Colorado: New Law Expands Governor’s Authority to Pardon Those with Marijuana Convictions
Certainly more states should follow this lead! In most states the Clemency process is costly and time consuming for any offense, hence unjust. I specialize in Applications for Clemency nationwide.
Excerpts from the Article:
Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation into law on Tuesday providing the Governor’s Office with expanded clemency powers for those with marijuana convictions on their records.
Under the new law, the office of the Governor may “grant pardons to a class of defendants who were convicted of the possession of up to two ounces of marijuana without an application and without seeking the comment of the District Attorney and judges for those cases.”
While the Governor’s office already possessed the authority to issue pardons in certain circumstances, this measure expands those powers so that the Governor can do so unilaterally for persons with minor marijuana convictions.
The Governor can begin unilaterally issuing pardons in 90 days.
Legislation (HB 1266) previously enacted by the state legislature in 2017 permits those with misdemeanor cannabis convictions to petition the courts to have their records sealed.
Other provisions in the legislation (House Bill 1424) remove the prohibition on those with past felony convictions for marijuana-related activities from seeking industry licenses, among other changes to facilitate greater social equity within the retail cannabis space.
“My office in the Marijuana Enforcement Division is making equity a priority in engaging stakeholders around this topic because, for too long, the consequences of not having equity across too many areas of society – cannabis being one – are simply too severe,” Gov. Polis said.
The Whole Story:
Colorado: New Law Expands Governor’s Authority to Pardon Those with Marijuana Convictions
Woman driving near protests says LAPD foam round injured her, files $10-million claim – Non Lethal Force – kra
Any alternative to lethal force is progress, but police still should show restraint whenever possible. This woman may have a valid claim; the courts will determine that.
Excerpts from the Article:
A woman who was at a Los Angeles intersection near a protest over the killing of George Floyd filed a legal claim Monday, alleging she was struck in the head by a foam bullet fired by Los Angeles police, leaving her with stitches, a fractured cheekbone and a brain injury. Jasmine Morales, 26, spent nine days hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and is seeking $10 million from the city of Los Angeles for injuries she suffered during the May 30 incident, according to the claim.
The projectile, likely a 40-millimeter hard foam round, flew in through her open driver’s side window near the Grove about 8 p.m. as she was driving to a Target store, according to the legal filing and her lawyers. The impact nearly knocked Morales unconscious, according to her claim. Neama Rahmani, one of her lawyers, said that based on eyewitness accounts, the officer had fired the projectile from inside a police car.
Morales’ attorney said she was traveling through the area and was not a part of the protests.“For an officer in a black-and-white to shoot a nearby driver in the face is not tactical police work so much as a drive-by shooting,” Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor, said. The claim, the required legal precursor to a lawsuit, alleges the LAPD officer clearly violated department guidelines for using such force.
Photographs Morales’ attorneys said were taken in the aftermath show the left side of Morales’ face bloody and bruised with a wound on her temple and a black eye. Morales, according to the claim, never heard any warning or order from the officers, and protesters were not around her Toyota but were nearby. The incident unfolded as a protest in the Fairfax district escalated into violence, with officers using batons and firing hard foam rounds into the crowd, some of whom set fire to parked police cars.
Morales required 20 stitches, and the Los Angeles resident suffered a fractured cheekbone, traumatic brain injury, bruising and impaired vision, the legal claim said. Morales was released from the hospital June 8, according to Rahmani. “In brain injury cases, she could get better in a matter of weeks or suffer lifelong impacts,” Rahmani said. Houman Sayaghi, another of Morales’ attorneys, said the foam projectile did not fall into the car after it struck his client, but he hopes video footage from surrounding security cameras, including a nearby bank, will help reconstruct events.
During the protests May 30, Los Angeles police deployed a “40-millimeter Less-Lethal Launcher” using single-shot hard foam projectiles. It is a device the LAPD and other police agencies claim allows for more precise targeting of violent suspects, thereby reducing the risk of serious injuries caused by other “less-lethal” alternatives.
But Rahmani said that an officer firing the weapon at a motorist is clearly an indiscriminate use of force against a person who posed absolutely no threat and was nothing but an innocent bystander passing through the area.
The civilian Los Angeles Police Commission and its inspector general’s office have said they will review all complaints of excessive force against the department.
An LAPD spokeswoman previously said the department is reviewing use of the 40-millimeter launcher and plans to release the findings “at a later time.”
In the wake of multiple accusations of indiscriminate fire by officers, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he had directed the LAPD to “minimize” use of the less-lethal weapons when dealing with peaceful protesters.
A Times review of dozens of instances of police force during protests over the police killing of Floyd found that demonstrators suffered a range of injuries at the hands of the LAPD, including minor bruising from baton strikes and falls as police skirmish lines advanced, and serious injuries to some protesters’ genitals and heads from foam and sponge bullets and beanbags being launched into crowds, sometimes from close range.
A 2017 analysis of 1,984 people struck by rubber or plastic bullets found that 3% were killed and 15% permanently injured. The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal BMJ Open, reviewed 30 years of scientific papers worldwide on injuries from kinetic impact projectiles, or KIPs, which include rubber-coated bullets, beanbag rounds, sponge rounds and others.
Dr. Rohini Haar, the study’s lead author and an emergency room physician, told The Times that the so-called sponge rounds fired by the 40-millimeter launcher had not reduced problems.
The Whole Story is in the L A Times.
Trump administration made it harder to investigate police abuse – True and Tragic – kra
This is old news, but the EFFECT of it is more important now than ever. tRump is a disaster for criminal justice in many ways … from his use of private prisons (which Obama, wisely, was phasing out) to his total incompetence with the issues. He does not care about meaningful reform, does not care about individuals’ rights, and is as “lost in space”on criminal justice as he is on many other issues!
Remember, justice is the result sought. B4 this move by Sessions, the D OJ had significant clout to help lead toward that end. Not anymore.
Excerpts from the Article:
President Donald Trump’s decision in May 2018 to disband a National Security Council unit focused on preventing pandemics flew largely under the radar — until the coronavirus began its deadly march across the globe. Now, it’s the subject of widespread attention.
There’s a similar story unfolding around a different and less-noted decision made six months later by outgoing U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one that’s now a key backdrop to the protests against police abuse of Black Americans that have swept the nation following the death last month of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis officers.
In November 2018, shortly before he left office, Sessions signed a memo restricting U.S. Department of Justice investigations into alleged abuse in local police departments. Such past probes — in Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, Newark, N.J., Detroit and beyond — had followed high-profile killings by police. Sessions’ move followed an 18-month review he’d ordered of all previous probes, some of them dating back decades.
Sessions’ decision significantly weakened a federal oversight tool the Department of Justice had used since 1994 to investigate allegations of police abuse and to force reforms through court-ordered consent decrees — sometimes the only viable route for causing systemic change in municipal police departments.
Sessions’ move set higher hurdles to start DOJ investigations of new claims of abuse, with more complex and difficult criteria. In formal resolutions, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners and their counterparts in other cities urged Sessions not to weaken the federal controls, to no avail. His successor, Attorney General William Barr, has kept those changes in place.
The FBI and DOJ are investigating Floyd’s death, but in light of Barr’s continuing restrictions, a broader probe of the entire Minneapolis police force is uncertain.
It worked in Detroit
In Detroit, a Free Press series about local police shootings of civilians sparked a DOJ probe that began in December 2000. The subsequent 30-month investigation focused on allegations of excessive force, illegal dragnet arrests and mistreatment of prisoners.
The investigation produced two June 2003 consent decrees that placed the Detroit Police Department under the supervision of a federal monitor to track compliance with 175 reforms. Key changes modified the department’s detention procedures and arrest criteria, along with the circumstances in which officers could use forceful restraint and fire or even point their weapons. Others revised use-of-force policies and training, putting an emphasis on de-escalation.
Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver, right, looks on during a 2003 press conference as U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins announces an agreement on two court-backed consent decrees that will force the DPD to cease practices that led to civil rights abuses. Also pictured are Assistant Attorney General Ralph Boyd and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. With more than 200 citizen complaints having languished for years, the agreement compelled DPD to complete thorough internal probes of alleged police misconduct in a timely fashion.
The consent decrees were in effect until August 2014, followed by a two-year transition period to full freedom from federal oversight. Judith Levy, now a federal judge based in Ann Arbor, played a leading role in overseeing implementation of the police reforms as an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit working in the office’s civil rights section. “Reforms were adopted, and they became Detroit Police Department policy,” Levy said in an interview. “It was painful, it was long, it was expensive, but we got it done. Of course, it’s way more expensive (for police) to shoot people and pay them in settlements.”
“It does affect morale, but it affects morale because too often police departments don’t want to change,” Levy said. “And perhaps the fact that it affects police morale speaks volumes about how concerned we ought to be about police culture. That’s the last reason to back off.”
“We are using the tools that we have,” he said in an interview earlier this month. “Where we think that things need to be investigated, we investigate them.”
While Schneider acknowledged that his office has received complaints about police, he repeatedly declined to say whether there are any current investigations based on those complaints. He pointed to a separate probe instead.
There’s literally no way to tell if any local police departments are under investigation. A DOJ website on the conduct of law enforcement agencies invites readers to click on links to see “results of our work.” But the page has not been updated since Sept. 4, 2017.
Beneficial outcomes
Former Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan when the DOJ probe of the city police department began in late 2000. He and then-Mayor Dennis Archer had gone to Washington and argued for an investigation.
“Based on a series of police events relative to the use of force and deaths in holding cells, the decision was made to request that DOJ start an investigation,” Green said in an interview.
Among the signs that the DOJ probe and subsequent consent decrees produced results are a significant drop in lawsuits against the police department and reduced city payouts for abuse, the Detroit News reported earlier this month.
Even before the Detroit police department emerged from oversight, conditions improved. There were fewer fatal shootings of suspects and fewer false arrests, and fewer deaths in police holding cells, the Free Press reported. The number of holding-cell deaths also decreased, according to Bridge Magazine.
“It has had a beneficial effect in Detroit. I don’t think there’s any question about it,” Green said in an interview. “The police force is better trained, and they’re implementing the policies they’ve been trained upon. The result is you get policing that’s more equitable with fewer instances where citizens are harmed.”
Green, however, believes that such federal oversight doesn’t tackle broader social problems that police often are compelled to address.
“With all this talk about ‘defunding the police,’ what they’re really talking about is funding organizations that can address the hard problems police are really bad at,” he said. “Issues like mental health. They’re not trained in that. Homelessness is another issue they should not have to respond to. There’s a whole myriad of issues that police are called on to solve that they’re not trained in.”
During the protests over Floyd’s death, Detroit has not seen the looting, burned cars, damaged buildings or shootings of police that other cities have experienced.
Levy sees a clear link between the consent decree that reined in the police department here and the city’s relative lack of violence in recent weeks. And so she regrets that other police departments can’t benefit from the kind of DOJ investigation, thanks to Sessions and Barr that forced Detroit police to tackle deep-rooted problems.
“It’s too much work now if they use force,” she said. “Our consent decree redefined use of force. Now if you take your weapon out of the holster and acquire a target — any target, person, dog or house — you have to write a report justifying it. Cops don’t like to fill out paperwork.”
DNA Database of NYC’s Chief Medical Examiner Plagued with Errors
Wrongful convictions occur for a number of reasons, but a sloppy Medical Examiner Lab should not be one of them!
Excerpts from the Article:
Darrell Harris was arrested for a home burglary that occurred in December 2018.
A detective from the New York Police Department (“NYPD”) told Harris his DNA had been recovered from a window of the home. Even though the arrest cost Harris his job at the John F. Kennedy Airport, he paid $25,000 for a lawyer and provided an alibi placing him in New Jersey when the burglary was committed. Then, in June 2019, police dropped the charges.
An investigation revealed that a lab technician from New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner (“OCME”) had cross-contaminated the DNA sample from the window with a sample Harris had earlier provided in a sexual misconduct investigation.
“Errors like these, and the lab’s inability to detect them, should concern the public,” said Terri Rosenblatt, staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society (“Society”). “More and more often, criminal cases rise and fall on DNA evidence.”
The Society filed a Freedom of Information Law request and learned of other errors at the OCME’s DNA lab, including:
• a man who was wrongfully arrested for rape based on a confirmed DNA match from the lab (the man provided an ironclad alibi — he was in prison when the rape occurred);
• DNA profiles in the database taken from witnesses and victims (these are prohibited by law);
• DNA profiles in the database that were taken from minors without parental consent (again, prohibited by law); and
• DNA profiles in the database from deceased persons and victims of homicide.
The Society, along with NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, are insisting the City Council impose tougher regulations on the OCME lab. “These changes are common sense and incorporate feedback we have gathered without compromising the ability for officers to successfully identify criminals, build strong cases and bring justice for victims,” Shea said in a New York Times article.
Currently, the OCME is required to disclose errors to the City Council only if one or more of the following occurred: (1) intentional analyst misconduct leading to fabricated results; (2) significant errors affecting the accuracy of a report; (3) a failure to follow protocols that affected a report’s accuracy; or (4) misleading statements in testimony by laboratory employees.
17 corrections officers disciplined in death of transgender woman at Rikers Island
All of our prisons are atrocious, but Rikers Island is a stand out. At least they took some action in this case. Mental health care in our prisons is virtually non existent. READ Prison Abuse – Why Massive Indifference is a Massive Mistake
The neglect of our mentally ill population costs YOU – the taxpayer, $444 billion every year!
Excerpts from the Article:
More than a dozen corrections officers will be disciplined in connection with the death of Layleen Cubilette-Polanco, a transgender woman held at New York’s Rikers Island jail, city officials said.
Three officers and a captain of the New York City Department of Correction were suspended without pay immediately, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement on Friday. Thirteen other uniformed staff are facing disciplinary action but officials did not discuss their status.
“The death of Layleen Polanco was an incredibly painful moment for our city,” de Blasio said. “What happened to Layleen was absolutely unacceptable and it is critical that there is accountability.”
Cubilette-Polanco, 27, died last year of complications from epilepsy while she was in “punitive segregation,” also known as solitary confinement, according to her autopsy and corrections officials.
She had been arrested on misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment, court records show. She was taken into custody because she missed court dates as part of an alternative to incarceration program stemming from prostitution charges, according to court records. She was sent to jail because she couldn’t afford the $500 bail, her family said.
Polanco was placed in what it called a restrictive housing unit at the Rose M. Singer Center on May 30, 2019, after she was adjudicated for an assault that injured another person in custody, the Department of Corrections said.
She was found unresponsive in her cell on June 7, 2019. When her autopsy was released, her family received records confirming that Polanco suffered multiple seizures while on Rikers Island, according to her family’s attorney, David Shanies. Her death renewed the conversation about the perils of cash bail, pretrial detention and other policies that civil rights groups say contribute to the criminalization of transgender women of color and other vulnerable communities.
The announcement of the disciplinary actions comes after the decision by the Bronx district attorney’s office earlier this month not to file criminal charges after completing a six-month investigation into Cubilette-Polanco’s death. Prosecutors concluded that they “would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any individual committed any crime associated with Ms. Polanco’s demise,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement.
But Clark said investigators found that corrections officers failed to follow the department’s policy to observe inmates in punitive segregation at least once every 15 minutes at irregular intervals.
“In this case, they allowed 47 minutes to pass between tours of Ms. Polanco’s cell. This violation was referred to DOC for appropriate administrative action,” Clark said.
The DOC describes the restrictive housing unit as a joint program with Correctional Health Services designed to “incentivize participation in mental health programs.” Residents of the unit receive up to seven hours a day outside of their cell for programming and services and entertainment.
More Than 200 Convicted of Corruption at Baltimore Department of Corrections; More Charges Announced
For 14 years now I have been sounding the alarm about America’s prisons. In every state, they are an agency out of control, so it is great to see that Baltimore (and afew other places) are cracking down!
Excerpts from the Article:
More than 200 guards, prisoners and civilians have been convicted of corruption at the Baltimore Department of Corrections’ prison system over the last four years. In a major new case revealed in December 2019, then-acting Captain Kevin Hickson and 24 other members of the Baltimore Central Regional Tactical Unit were indicted on 236 criminal charges of violent assault, tampering with and destroying evidence, and falsifying official public documents.
The Unit was investigated in 2016 for a series of incidents involving excessive use of force at several facilities. The Unit was responsible for maintaining order at the Metropolitan Transition Center, the Baltimore Pretrial Facility, the state Corrections Department’s Jail Industries Building, and Baltimore City Booking and Intake Facility.
Prosecutors and prison officials worked together and uncovered a criminal enterprise organized to maintain dominance within the prison system. Prosecutors stated that Hickson and his unit employed “illegal excessive use of force through assaults of inmates, use of threats against inmates, and various retaliatory practices to assure complete compliance with [the tactical team’s] authority, which bolsters [its] overall reputation within the territory and suppresses any dissension and discord among the overall prison population.”
Secretary of Corrections Robert Green said the allegations were “disturbing” and commended Governor Larry Hogan for making the issue a priority during his administration. “This case represents our strong effort to root out people who don’t belong in the field of public safety and rehabilitation,” he stated. “This is a disturbing case, but it does not and should not cast a shadow on the commitment and integrity of the exceptional correctional professionals in this department.”
Represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the 25 were charged December 3, 2019, after a year on administrative leave, and some could face up to 150 years in prison. Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Friedman stated that she did not believe members of the Unit posed a risk to the public and released all but one pending trial.
Baltimore has previously seen multiple episodes of corruption within its prison system. In a contraband smuggling scheme, prosecutors stated that the Black Guerrilla Family used guards to gain control of the prison. [PLN, April 2015, p. 30.] In 2018 and 2019, more than three dozen guards were charged with smuggling heroin, cellphones, and pornography into the state’s medium-security and maximum-security prisons in Jessup. In September 2019, a former sergeant for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services was sentenced to 15 years for helping run the Crips gang inside state prisons and “enrich” it by helping the gang smuggle in contraband.
Green said this string of corruption cases did not show failure as a whole. “Evidence here today is that we investigated this case, we brought this forward,” he said. “It is a committed effort to be excellent.” Hogan stated, “We are again making clear that we have absolutely no tolerance whatsoever for corruption of any kind in our state prison system or anywhere else is state government.”
Lawmaker criticizes private prison raises
See my many articles on private prisons; they are a disaster! They spend billions of dollars in donations to legislators to get state contracts, but they will not spend the money they legally are required to spend to keep a sick inmate alive! That is FACT!
Excerpts from the Article:
A Republican lawmaker said he’s furious after legislators approved raises for private prison employees, but then said they can’t afford increases for workers already on state payrolls.
State Rep. J.J. Humphrey, R-Lane, said he’s asked Gov. Kevin Stitt to veto part of House Bill 4160. The measure calls for nearly $1.2 million in taxpayer funds to be spent to equalize employee pay at the contracted private correctional facilities statewide.
The measure passed the state House 98-0 and the state Senate 42-1.
Humphrey, who initially voted for the measure, said the raises were tucked into a larger Department of Corrections funding bill, which was pushed through in the final days of session. He thought he was funding raises for more than 400 public correctional employees and teachers, but didn’t notice the section also awarding increases to the private sector.
“It’s infuriating,” said Humphrey, who chairs the House’s public safety committee. “It makes me so mad I can hardly see straight. Let’s not tell people we can’t give (raises) because we don’t have the money then turn around and give it to private.”
Humphrey questioned why private prison employees are getting raises with public dollars when lawmakers are still struggling to increase compensation for other state employees. “It’s very disturbing that we would give a $1 million raise to private prison employees before a large majority of our (public) employees,” he said.
State Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, who authored the measure, said the Legislature was trying to equalize pay to ensure private prisons are adequately staffed.
He said recent raises for public correctional officers did not cover their counterparts staffing private institutions. “That creates a difference in pay,” Thompson said. “They try to stay together in pay as much as possible.” It’s critical to make sure private facilities stay operational, and lawmakers were trying to take care of both types, he said. “(There was) nothing nefarious toward our people,” Thompson said. “We need to do more, and I understand that. If I was one of those not included, I would have concerns as well.”
He doesn’t think Stitt should veto the measure.
State Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, who authored the measure in the state House, did not immediately return a message left seeking comment.
Former legislator Bobby Cleveland, executive director of the Oklahoma Corrections Professionals, said the bill is probably one of the worst he’s ever seen. Cleveland’s group advocates for correctional employees.
“We should not be taking our money out of (the) DOC (Department of Corrections) budget when we can’t even give a raise to probation and parole officers who have a very dangerous job,” he said. “But we’re going to give private prisons a raise out of our budget? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. I think we’ve lost our ever-loving mind.”
Cleveland said public correctional employees will be very upset as news spreads. Morale will take a hit.
Public government should not be subsidizing private businesses that are under contract with the state, he said.
“That is just blatantly wrong,” Cleveland said.
USA TODAY poll: Americans want major police reform, more focus on serious crime
Because it is so long overdue! Most cops are good cops, but I have been raising hell about abuses for 14 years. Major changes are coming. 🙂
Excerpts from the Article:
Most Americans believe that change must be made to law enforcement across the nation and that reforms are needed to reduce police brutality against Black Americans, a poll released Monday found.
Among the ideas embraced by many of those polled June 18-22 by Ipsos on behalf of Public Agenda and USA TODAY:
• Force officers to reapply for their jobs to help weed out bad cops.
• Limit the scope of policing to focus on serious and violent crimes.
• Cut off police departments’ ability to buy military gear.
Those reforms are in addition to widespread and bipartisan support for more training on de-escalation tactics and racial biases, as well as numerous reforms aimed at increasing transparency.
The poll surveyed 1,113 U.S. adults as a part of the Hidden Common Ground initiative, which focuses on agreement and disagreement on solutions to tough public problems. The online poll has a credibility interval, akin to a margin of error, of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points for all respondents.
The data comes after weeks of nationwide protests calling for racial equality and an end to police brutality. In respondent Lallage Carouthers’ 83 years, she has never seen such far-reaching attention on the issues.
An African American woman living in Shelby, North Carolina, she can remember the end of segregation – her daughter’s school integrating and a federal mandate that her nursing unit do the same.
But today, Americans’ reckoning with racial inequality is extending to even historical symbols of slavery and racism, especially Confederate statues. It’s unlike anything Carouthers has seen.
Cases of police brutality that have attracted national attention and protesting don’t happen in isolation – “It’s a problem with the whole system,” she said. Someone had to hire the officers, after all.
About three in four people surveyed say racial bias against Black Americans is a serious problem in the U.S. Slightly fewer say it’s a problem in their community.
Asked whether racism is a problem with individuals or society, respondents were more likely to say both. More than half said major changes or a total redesign were needed.
“Some officers will profile Black people. … I know I can get away with more things as a white person than a Black person could,” Yismo Rosenberg of Houston told USA TODAY. He believes poor training among officers is probably to blame.
The poll found several reforms that focused around training and diversity in policing had support from three-quarters or more of respondents: requiring all officers to undergo training on de-escalation tactics to avoid the use of force, requiring all officers to undergo training on how to be less racially biased and recruiting more Black Americans to become police officers.
Even more popular: transparency reforms. Nine in 10 respondents supported having officers wear body cameras, 8 in 10 supported requiring police departments to publicly report all incidents involving the use of force within 72 hours, and nearly as many supported creating a national public database of officers who have used excessive force – and prohibiting other jurisdictions from rehiring them.
More extreme forms of police reform have varying levels of support, often with partisan divides. But the poll found two major reforms were supported by more than half of poll-takers: focusing policing on serious or violent crimes and requiring all police officers to reapply for their jobs, hiring back and retraining only the most qualified.
The poll identified several specific examples of responsibilities that more than half of respondents thought could be done by other professionals rather than police: sending social workers and EMTs to respond to mental health, substance use and domestic violence issues, assigning social workers and counselors to monitor school safety, and using cameras, drones and other technologies to enforce traffic laws. Democrats were more likely to support these reductions to officers’ responsibilities.
The poll also documented support for police was common, with nearly three-quarters of respondents saying disrespect of police officers was a serious problem and about half saying police budgets should stay the same or increase.
Reducing funding to police departments, a rallying cry for many protesters, received support from about one-third of respondents.
Two Effingham Co. jail officers arrested for bringing controlled substances into the facility
Contrary to what prison officials say, the truth is that more than 90% of contraband is brought in by D O C staff, not “visitors”. If convicted, they need prison time!
Excerpts from the Article:
Two Effingham County jail officers have been arrested and two more on paid administrative leave after a three month investigation. Jaleen Connerly, 32, and Betrice Taylor, 50, were arrested and charged with numerous things to include bringing a controlled substance inside the facility.
Connerly is charged with:
Obtaining, procuring, or giving an inmate tobacco or tobacco product without consent of jailer
Attempt or conspiracy to violate Georgia controlled substance act
Bribery
Unlawful for person/employee to associate with criminal street gang to conduct/participate in criminal activity
Unlawful to come inside guard lines to deliver to inmate a controlled substance, giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Taylor is charged with:
Unlawful for person/employee to associate with criminal street gang to conduct/participate in criminal activity
Giving to or possession by inmates prohibited items
Unlawful to come inside guard lines to deliver to inmate a controlled substance
Attempt or conspiracy to violate Georgia controlled substance act
Both women posted bail and have been released. The ongoing investigation also indicated two other employees that will remain on leave until the investigation is completed.
Audit: Massachusetts Department of Corrections Failed to Provide Timely Health Care or Reentry Services
This is the ongoing saga of abysmal performance of prisons in America. Why should we improve them? Because 96% of all inmates will be released … to become your neighbors! That this audit was even done is perhaps a sign of oh so slow progress.
I have news for you. This prison just switched to Correct Care Solutions, LLC. They are no better!
Excerpts from the Article:
An audit of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MDOC) released January 9, 2020, found that the agency was failing to provide prisoners with timely health care and proper reentry services, including help with needed medical appointments. As a result, prisoner health has been jeopardized, especially after release, exposing MDOC to legal risk, according to the office of State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump, which authored the study.
“Inmates have a right to timely health services while incarcerated, and we all have a vested interest in their successful reentry into society,” Bump said.
She called it “concerning” that MDOC’s “lax oversight” in these two ways “may have negatively affected inmate treatment and rehabilitation.”
Under MDOC policy, each Sick Call Request Form (SCRF) received from a prisoner must be processed within 24 hours on weekdays or 72 hours on weekends. But from July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2018 – the period covered by the audit – MDOC dropped the ball in one out of five cases, with 20% of SCRFs failing to meet that processing time requirement. Of 60 prisoners whose cases were reviewed, there were a total of 297 SCRFs, and 55 of those were processed late from one to 31 days.
Additionally, MDOC policy requires screening by a qualified health care professional (QHP) within seven days after a prisoner submits a sick request form. Yet for nearly one-third of the prisoners whose files were reviewed – 19 out of 60 – there was no evidence that they were ever seen by a QHP. In 23 of the files, 163 SCRFs were missing information: 33 didn’t have a referral to a QHP, 102 didn’t have a nurse’s triage determination, and 28 didn’t show where the prisoner was housed.
The audit also examined the files of 60 soon-to-be-released prisoners with an eye out for their required Individual Reentry Plan (IRP). An IRP includes physical and mental health appointments for post-release services, any needed authorization for release of medical record (ARMR), refill prescriptions for necessary medications and explanations of Medicaid coverage. Twenty-two files – almost 37% of the total – had no evidence that IRPs were even discussed with prisoners.
In addition, five of the IRPs revealed a documented physical/mental health issue, but there was no evidence that any appointments were made with external medical providers. And for the 23 prisoners who were scheduled for medical appointments after release, no ARMRs were obtained and signed.
“There certainly has been a great deal more emphasis [in recent years] in the community about reentry plans and the need to facilitate this, so we don’t just perpetuate cycles of crime in an individual’s life,” Bump observed.
The audit also examined areas specific to women’s health care, including breast and pelvic exams, as well as pregnancy-related concerns. MDOC was found in substantial compliance with its policies regarding its requirement to inform women of the availability of services and with providing those services to them. However, Bump noted that mold at the state women’s prison in Framingham prohibited her auditors from getting a look at the medical files of some female prisoners.
MDOC also runs the Massachusetts Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center, a Plymouth facility for men involuntarily committed for treatment under the state Section 35 law. Though never convicted of a crime, 10 men held there have sued MDOC for the facility’s “appalling conditions” and the inadequate treatment they received at the former prison camp, where they arrived shackled and handcuffed in a prison van to be strip-searched and monitored mainly by MDOC prison guards and even forced to wear jumpsuits like prisoners.
The auditors recommended that MDOC educate staff in reentry-service standards and retrain staff members to correctly complete SCRs and IRPs. It was further recommended that staff assigned to reentry services work solely in that area rather than doing multiple jobs.
MDOC indicated that during the period of the audit, health care to prisoners was provided by a third-party vendor, Massachusetts Partnership for Correctional Healthcare, LLC. But as of July 1, 2018, MDOC entered into a new contract with Correct Care Solutions, LLC.
As of June 2018, MDOC’s 8,741 prisoners were kept in 16 correctional facilities with a total 4,600 employees. The agency received $645 million in state appropriations during fiscal year 2018.
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