Kaysville teacher sent to prison for sexually abusing student

Stephen Paul Niedswiecki (right) is taken into custody after being sentenced to serve four consecutive zero- to 5-year sentences at the 2nd District Court in Farmington on Thursday, April 10, 2014. Niedzwiecki is a former teacher and basketball coach at a charter school where he met and sexual abused teenager Jaime Heiner. FARMINGTON — The courtroom waited in silence as Judge Michael G. Allphin decided how to sentence a man who sexually abused one of his former students. The 2nd District judge said he had to consider the “gravity and circumstances” surrounding Stephen Paul Niedzwiecki’s actions. Although Niedzwiecki admitted to sexually abusing Jaime Heiner, now 18, he continued to shift blame to Heiner and her parents, Allphin said. “These actions point to the defendant having a character flaw,” the judge said, before sentencing Niedzwiecki, 34, to four consecutive terms of zero to five years in prison. Defense attorneys had argued for concurrent terms, given Niedzwiecki’s treatment and willingness to admit to the crime. Allphin did not agree with their conclusions. Heiner smiled, glancing at her attorney, and then broke into tears after hearing the sentence. Her father pulled her into a hug. In her statements to the court, Heiner said she was “emotionally exhausted and ready for closure.” Niedzwiecki was “lazy, manipulative and narcissistic,” she said, and asked the judge to impose consecutive sentences. "Steve knew exactly what he was doing from the very beginning,” she said. Although the Deseret News does not typically name victims of sex abuse, Heiner has spoken publicly about the incidents because she said she doesn't want to be considered a victim. "I see myself as a survivor. Because victim is a word that gives him power over me where survivor is a word that gives me that power,” she said after the hearing. Niedzwiecki looked down as she spoke to the court. He kept his comments to the court brief, asking for mercy so he could continue counseling and the repentance process in his church. “There is nothing that I can say that can change the actions, the things that I have done,” Niedzwiecki said. He said he was "disgusted with the acts that I have committed and I am disgusted with myself for having committed them" and he “longed for the opportunity to tell (the Heiners) how sorry I am." He said he still loves the Heiner family. The family and prosecutors, however, were unconvinced. "That was incredibly offensive because I don't believe that you can do that to somebody that you love," Heiner said after the sentencing. Her attorney, Heidi Nestel, told the court that Niedzwiecki only had access to Heiner because he was first her teacher. “He infiltrated this family. He slowly over a period of time gained their trust, reassured them, told them what they needed to hear, all the while sexually abusing their daughter,” she said. Niedzwiecki was Heiner's teacher and basketball coach at Jefferson Academy, a charter school in Kaysville. Niedzwiecki groomed Heiner by offering her unearned extra credit, including her on special projects, saying inappropriate things and touching her on the leg and in other improper ways. Niedzwiecki kissed Heiner by the end of her freshman year in high school when she was 15, and their relationship escalated to sexual acts by the end of summer 2011. The relationship lasted from May 2011 until fall 2012. A suspicion that Niedzwiecki had singled out another girl spurred the teen to meet with her LDS bishop. The bishop involved authorities. Heiner said she moved her mattress to the floor of her parent's bedroom for months after she told them what had happened. "I couldn't be alone. My thoughts were just too painful," she said. She still cannot go to bed earlier than 1 a.m. on most nights because she is "terrified of what he'll do to me in my dreams," she said. The charges were reduced in January from eight counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony; attempted rape, a first-degree felony; and two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, because the prosecution determined that a jury could not reasonably convict Niedzwiecki of being in a position of trust over Heiner. Niedzwiecki later pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor and two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old, third-degree felonies.

Man Wrongfully Convicted in 1989 Brooklyn Murder Is Set Free

Jonathan Fleming embracing one of his lawyers, Anthony Mayol, after his murder conviction was overturned on Tuesday. A timeworn phone bill from a Quality Inn in Orlando, Fla., turned out to be one of the most valuable pieces of paper Jonathan Fleming owns. Mr. Fleming, 51, who was serving the 25th year of a sentence of 25 years to life after being found guilty of a 1989 murder in Brooklyn, was released on Tuesday after new evidence was uncovered in his case. The evidence included a receipt that established he was in Florida less than five hours before the killing. He stood quietly, his hands clasped behind his back, as his lawyers detailed new evidence that they and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office discovered. “Had it been available at the trial, the likely outcome of the trial would have been different,” an assistant district attorney, Mark Hale, told the judge, Matthew J. D’Emic, as he explained that his office supported Mr. Fleming’s release. “Scarcella framed me; that I knew already. But that they had the name of another person as the actual murderer? That had me in shock.” — Alvena Jennette Notes Found in Review of Police Work Could Exonerate 2 Convicted in KillingAPRIL 8, 2014 Kenneth P. Thompson, the new Brooklyn district attorney, inherited an office accused of wrongly prosecuting many people. As 2 Go Free, Brooklyn Conviction Challenges Keep Pouring InFEB. 6, 2014 Louis Scarcella, the retired Brooklyn detective whose cases are under review. Review of 50 Brooklyn Murder Cases OrderedMAY 11, 2013 It was only when the judge said that the motion was granted and the indictment dismissed that Mr. Fleming’s composure wavered, his shoulders shaking and his eyes tearing up as he hugged his lawyers. Cries of “Thank you, God,” “Our prayers have been answered now” and “You’re a free man” came from his friends and family in the courtroom. Mr. Fleming’s is one of dozens of wrongful-conviction cases that the new Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, inherited when he took office this year. The office is also combing through 50 cases that a detective, Louis Scarcella, who has been accused of using illegal tactics to frame suspects, was involved in; Mr. Scarcella was not part of Mr. Fleming’s case. Mr. Thompson’s predecessor, Charles J. Hynes, created the Conviction Integrity Unit to look into questionable cases after criticism over wrongful convictions. Mr. Thompson, who campaigned in part on reforming the district attorney’s office, has so far gained the release of two prisoners who were serving time for murder after new evidence was obtained, and prisoners’ advocates are pushing him to move quickly on other cases. The office on Monday appointed Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., a Harvard Law School professor, to lead the unit, now called the Conviction Review Unit, and added three outside lawyers to help evaluate cases. Mr. Fleming was convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of Darryl Alston, a rival drug dealer, on Aug. 15, 1989, at the Williamsburg Houses. His alibi was simple: He was in Orlando at the time of the shooting, on a family trip to Walt Disney World. During the trial, Mr. Fleming’s lawyers gave evidence showing that he was in Orlando around the time of the murder — plane tickets and video footage and vacation photos from family members. But prosecutors argued he could have returned to Brooklyn and shot Mr. Alston, producing a list with 53 possible flights he could have taken, according to a document prepared by Mr. Fleming’s lawyers, Taylor Koss and Anthony Mayol. And they cast doubt on the testimony from Mr. Fleming’s family members about his whereabouts. A woman who said she was an eyewitness, Jacqueline Belardo, identified Mr. Fleming as the killer. Though she recanted what she said before sentencing, saying she had identified Mr. Fleming in exchange for a dismissal of grand larceny charges against her, the prosecution contended that Ms. Belardo was lying, according to the document. In June 2013, the Conviction Integrity Unit began examining Mr. Fleming’s conviction after investigators and lawyers for Mr. Fleming brought it the new witness statements. In November, the unit turned over to the defense police logs that it had come across during its look at the case. The logs showed that Ms. Belardo, the purported eyewitness, had been brought in after being found in a stolen van and charged with grand larceny; after several hours of questioning, she pointed to Mr. Fleming as the killer, according to the defense document. A little over an hour later, her charges were voided and she was released. Ms. Belardo still stands by her recantation, according to the document. The Conviction Integrity Unit also turned over the phone receipt. At 9:27 p.m. on Aug. 14, 1989, Mr. Fleming had paid a phone bill at the Orlando Quality Inn, making it unlikely he could have made it back to Brooklyn in time for the 2:15 a.m. shooting on Aug. 15. But the receipt was not a part of trial evidence. Mr. Koss said at Tuesday’s hearing that Mr. Fleming had asked about the receipt at the time of the trial and that a detective at the trial was questioned about the receipt and said he did not recall recovering it. Investigators found the receipt in the case file last year. Other new evidence was a report from the Orlando Police Department, which had looked into Mr. Fleming’s alibi at the New York Police Department’s request. The Orlando police interviewed Quality Inn staff members who remembered Mr. Fleming; at the trial, the only witnesses to vouch for Mr. Fleming’s presence in Orlando were family members. It was the new documentary evidence that was most compelling in this case, said Mr. Hale, the assistant district attorney, specifically the receipt and the Orlando Police Department’s letter. “We, in looking at the evidence, do not believe we have the present ability to retry the defendant,” nor will the office be able to retry him in the future, Mr. Hale said. As part of their investigation, the defense and prosecutors then reinterviewed witnesses to the murder, and their accounts pointed to a different suspect. “They’re bringing my baby home,” said Mr. Fleming’s mother, Patricia Fleming, 72. An innocent man “did all this time,” she said. “It was hard on him and it was hard on me.”

Prison Sentences for Pill-Mill Docs

By Associated Press A federal judge in West Palm Beach has sentenced a South Florida doctor to more than six years in prison on money laundering charges related to her prescription of millions of oxycodone pills and other narcotics. Also sentenced in the case Friday, a fellow doctor who received 18 months behind bars on similar charges. Both physicians were part of a broad 2010 investigation into so-called "pill mills". Prosecutors said the cash only clinics where doctors Cynthia Cadet, 43, and Joseph Castronuovo, 74, worked were part of one of the nation's biggest illicit prescription drug operations. The two South Florida doctors worked in West Palm Beach and Broward county clinics overseen by Chris and Jeff George of Wellington. Both are serving lengthy prison sentences. Prosecutors said their clinics raked in about $40 million over two years, luring addicts and dealers from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia. Attorneys for both doctors said they planned to appeal Friday's ruling. Last year a federal jury acquitted the doctors in the fatal overdoses of some patients but convicted them of participating in a money laundering conspiracy that carried a potential 10-year prison term. Cadet and Castronuovo were the only physicians among more than 30 in the case who rejected federal plea deals. Defense attorneys said Cadet and Castronuovo believed they were helping patients living with extreme pain when they doled out their monthly prescriptions. Prosecutors say Cadet earned $1.5 million writing prescriptions for 2.5 million oxycodone pills over 15 months. Castronuovo, who at the clinics for less than a year, prescribed more than 750,000 and made $160,000. Castronuovo's attorney Thomas Sclafani argued to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra that his client wouldn't survive long in prison. Cadet's attorney Michael Weinstein has asked the former Broward County emergency physician and mother of two receive probation, arguing her only crime was depositing money she earned into a bank. But Marra had already rejected that line of argument. During the trial last year, neighbors testified about people shooting up in the clinic parking lot. A taped phone conversation between Chris George, who ran the clinics, and his mother, captured them laughing about a drug overdose linked to the clinics.

Two prison guards charged after contraband found

The Associated Press April 5, 2014 8:20:33 PM PEARL -- Two guards at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County are charged with trying to sneak contraband items into the prison in food. Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps said in a news release Wednesday that the two were arrested in separate incidents and both are subject to firing. Epps said Erling Gresham, 26, of Jackson, was arrested Sunday when officers found Gresham's 12-inch bread-only sandwich contained 2.80 ounces of tobacco. Gresham told investigators an inmate offered him $200 to bring the tobacco in. Epps said Tamikta Russell, 34, of Jackson, was arrested March 26 after she tried to smuggle in not only tobacco but also marijuana and other contraband in three burritos inside a Tupperware container. Both were arrested during a routine search when they reported for duty. "These arrests are a result of the Mississippi Department of Corrections' intensified efforts to reduce contraband items," Epps said. "You would be surprised by the different ways in which people try to bring in contraband. That's why we must always be alert and ready. Gresham and Russell are each charged with possession of prohibited items by persons other than offenders for possessing tobacco. A conviction carries a maximum one year in prison, a $1,000 fine, or both. Gresham was still in the Rankin County Jail on a $1,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. Russell, who posted a $20,000 bond Friday from the Rankin County jail, is also charged with possession of marijuana and introduction of contraband. The 6.40 ounces of tobacco, 48.7 grams of marijuana and other contraband were inside plastic bags concealed in the burritos, Epps said. If convicted on the marijuana possession charge, she faces a maximum $25,000 fine and between three and seven years in prison. Under state law, introduction of contraband into a correctional facility is a felony punishable by three to 15 years in prison, a maximum $25,000 fine, or both. Russell had been working for the Corrections Department since July 1, 2013. Gresham had been employed since Nov. 1, 2012. Read more: http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=32395#ixzz2y8cuAKFS

Prison inmates continue to get caught with cell phones, communicating with the outside world. Not only are they getting their hands on phones, they're using them to post to social media sites. Gregory Bigham, of Montgomery, shares pictures and status updates with friends on Facebook, posing in his prison jumpsuit and showing off his tattoos. In a post from Wednesday, he captioned a photo: "Another day in the joint IM still standing one day at a time." The snap shot and several others were listed as mobile uploads. He has posted on and off since 2011. Court documents out of Montgomery County show Bigham is doing time for robbery and burglary at the Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton. It's the same Barbour County prison where other inmates were recently busted for using cell phones to operate a theft ring from behind bars, scamming Georgia businesses out of thousands of dollars of equipment by claiming it was ordered by Albany Water, Gas and Light. "The inmates on the inside seem to be the brains of it. Masterminding the situation. And then getting people on the outside to go do the pickups and dropping it off to the people who are fencing it for them," said Captain Craig Dodd with the Dougherty County Sheriff's Office. Alabama prison officials say the crackdown on cell phones and social media is ongoing. "For us, we diligently try to keep them out of our prisons but despite our best efforts, they continue to make their way in. Cell phones are not only against DOC rules, they're against the law. Social networking is also against the rules for DOC inmates. They're all well aware. In fact, there are signs posted everywhere stating that the phones are against the law," said Brian Corbett, public information manager with the Alabama Department of Corrections. And it's not the first time WSFA has reported on Alabama inmates boldly updating their Facebook pages using cell phones inside penitentiaries and it continues to happen. In late 2013, an inmate convicted of murder and incarcerated at the Elmore Correctional Center was caught posting dozens of pictures, showing Alabama corrections clothing, prison bunks and other inmates. Earlier that year, another DOC inmate's account surfaced with pictures of him posing in his prison garb inside the facility. The American Correctional Association says it's a national problem and that "possessing cell phones gives inmates access to a private line of communication from which they can harass, threaten and intimidate victims and witnesses, engage in unlawful activities, and continue criminal enterprises." When asked if the Alabama Department of Corrections is doing anything differently to keep inmates from getting their hands on cell phones, their spokesman responded: "That's really a redundant question. People continue to come to prison every day too... We battle cell phones as contraband every day just like we battle every other form of contraband. There are various and numerous ways that they receive them. They're contraband just like pot or drugs or any other item may be contraband." We asked the person who sent in the tip about the inmate at Ventress posting to Facebook what their concerns are about prisoners having access to cell phones and social media. The tipster responded: "If they are in for a crime and doing time they should be serving time. Not having the luxuries that people on the outside have. Plus access to cell phones and social media could promote drugs and gang related activities. Calls to home in prison are earned and if the inmates have a cell phone what's the point in having good behavior? Plus it runs the risk for people to be harassed. I believe cell phones are almost as bad as having a weapon in prison because it's all in how you use it." The Department of Corrections spokesman says inmates caught with cell phones and posting to social media are subject to disciplinary action, including the loss of privileges, loss of communication and possible segregation. We're told the prison system will work to track the phones down and contact Facebook to remove the pages since they are considered a security violation. In Alabama, more than 5000 cell phones were seized in 2012.

The Tyranny Of Prison Phone Charges: 'Inmates Charged Five Times Usual Rate

Sobering piece in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, headlined, ‘Talk is anything but cheap for phone calls from Pennsylvania’s prison. Phone calls from the outside do more than keep prisoners entertained, researchers say. They’ve actually been shown to keep them from re-offending, maintaining family connections that prove vital when inmates leave prison. So Ms. Ankrom doesn’t understand why her friend pays $5 for every 15-minute call, five times what it costs her to call anywhere in the country on a pre-paid cell phone. Neither does the Federal Communications Commission, which is looking into the issue. “The people who are in prison are already struggling,” she said. “I can understand them being charged. But why charge so much?” While the per-minute price of the average phone plan drops every year — approaching zero, in the case of unlimited plans — prisoners are paying exorbitant rates to call their loved ones. To dial an out-of-state number, an inmate in a Pennsylvania state prison pays $9.35 for a 15-minute call. At the Allegheny County Jail, they pay $10.65. The small group of telecom companies that sells phone service to prisons says costs are driven up by the expensive security capabilities demanded by their clients. But advocates — and perhaps the FCC, which held a workshop earlier this month to discuss the issue — instead blame state and local governments, which usually take a sizable cut of prison phone profits. “When 50 cents on every dollar goes back to the county, that doubles the cost of the call,” said Peter Wagner, executive director of the Prison Policy Initiative in Northampton, Mass. “The people who end up paying the bill are the people who are locked up.” In 2012, Pennsylvania took in $6.9 million as its cut of prisoner phone call charges. Slightly less than half went to buy amenities for inmates; the rest went to the state’s general fund. The state’s justification for the insanely high charges is that its deal with Mobile, Ala.-based Global Tel*Link ”allows jailers to monitor and record prisoner conversations.” But that seems extremely dubious, or at least indicative that there’s almost no competition when it comes to providing necessary private services such as phone utilities to prisons. Numerous sources at the Office of Special Investigations and Intelligence or OSII — the internal affairs department of Pennsylvania’s prison system — have told me that phone monitoring amounts to officers at a switchboards listening in to and recording calls that might involve conspiracy. How does listening in to a conversation amount to a 400+ percent increase in charges? It’s anyone’s guess. (Though maybe it has something to do with a 50 percent commission rate). As the article notes — and the Prison Policy Initiative has repeatedly suggested — the FCC is looking into the issue. But perhaps ambitious business people should be looking into it, too. Just think: even if some company gouged prisoners (who make as little as $0.19 per hour) at a rate of 2-to-1, they’d still be able to halve the amount Global Tel*Link charges these folks. Corporate America, are you listening? Perhaps you should be. ——— Follow me on Twitter @ssttrroouudd, where I post frequent links to fascinating stories such as this one. If you want to chat directly, I’m at stroudjournalism [at] gmail.com

Inmate testifies he saw Woods Run guard assault prisoners more than 20 times

An inmate testified Thursday that he saw former state prison guard Harry Nicoletti assault other inmates on more than 20 occasions during the six months he was a block worker at the Woods Run prison. Patrick Hogan, 32, a convicted robber, said he didn‘t want to participate in Nicoletti‘s assaults but for the most part didn‘t object to the corrections officer abusing sex offenders either. Hogan said he went along with it because he didn‘t want to lose the single cell, cable television and extra food that comes from doing regular chores as a block worker. He said he also didn‘t want to become one of Nicoletti‘s targets. “I absolutely would not want to ever be on the bad side of someone who could do anything to me,” Hogan testified in the state‘s prosecution of Nicoletti. Prosecutors charged Nicoletti, 61, of Coraopolis, with 89 counts that include involuntary deviant sexual assault. In the first day of testimony in his trial, Department of Corrections investigator Gary Hiler testified that Nicoletti singled out sex offenders — particularly ones convicted of assaulting minors — and homosexuals for physical, mental and sexual abuse. Assistant District Attorney Jon Pittman called Hogan as a state‘s witness to confirm other inmates‘ testimony. Under cross-examination, Hogan said he would have refused to testify if Nicoletti were a fellow inmate instead of a guard, adding that he didn‘t seek out investigators to become a witness. In the past two years while the state investigated, Hogan said he had his parole revoked, spent 56 days in restricted housing — also known as solitary confinement or the “hole” — and generally had his life uprooted. “I don‘t want to sit on this stand,” he said. “I don‘t want to be here right now.” Hogan also testified that Nicoletti would target inmates by replacing their regular meals with “alternative protein” meals consisting of bean burger, bean paste and other items that Hogan contended were nearly inedible. “It was nasty,” he said. Nicoletti mixed cigarette ashes and spit with the food, Hogan said. Another inmate testified Thursday that Nicoletti put him in restricted housing for 21 days after he refused to physically assault another inmate because the other inmate was significantly larger than him. During his stay, Nicoletti also sexually assaulted him several times, the inmate said. The Tribune-Review does not name accusers in sexual-assault cases. Testimony in the trial is expected to last two to three weeks. Brian Bowling is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-325-4301 or bbowling@tribweb.com. Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/3267386-74/nicoletti-hogan-inmate#ixzz2HgOUnMgs Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook

Handcuff love' sends Georgia man to prison

RINGGOLD, Ga. — A north Georgia man who handcuffed himself to a female Taco Bell co-worker has been sentenced to serve four years in prison. The Rome News-Tribune reports that 25-year-old Jason Earl Dean of Dalton handcuffed himself to the 18-year-old woman in August 2011 in an attempt to convince her to go on a date with him. Lookout Mountain Assistant District Attorney Alan Norton says a Catoosa County Superior Court judge sentence Dean to four years in prison followed by six years on probation. Norton says Dean is also not allowed to have any contact with the victim or her family. She called for help, and several other employees ran outside and talked Dean into letting her go. “Based on what came out during the hearing, this was a very fair sentence,” Norton told the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. “There was testimony put forth about a previous incident some years ago in Murray County.” As for an apology from Dean, Norton said, “I don’t think there ever was one.” Dean and the girl were part of the crew that reopened the Taco Bell off Old Alabama Highway near Interstate 75 in July nine weeks after a massive tornado damaged it and many other structures there in April 2011. Dean had been trying to go out with the woman for several weeks, and employees had changed her shift so she could avoid him, Ringgold Police Chief Dan Bilbrey said at the time.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a fired guard at the center of a sexual and physical abuse investigation at a Pittsburgh state prison and his attorney said the man is "pleased we're finally getting a chance to face his accusers." Harry Nicoletti, 61, of Coraopolis, faces the most — and most serious — charges of the four guards who are standing trial separately for the alleged abuse in the F Block, or intake area, at the century-old State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh. Nicoletti has been fired from the prison where he allegedly sexually assaulted and physically abused more than 20 inmates, mostly those serving time for child molestation. But Nicoletti also allegedly targeted inmates he thought were gay, regardless of their crimes. Nicoletti has called the charges "made up" and his attorney, Steve Colafella, said the accusers are not those typically deemed credible. "Obviously, we're dealing with not only a number of convicted felons, we're dealing with a number of convicted child sex offenders," Colafella said during a break in Tuesday's jury selection. Nine jurors have been picked and opening statements are expected to begin Thursday. The jury must decide whether Nicoletti is guilty of 89 counts involving 21 inmates who have accused him of physical or sexual abuse — including institutional sexual assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. Perhaps the most heinous allegations involve a transsexual male inmate who developed female breasts due to hormone treatments. Nicoletti fondled that inmate before raping him, while shouting racial and sexual epithets, including calling him a "weird freaky monkey," the criminal complaint said. Nicoletti is also charged with intimidating other inmates into silence, ordering or coercing other guards to mistreat the prisoners — including contaminating their food and bedding with urine and other bodily fluids — and then working with his colleagues to cover up the alleged abuse. The investigation has spawned several lawsuits, including two filed by eight guards, including Nicoletti, who lost their jobs or were demoted for allegedly participating in the abuse or failing to report it. The guards contend the allegations were trumped up and coaxed out of inmates by investigators with the state Department of Corrections. Seven former inmates, including some who will testify against Nicoletti and the other guards in criminal court, are suing over their alleged mistreatment. And three former prison administrators who lost their jobs during the investigation have sued claiming they were fired for being whistleblowers about the abuse. A judge has tossed that lawsuit, but they're appealing to have it reinstated. The judge overseeing Nicoletti's case also presided over another guard's trial last month. Tory Kelly, 41, of Aliquippa, was convicted on four counts including felony witness intimidation against one inmate, but had 10 other charges based on allegations by three other inmates thrown out. His sentencing is scheduled for March 20. Two other guards are scheduled for trial later this year. Nicoletti was arrested in September 2011, five months after he and several guards were suspended without explanation during what would later be revealed to be a county grand jury probe. "We're anxious to start this trial, it's been almost two years now," Colafella said. "He's certainly anxious to move forward and have his day in court." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/9-jurors-picked-for-Pittsburgh-inmate-abuse-case-4174069.php#ixzz2HUthZftD

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.