandusky’s first stop will be the Camp Hill state prison near Harrisburg, where all male inmates undergo a couple weeks of testing to determine such things as mental and physical health, education level and any treatment needs. Prison officials will assign him a security level risk and decide which “home prison” to send him to. Although Sandusky’s home in the Lemont area of State College is only a couple miles from Rockview state prison, there is no way to predict where he will end up. Older inmates sometimes end up at Laurel Highlands, which can better treat more severe medical problems, or Waymart, a comparatively lower-security prison in the state’s northeastern corner. The roughly 6,800 sex offenders are scattered throughout the prison system, which has no special units for them. Treatment is available for sex offenders, and those who hope to be paroled must participate. “My guess is he’ll wind up in a minimum-security facility, and probably a facility for nonviolent people,” Amendola said. A convicted sex offender who spent 10 years in prison, and who works with other released sex offenders through the Pennsylvania Prison Society, said Sandusky won’t be able to keep a low profile. “You can have some control over how obscure you are as a prisoner,” said the 52-year-old man from the Philadelphia suburbs, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the stigma attached to sex offenses. “You can either make yourself standout, or you can stay closer to the woodwork. There’s no hiding that man.”

Lakers' Jordan Hill pleads no contest to assault, avoids prison

The Lakers avoided one potential headache before the start of training camp when Jordan Hill pleaded no contest to assault charges Thursday in Houston in a move that will allow the reserve power forward to avoid prison. According to Associated Press, Hill must pay a $500 fine, undergo domestic violence counseling, make a $100 donation to a violence fund and avoid any contact with his former girlfriend, who had accused him of choking her in February at a time when Hill played for the Houston Rockets. As part of the arrangement, the charge was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. Hill could have faced up to 10 years in prison had he been convicted of a felony offense. Hill appeared in a Houston courtroom alongside attorney Rusty Hardin Jr., who successfully defended Roger Clemens in his recent perjury trial. Hill’s former girlfriend, Darlene Luna, was represented by high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, perhaps best known for representing Nicole Brown Simpson’s family during the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Neither Hardin nor Allred could immediately be reached for comment by The Times. According to the AP, Luna sobbed on the witness stand and said Hill hit her legs with his fists, pulled her off a couch and put her in a chokehold from behind. She intends to file a civil suit against Hill, the AP said. "Jordan simply wanted to put this behind him to play basketball,” Hardin told the wire service. “The alternative is to have this be pending until the season is over and have a trial sometime next year.” Hill, a productive reserve with the Lakers after being acquired from Houston in a midseason trade involving Derek Fisher, has two years and $7 million left on the contract he signed with the team this summer. [UPDATE: Hardin told The Times in a phone interview that Hill’s conviction will disappear from his record if he demonstrates good behavior during his one-year probation. “Jordan decided to kind of put this all behind him so he could play basketball without any distractions,” Hardin said of the no-contest plea. Hardin also confirmed that Allred handed him an envelope containing notice of a possible civil action. Allred declined to say whether her client, who has lived in Los Angeles for about eight years, would file a civil suit. “If any person inflicts violence on a woman and it’s unlawful, the victim has a right to be compensated,” Allred said, speaking generally about civil litigation. “No victim should bear the cost of her injuries to herself. They should be borne by the wrongdoer who inflicted those injuries.” Asked if her client was pleased with the outcome of the criminal proceedings, Allred said, “She would have liked him to plead guilty instead of no contest to indicate he would take full responsibility and be accountable for what he has done.”]

NM eyes reform as some inmates released in error

In this Aug. 6, 2012 photo, corrections officer Xavier Hernandez walks around the grounds of the Central New Mexico Corrections Facility in Las Lunas, N.M. State Corrections Department officials recently ordered a statewide audit of inmate records after officials discovered that a number of inmates had been mistakenly released early.

LOS LUNAS, N.M. (AP) — Christopher Blattner should have been behind bars. Instead, police say, he was behind a gun, firing at officers during a nine-hour SWAT standoff at his Albuquerque home last month. Mistakenly released in February, three years earlier than he should have been, the convicted methamphetamine trafficker was eventually arrested in connection with a new homicide case and questioned about a missing 62-year-old Albuquerque woman. It's a case, New Mexico prison officials say, that highlights the dangers associated with short-staffing and an antiquated paper record-keeping system for tracking sometimes complicated formula changes to inmate sentences based on things like time off for good behavior and sentences for new crimes committed while behind bars. The result: Some inmates in New Mexico are being prematurely released while others are being held long after their full sentences have been served. "To learn that early releases have occurred by mistake on the part of the administration is shocking and unsettling for crime victims," said Victoria Amada, staff attorney of the NM Victims' Rights Project, which advocates on behalf of crime victims. Inmate rights groups, meantime, say many inmates have no idea if they are being released on time, which affects morale and the incentive to rehabilitate. "We were always asking staff and guards, 'When I am getting out? When am I getting out?'" said Julie Gosselin, a 38-year-old who was released on time in May following a drug charge. "When they don't and you don't know you don't know what to do." New Mexico Corrections Secretary Gregg Marcantel, who was appointed in October 2011 by Gov. Susana Martinez to take over the department, concedes the department has problems tracking inmate sentences. "It has to do as much with our records still being kept on paper as it does our business model. It's old," he said. Marcantel says he intends to ask lawmakers for money next year to computerize the inmate database. He says he will also ask lawmakers to simplify how good time is calculated, to avoid human error. Additionally, he has launched an aggressive campaign to hire returning veterans to fill more than 600 positions at prisons around the state. Meantime, he says he's joined in on looking through some of the "high stacks" of aging documents with complicated formulas and dates of the state 6,600 or so inmates. "They are stacks high and at times hard to read," he said. Until the audit is complete, it's unclear how many inmates have been released early or kept too long because of documentation problems. But recent news of early releases made it clear that Blattner was not alone. So far, prison officials have identified at least eight inmates incorrectly released. Officials recently discovered, for example, that Zearl Green, 46, was mistakenly released from the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Lunas in June 2007 though he had a judgment and sentence for an additional eight years for possession of deadly weapon by a prisoner. While he was out, Green was convicted in June 2011 for a drug charge. Officials didn't realize the mistake until an audit of that prison was conducted. Last month, prison officials discovered that Anthony Madrid, now 38, was incorrectly released from the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe. Madrid served about a year and a half for residential burglary but he had a remaining eight additional years left to serve because the time had been added for being a habitual offender. However, the additional eight-year sentence inadvertently had been left out of Madrid's prison sentences calculations. He was re-arrested Aug. 1 within an hour of the discovery. In the case of Blattner, authorities blame a string of bureaucratic errors. Not only was he wrongly released early, prison officials had no idea he had been sentenced five years earlier in a separate drug case but never showed up to turn himself in. New Mexico isn't the only state struggling with antiquated systems and complicated good time laws that contribute to the early releases of inmates from its state prisons. In July, the Wyoming Department of Corrections blamed inadequate policy, staff error and the lack of a single centralized database for the early release of a convicted burglar even after the inmate warned them he had five to seven more years to serve for aiding an aggravated assault while he was behind bars. Last year, the Indiana Department of Corrections blamed miscalculations for the early release of an inmate later accused in the brutal beating death of another man. And the California Department of Corrections overhauled its good time policy after mistakenly releasing a woman convicted of abusing a newborn boy she was babysitting. By the time the mistake was discovered and she was re-arrested, she was pregnant. New Mexico's audit, which began in July, is expected to last three to six months. Until then, the department is releasing bi-weekly updates about inmates released before their scheduled dates. The effort is being hailed by both inmate and victims' rights groups. "There's no real reason why this problem can't be fixed," Amada said. Ann Edenfield Sweet, executive director of the Albuquerque-based Wings Ministry, an organization that supports families of incarcerated loved ones, said she was pleased that prison officials were finally addressing the problem of clearing up time served. "Families just don't know when an inmate is going to be released," she said. "This will help." Marcantel said the revamp of records will also help the department with programs for motivating prisoners to rehabilitate themselves. "We want to make sure we give inmates clear a plan that shows what they need to do to get out and what will happen if they break the rules and have to stay longer," he said. "We want people to do their time then move on with their lives." Send Books to Inmates www.sureshotbooks.com _______ Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

The former pastor of a Greenwich church sentenced in July for federal obstruction of justice has reported to a Brooklyn, N.Y., prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Michael Moynihan, 59, who was sentenced to five months in jail followed by two years of supervised release, is now at the Metropolitan Detention Center. Located near Gowanus Bay, the prison is classified as an administrative facility, a type of institution intended for the detention of pretrial offenders, dangerous or escape-prone inmates, or for treatment of inmates with medical problems, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Brooklyn facility is capable of holding male and female inmates in all security categories. Moynihan was to report to prison Sept. 3; a prison employee on Thursday would not confirm when he reported. Moynihan resigned from St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church in 2007 amid allegations he diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars in church funds to pay for personal expenses. He pleaded guilty in December 2011 to the obstruction charge, which stemmed from lies he told federal officials investigating the possible misappropriation of funds. He met with FBI agents to provide information about how the funds were spent and, in a December 2010 interview, told agents he had not forged a signature on a letter, although he knew he signed another person's name without the authority to do so, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. An investigation by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport found in 2008 that Moynihan could not account for church money he kept in secret accounts and engaged in a pattern of deception when confronted. Moynihan also provided false and misleading information to accountants retained by the diocese, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Though most of approximately $2 million in expenditures from two accounts went toward documented legitimate expenses or expenses that appeared to be appropriate, Moynihan used about $300,000 in church funds to pay his credit card bills, authorities said. Attorney Audrey Felsen, who represents Moynihan with attorney Mark Sherman, said after Moynihan's sentencing that about $300,000 has not been accounted for to the diocese's satisfaction. Moynihan must pay over $400,000 in restitution to the diocese and must complete 120 hours of community service as part of his sentence. david.hennessey@scni.com; 203-625-4428 Send Books to Inmates www.sureshotbooks.com

Hacker who infected 72K computers gets prison sentence

Joshua Schichtel pled guilty for selling botnets to customers "who wanted to infect computers with various different types of malicious software." Now, he's serving a 30-month prison term. After pleading guilty last year to creating a botnet that wreaked havoc on about 72,000 computers, Joshua Schichtel was sentenced to prison today. The Department of Justice announced that Schichtel received a 30-month prison sentence for "selling command-and-control access to and use of thousands of malware-infected computers." Schichtel was a unique hacker. Rather than infecting computers for his own benefit, he instead sold botnets to customers who must have not had the tech know-how to create their own malware. "Individuals who wanted to infect computers with various different types of malicious software (malware) would contact Schichtel and pay him to install, or have installed, malware on the computers that comprised those botnets," the Department of Justice wrote in a statement today. It's not clear how many total customers Schichtel had or how many computers were infected since he was only caught dealing with one customer. This customer paid him a meager fee of $1,500 to get malicious software installed on roughly 72,000 computers. According to Ars Technica, Schichtel has a history of hacking. Before he was caught in the Washington, D.C. area in 2009 infecting the 72,000 computers, he was named in a 2004 complaint for "conspiring to use thousands of infected computers to launch Distributed Denial of Service attacks against e-commerce websites." Those charges were reportedly dismissed because the government didn't get an indictment before deadline. Several botnet creators and hackers have been captured or sentenced in the past year, including the notorious Bredolab virus creator, who was credited with infecting 30 million computers worldwide, and the crew of LulzSec hackers that allegedly broke into corporate networks, stole data, and defaced Web sites. However, cybercrime is still on the rise as lawmakers work to catch up with increasingly creative and complex cyber-schemes. According to a report released this week, any device that connects to the Internet is in danger of some sort of worm, virus, Trojan, or malicious spam. Once Schichtel finishes his prison term, he will also have to serve three years of supervised release.

California Realignment Picture Comes into Focus

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California became the primary guinea pig in the prison industry after federal judges ordered the cash-strapped state to reduce its prison population within two years, starting in May of 2011, due to unsafe levels of prison overcrowding, a ruling later upheld by the Supreme Court. In the post-financial-collapse world where many states are considering cuts to law enforcement and correctional facilities that would have seemed unthinkable in more stable financial times, all eyes are on the Golden State, and you can bet most politicians will be referencing statistics and stories from California for the next few years while making their arguments for one policy or another. State politicians responded to the judges’ order with realignment, which basically consists of sending “less serious offenders,” those sentenced to less than three years, back to the county level, along with some of the funding the state was using to house them in prison. This policy only applies to offenders convicted after the law was changed. Given that the state couldn’t afford to house all its prisoners with a level of supervision and safety that the feds found acceptable, most observers have concluded that this move will essentially force law enforcement to change priorities on whom they arrest and how they sentence or encourage them to send more offenders to probation or electronic monitoring programs instead of jail. The new law also places these prisoners on probation when released, instead of parole. The main distinction is that small parole violations used to send prisoners immediately back to prison with no new trial, which will no longer be the case. New crimes committed by recently released prisoners will now have to be tried as separate cases. A recent report from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice explains the state’s prison population was cut by 39 percent in the first nine months after realignment. This means the state is two-thirds of the way to achieving its mandated goal of reducing the prison population by 40,000 inmates by 2013. The state is clearly making progress in its effort to reduce prison overcrowding, but many people believe this isn’t necessarily a good thing. After the Supreme Court’s ruling, many local law enforcement officials in the state characterized it as a case of accepting a leap in crime rates and a different standard of law enforcement in exchange for budget balancing and keeping the feds off the state’s back. There is little argument about the fact that crime rates go up when more people are released from prison, but what about recidivism rates? You would expect that if the criminal justice system randomly releases certain prisoners because of overcrowding, the rate of successful rehabilitation of prisoners would go down, as the prisoners are serving more of their time in jails or probation programs that weren’t designed to hold them for long periods of times. Interestingly, the first report by the Chief Probation Officers of California, released in late July, indicates that less than four percent of felons failed to report to their probation officers in the first six-month period post-realignment. Comparatively, 14 percent of inmates were listed as fugitives after not reporting to their parole officers under the old system. Marin County Chief Probation Officer Michael Daly told the Associated Press he suspected this change was due to the fact that recently released felons could now earn their release from probationary supervision after only six months of avoiding probation violations, compared to a year-long wait before. Daly argued that this provides a motivation for ex-felons to behave. “We’ve hung out a pretty good carrot there,” Daly commented. There has also been a change in the proactive work done by probation departments. Many departments now contact prisoners nearing release in an effort to prepare them for life outside of jail. Some departments even help inmates secure jobs and/or housing before they exit custody. One interesting side effect of realignment has been the way different judges and district attorneys have responded to it. Law enforcement has usually been thought of as a moral issue rather than a fiscal issue in our country, but now these officials find themselves in a place where the financial well-being of their county might be directly related to how much they throw the book at criminals. Some officials say they don’t think about their county’s bottom line when making decisions about how to charge or sentence offenders, but others say they don’t have a choice. In cash-strapped areas with outdated and overcrowded jails, giving a jail bed to a drug addict may mean having to release a habitual domestic violence offender. Results from the probation study found that judges and prosecutors have increased their usage of sentences where certain offenders begin serving their time in jail, but later move to other programs like house arrest. Although most counties haven’t released their own statistics on things like recidivism rates, San Bernardino County was quick to point out its success in transitioning to the new model. Chris Condon, spokesman for the county’s probation department, said the state recidivism rate was 67.5, while San Bernardino’s was 82.55 percent before realignment. He happily explained the rate was now 22 percent in his county. Interestingly enough, the probation representative said he didn’t think judges or prosecutors in his county were changing their sentencing practices and that most of the improvements were made on the back end, by changing how prisoners were treated when they were released. Condon attributed this success to a combination of having good electronic monitoring systems and other probation tools already in place, along with the department hiring 107 additional employees in the time since realignment was announced. Condon said his county used the funding from the state to add these employees, make sure every substation had a probation officer assigned to it, and increase the size of domestic violence, gang, and sexual violence units. Condon said collaborative agreements with health and human services departments were expanded, in addition to law enforcement. Having survived this particular sea-change, Condon said the next concern on the horizon is that the state might try to move more juvenile corrections responsibilities to the county level. He also commented that crime rates went up overall since realignment began, but there was no direct correlation to the recent changes. Condon said the rise in crime could just as easily be attributed to the bad economy. Meanwhile, the state recently formed a new agency, the Board of State and Community Corrections, to monitor the effects of realignment. The Los Angeles Times predicted that by mid-August one outcome the board might find is that the current rate of prison population reduction won’t get the state to its court-ordered benchmarks on time. Last October, the prison population was falling by 4,000 inmates a month, a rate that has fallen dramatically to less than 1,000 per month. Needless to say, the state is currently on target to miss its prison population benchmark, despite all the changes made so far.

SureShot Books Send an Inmate a Catalog

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug 30, 2012 - Send an Inmate a Catalog, which will allow them to forward you items that they may like from our catalog, so you can purchase for them or redeem our Gift Certificate for their own purchase. When you purchase our Gift Certificate for an inmate, we forward them a card ( saying you have receive a $50 Gift Certificate, from: Name / Address and you may include a message) along with a code that they will enter on the order form on catalog for payment. If they do not purchase items for full amount, there will remain a credit for future purchases. Please note: Print catalogs does not show all items that we carry or that are on web-site. Print Catalogs are only send to Inmate's and Correctional Facilities. http://sureshotbooks.com/request_catalog.php Based on studies made by the US Department of Corrections, an inmate that takes the opportunity to improve their education while incarcerated has a much better chance of reintegrating into society and becoming a productive contributing member of society. Providing books for prisoners is an effective method of helping them to improve their lives. SureShot Books makes it possible for family and friends of prison inmates to send books to prisoners as well as sending magazines to inmates and we also have newspapers available from all states. Our hope is that by enabling families and friends to send books to inmates we can have a positive influence on the lives of both the inmate and his or her family. Families can help their loved ones by ordering books from the comfort of their homes.

The cost of prison phone calls

For prisoners and their families, the telephone is more than just a means of communication. It is a lifeline. For urban families far from mostly rural prisons, the phone is often the only way to stay in touch with a loved one “behind the wall,” and studies have shown that sustaining family ties is key to preventing recidivism. Yet prison phone rates are so high that many families simply cannot afford to keep in touch. The Commonwealth now has an opportunity to lower prison phone rates and help build stronger communities. It should do so. A typical in-state call from a prison in Massachusetts has a three dollar connection fee, regardless of the length of the conversation, and then a 10-cent per minute charge, which results in at least $4.50 for only a 15-minute call, not including other fees tagged on by the phone companies. The calls are generally either made collect or through a pre-paid service, which means that the families themselves are required to pay in order to maintain contact with their loved one. Most of these families are living in impoverished circumstances and cannot afford these fees. To add insult to injury, the quality of telephone service for those in prison is terrible. The connection quality is usually extremely poor and dropped calls happen frequently. Not only does this prevent loved ones from connecting, but it usually means an added financial burden on the families of prisoners. The three dollar connection fee is levied every time a call is made, so if a call is lost, parents, children, or siblings are required to pay even more to reestablish the connection they just made. There is no reason for prison calls to cost so much. Technology has brought telephone costs down radically in recent years, and other states have far lower rates. Indeed, much of the bill for Massachusetts prison calls has nothing to do with the cost of providing service. Telephone companies vie for exclusive, monopoly contracts in each facility by offering “commissions” to the county, or in the case of the Department of Correction, to the Commonwealth. These commissions make up over half of the cost of calls in many counties, and over a third of the price of calls in the DOC. In county facilities, the commissions are used to pay for things like uniforms or prison programs, and in the DOC they are funneled into the Commonwealth’s general fund. It is unfair to ask relatives of prisoners, many of whom struggle to get by, to pad the state coffers or help cover the cost of running county jails. Reducing this burden on prisoners and their loved ones will help build safer communities. A 2003 review of studies said, “Prisoners who experienced more family contact… experienced lower recidivism rates and greater post-release success.” It’s also good prison management to make calls affordable. A 1999 Department of Justice review of studies observed that “telephone usage and other contacts with family contribute to inmate morale, better staff-inmate interactions, and more connection to the community, which in turn has made them less likely to return to prison.” Several family members have petitioned the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable to take a close look at the exorbitant costs incurred by prison telephone service providers and to cap rates at a level that provide a reasonable profit but not more. It is the DTC’s role to determine if rates are just and reasonable. It seems clear that the telephone rates that prisoners and their families are paying are not. Given the fact that technology has made phone service delivery much cheaper for everyone, the fact that prison rates remain high – and remain attached to a virtually unfettered monopoly – is something that the DTC should be interested in examining. I was once a child with a father in prison, so I know how much a phone call can mean. No mother should be asked to choose between feeding her family or letting her child have contact with her father. The good news is that we all benefit from more just and reasonable phone rates for prisoners, in the form of reduced recidivism rates and stronger communities. Let’s hope that the DTC does the right thing.

A former bodyguard for champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was sentenced to prison.

Posted: Aug. 28, 2012 | 11:21 a.m. A former bodyguard for champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was sentenced to prison Tuesday for shooting at two men outside a roller skating rink in August 2009. Ocie Harris, 30, of Chicago was sentenced to a two- to five-year prison term.

He pleaded guilty in April to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of firing a weapon into a vehicle. Under his Alford plea, Harris did not admit guilty but acknowledged prosecutors could prove their case against him. Before being sentenced, Harris, wearing a charcoal suit, glasses and a head full of meticulously braided dreadlocks, addressed Judge Doug Herndon. "I would like to apologize for my actions and misunderstandings. It is not of my nature to harm anyone or to be harmed. I believe a gun was pointed in my direction from the car that was struck. I am so grateful and appreciative and thankful that God did not allow anyone to be harmed or hurt," said Harris, whose mother, girlfriend and other relatives attended the hearing. There was no evidence that the two men he was shooting at had a gun, court documents show. At least one witness in the parking lot of the skating center overheard Harris and another man speaking with Mayweather before the shooting, according to grand jury testimony. Harris and the other man told the boxer to leave and "we're going to take care of it," the transcripts show. The shooting happened moments later. Authorities say Harris shot at a BMW carrying Quincey Williams and Damein Bland as the car left the Crystal Palace parking lot on Boulder Highway. The car was hit six times. Williams and Bland said the shooting occurred after Mayweather threatened Williams' life over insulting text messages. No one was injured, and Mayweather was never charged. Williams, who has said he believes Mayweather told Harris to shoot, and Bland have sued the boxer and his associate. In a letter to Herndon, Williams wrote that he had to undergo counseling after the shooting. "This unfortunate ordeal has caused me a great deal of pain, suffering, sleepless nights, paranoia and grief," he wrote. Williams said he still lives in fear and remains on constant guard while in public or large crowds. "There are painful reminders that keep me on alert," he wrote. "For instance, car wheels screeching can cause me to panic." During the 30-minute sentencing hearing, prosecutor Sam Bateman asked for a maximum sentence on two counts, while defense lawyer Tom Pitaro sought probation for Harris. Bateman said the senseless shooting over a text message took place as the skating rink was closing and families and children filtered into the parking lot. Pitaro said that Harris had no criminal convictions though he grew up in a hardened housing project in Chicago. Pitaro blamed the shooting on Williams and Bland, specifically Bland, who has a criminal record. They went to the skating rink to cause trouble with Mayweather, Pitaro said. Prosecutors tried to pressure Harris into fingering Mayweather in the case, Pitaro added. "He would not do that, because he didn't believe it was true," Pitaro said. Prosecutors have said there was not enough evidence to charge Mayweather. Herndon also ordered Harris to pay $23,950 in restitution. Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.

NEW YORK, August 28, 2012 – SureShot Books has sent Spanish books to inmates of several prisons across the United States. Sending books to inmates has always been the main goal of the company. The company has been founded in order to help inmates improve themselves through education as they spend time in prison and await their release. SureShot Books have always believed that education can be attained through reading and discovering anew a world full of possibilities. While awaiting release, inmates will be able to spend their time learning new things and skills that may be able to help them have a new life after their incarceration in jail. As it has always been the belief of the company and its members that mistakes do not mean the end of one’s life, sending books to inmates gives them the chance to improve their lives through valuable education. What better way to help them get educated than by sending them books that may catch their interest and help them discover new skills that will give them the chance to reintegrate themselves back into the community as soon as they get out of the prison. Because a lot of these inmates don’t have English as their first language, having books in Spanish will help them get acquainted to reading and the resources that the company offers. Aside from these, the company encourages the families and friends of inmates to send their incarcerated loved ones with books through the company in order to help further their education as they await they time in jail. Purchasing books and other reading materials for inmates can be done via the company via online orders. To further the inmates’ interest in education and reading, inmates can even order reading materials through the SureShot Books and have them sent to their loved ones via the company. It has always been the belief of the company that education can always be the major factor that will allow inmates to hope and change for a better life ahead of them. The mind isn’t locked up even if the body is. Therefore, reading is a kind of alleviation for these people who have to spend time in jail until release may be allowed for them. About SureShot Books SureShot Books is a company that has been founded by a group of companies during the nineties. It has been put up with the main aim of helping families improve the lives of incarcerated loved ones through furthering the inmates’ education through books. They believe that by sending books to inmates, inmates are provided the opportunity to redirect their lives and have better chances of finding new skills to use by the time they are allowed to get back into the community. Contact: SureShot Books Publisher’s 15 North Mill Street Nyack, Ny 10960 info@sureshotbooks.com 888.608.0868

Education opportunities grow for some behind bars

Missouri's largest state prison offers educational opportunities for those incarcerated.

Convicted men, wearing prison issued gray uniforms, sit in classrooms with bars on the windows at Eastern Reception and Diagnostic Correctional Center (ERDCC, or Eastern) and earning college credit.

St. Louis University professor Stephen Casmier is one of the professors who goes through security regularly bringing the day's lesson plan.

Crasmier said to the The St. Louis Today (STLToday), "I was a bit concerned." He wasn't concerned about his safety, but about how the program would work out.

The prison doesn't have many computers, so when guys have to do work; writing a paper, for instance, they write several drafts by hand, then by typewriter.


"Too many programs, for the last two or three decades, get brought in and then somebody finds something they don't like about them and they smash it," said Jason Lewis, deputy warden of Eastern told STLToday. "We are moving slowly to get the momentum so we can spread it everywhere, all over the eastern region."

Missiour has 30,000 with the state's prison system, and around 20 of them usually makes up Dr. Crasmier's class.

Within Missouri's Department of Corrections, this revolutionary program is part of the Saint Louis University (SLU) Prison Program. The program was created to give educators and prison reformers an opportunity to reach those inside the prisons who are looking for a new beginning.

In 2008, certificates in Theology Studies from SLUwere offered. Then, it expanded to an associate of arts (a two-year degree). Generally, it takes the inmates four years to complete. In the beginning, the application window closed after five days because more than 300 inmates applied for 15 slots. Those without life sentences, who had previously tutored or held leadership positions in prison were selected. Program leaders said there haven't been any reports of disciplinary problems in or outside of class by those who participate.

The program costs nothing (SLU supports it with a $150,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation and other donations).

"When I was locked up, I kept telling myself that education was the the primary equalizer," said Ward Cummings, a returning citizen who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. In the '90s Cummings did time in a federal prison and when he was released he completed his parole, but upon completing it he was arrested six months later and did fourteen months in a Maryland prison.

"That last time I got arrested and went to prison, I bunked with a Muslim dude and he got me interested in education," Cummings said. ""The guy was a former teacher, and he convinced me to get an education. I already had my high school diploma."

Cummings, who is originally from East St. Louis, works and manages two cleaning services in Montgomery County. Although he had never done time at Eastern, he knew of others who have been incarcerated there..

"When I heard what was going on at Eastern, I was surprised," he mentioned.

The program, thusfar, has turned out to be a win-win for everybody. George Lombardi, director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, said that about 1,500 offenders in Missouri get GEDs each year, and there are several rehabilitative and vocational programs.

"We are not going to pay tax dollars to do it," Lombardi told STLToday.. "If someone wants to come in and provide a program, we'll be interested to listen to it."

Strangely, Lombardi doesn't want to use tax dollars to educate the incarcerated men, but don't mind the $20,863 a year price tag to house one inmate in a Missouri prison.

He further reached out to the SLU and requested that prison staff have this wonderful opportunity too, which the private college approved. And although the classes are separate, prisoners and prison staff seem to have similar goals.

Casmier had commented that often the inmates at Eastern seem more dedicated than students at SLU's main campus.

"People who are locked up shouldn't get a free education," said April, a D.C. resident who lives in Georgetown. "If they want an education, they should pay for it like everyone else does, or get a scholarship - they should earn it."

STLToday reports that Lewis, the deputy warden, believes judges have already given them their punishment.

"They are here to learn to do their time and to learn how to get back into the community and make those transitions once their time has gone by," he said. "As taxpayers, whether we like it or not, 97 percent of them are coming back (into society). How do you want them back?"

More than 350 college prison programs used to operate across the country, but only a few survived after Pell grants were cut for convicts in the 1990s, according to a report by Bard College in New York, which runs a prison education program.

Eastern Reception and Diagnostic Correctional Center is locaed in Bonne Terre, Missouri.

Visit: www.sureshotbooks.com for Educational Material

Education opportunities grow for some behind bars

Missouri's largest state prison offers educational opportunities for those incarcerated.

Convicted men, wearing prison issued gray uniforms, sit in classrooms with bars on the windows at Eastern Reception and Diagnostic Correctional Center (ERDCC, or Eastern) and earning college credit.

St. Louis University professor Stephen Casmier is one of the professors who goes through security regularly bringing the day's lesson plan.

Crasmier said to the The St. Louis Today (STLToday), "I was a bit concerned." He wasn't concerned about his safety, but about how the program would work out.

The prison doesn't have many computers, so when guys have to do work; writing a paper, for instance, they write several drafts by hand, then by typewriter.


"Too many programs, for the last two or three decades, get brought in and then somebody finds something they don't like about them and they smash it," said Jason Lewis, deputy warden of Eastern told STLToday. "We are moving slowly to get the momentum so we can spread it everywhere, all over the eastern region."

Missiour has 30,000 with the state's prison system, and around 20 of them usually makes up Dr. Crasmier's class.

Within Missouri's Department of Corrections, this revolutionary program is part of the Saint Louis University (SLU) Prison Program. The program was created to give educators and prison reformers an opportunity to reach those inside the prisons who are looking for a new beginning.

In 2008, certificates in Theology Studies from SLUwere offered. Then, it expanded to an associate of arts (a two-year degree). Generally, it takes the inmates four years to complete. In the beginning, the application window closed after five days because more than 300 inmates applied for 15 slots. Those without life sentences, who had previously tutored or held leadership positions in prison were selected. Program leaders said there haven't been any reports of disciplinary problems in or outside of class by those who participate.

The program costs nothing (SLU supports it with a $150,000 grant from the Hearst Foundation and other donations).

"When I was locked up, I kept telling myself that education was the the primary equalizer," said Ward Cummings, a returning citizen who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. In the '90s Cummings did time in a federal prison and when he was released he completed his parole, but upon completing it he was arrested six months later and did fourteen months in a Maryland prison.

"That last time I got arrested and went to prison, I bunked with a Muslim dude and he got me interested in education," Cummings said. ""The guy was a former teacher, and he convinced me to get an education. I already had my high school diploma."

Cummings, who is originally from East St. Louis, works and manages two cleaning services in Montgomery County. Although he had never done time at Eastern, he knew of others who have been incarcerated there..

"When I heard what was going on at Eastern, I was surprised," he mentioned.

The program, thusfar, has turned out to be a win-win for everybody. George Lombardi, director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, said that about 1,500 offenders in Missouri get GEDs each year, and there are several rehabilitative and vocational programs.

"We are not going to pay tax dollars to do it," Lombardi told STLToday.. "If someone wants to come in and provide a program, we'll be interested to listen to it."

Strangely, Lombardi doesn't want to use tax dollars to educate the incarcerated men, but don't mind the $20,863 a year price tag to house one inmate in a Missouri prison.

He further reached out to the SLU and requested that prison staff have this wonderful opportunity too, which the private college approved. And although the classes are separate, prisoners and prison staff seem to have similar goals.

Casmier had commented that often the inmates at Eastern seem more dedicated than students at SLU's main campus.

"People who are locked up shouldn't get a free education," said April, a D.C. resident who lives in Georgetown. "If they want an education, they should pay for it like everyone else does, or get a scholarship - they should earn it."

STLToday reports that Lewis, the deputy warden, believes judges have already given them their punishment.

"They are here to learn to do their time and to learn how to get back into the community and make those transitions once their time has gone by," he said. "As taxpayers, whether we like it or not, 97 percent of them are coming back (into society). How do you want them back?"

More than 350 college prison programs used to operate across the country, but only a few survived after Pell grants were cut for convicts in the 1990s, according to a report by Bard College in New York, which runs a prison education program.

Eastern Reception and Diagnostic Correctional Center is locaed in Bonne Terre, Missouri.