Archive for November, 2006
Debt relief bill to be reintroduced
Nov 29th
I"m a little late with this story, but via Pdstuff comes the link to some good news.
Since 2003, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has been pushing legislation that would grant student loan relief to public sector lawyers in the criminal justice system. With the Democrats in control of Congress, Durbin plans to reintroduce his bill early next year. Some hope it finally has a chance of passing.
To remedy the problem, Durbin is pushing the Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act. If passed into law, the Justice Department would pay up to $10,000 a year of the law school loans of any prosecutor or public defender. To qualify, a lawyer would have to commit to three years of service. Loan assistance would be capped at $60,000 per lawyer and would apply only to loans made through federal programs.
This certainly is heartening for us and I sincerely hope that it passes. The NACDL has been advocating it for a while now.
Posting schedule
Nov 21st
Posting has been – and will continue to be – light. I am on trial this week and what with the holiday and the boring State of CT, there really isn’t much (time) to blog about anything. I will return with a lengthy post over the weekend, though. Thanks for humoring me!
Kids paying for parents’ crimes
Nov 12th
A powerful, in-depth story from the Hartford Courant today about the impact that losing a parent to incarceration has on children left behind. All too often, this consequence of crime is overlooked and children are left (mostly) fatherless.
Maldonado sits quietly, listening to the chatter of his children. Then
he steps forward to speak on behalf of his class of incarcerated
fathers, a speech he has been practicing for three weeks. The
fluorescent lights cast a greenish hue, but Maldonado’s voice is sure;
laden with remorse:"Due to my bad decisions," he begins, "my kids lost their daddy."
"Sadly, I failed them," Maldonado says, continuing with his speech.
"They lost their daddy and their mother a companion. I am working hard
to make sure my children will have a daddy. I’m changing my life. Being
a daddy is not something we are entitled to. We have to earn it.
The numbers are staggering: In Hartford alone, between 4500 and 6000 kids have at least one parent in prison and 40% of all kids under the supervision of the State Department of Children and Families have a parent in jail.
But the story of adults behind bars is about far more than numbers,
it’s intricately linked to the story of the children they leave behind.Parents in prison don’t help with homework. They don’t help pay the
bills. They don’t corral youngsters on bedtime patrol, advocate for
them at school or advise them on the daily trials of life. They simply
aren’t there."When offenders do time," says Susan Quinlan, executive director of Families in Crisis, "families do time."
While the phenomenon of incarcerated parents is just one of many social
ills facing youngsters in Hartford and other cities across the nation,
experts say it affects children in ways that are different from the
trauma caused by other separations such as divorce or death. Children
of prisoners, the experts say, feel both abandoned and betrayed.
I can say that I do know that the CT DOC has several programs that try to get parents back in touch with their kids. Glad to see that lots of people are availing of that. However, more needs to be done:
The state Department of Correction doesn’t know how many children its
prisoners have; the state Department of Children and Families tracks
the incarceration of children’s parents through individual case files,
but doesn’t keep tallies or offer specialized treatment; the Hartford
school district does not know how many of its students have parents in
prison.Families in Crisis is leading a statewide effort to create a bill of
rights for children of incarcerated parents. The document is being
modeled after a similar one created in San Francisco that calls for the
consideration of children’s needs during their parents’ arrests, court
proceedings and incarceration.The group, along with the state child advocate, the state Department of
Children and Families and others, is convening a summit at the
Legislative Office Building Wednesday to work on the project."Families of offenders don’t belong to anyone," Quinlan said. "They are
invisible. But they are the most at-risk of the at-risk kids."
Please read the entire article, if you can.
Shaming – what took so long?
Nov 6th
Plenty has been said in the blogosphere about shaming punishments, but this story makes me wonder: what took so long?
A judge in Delaware has ordered a sex offender to wear a t-shirt stating – you guessed it – "I am a registered sex offender."
Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden also sentenced Russell Teeter, 69, to
two months in jail Friday for repeatedly exposing himself at his
business to a 10-year-old girl. Jurden handed down the unusual
sentence at the suggestion of deputy attorney general Donald Roberts,
who noted that Teeter has more than 10 convictions dating to 1976 and
has been treated for being a compulsive exhibitionist.Defense attorney Arlen Mekler opposed the sentence, describing the
T-shirt as "a modern-day scarlet letter," referring to the humiliating
punishment given an adulterous woman in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel
about puritan New England. Drewry Fennell, executive director of the Delaware American Civil Liberties Union, shared Mekler’s concern.
"There is no evidence that public shaming is effective in public
safety," she said. "And there are serious dangers posed to the person
wearing the shirt, exposing them to possible violence."
The prosecutor believes that the t-shirt fits within the community notification requirement. I think this could open up a scary door and then there is always the problem of vigilante justice.
But…what took so long?
Jailhouse Lock(down)
Nov 1st
An ex-inmate, trick or treating with his daughter, caused the NY State Westchester County jail to go into lockdown.
Why? Well, the former inmate, Oscar Aponte, chose to wear his DOC issued jumpsuit as his Halloween costume. This prompted an off-duty corrections officer – also trick or treating – to confront him and then call the jail to see if anyone escaped.
Hence the lockdown.
"Bad choice of costume," said Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to County Executive Andrew Spano.
"[The officer] confronted him, and he ran and drove off," Tolchin said. The
officer took down the man’s license plate and called Peekskill police
and the Corrections Department.
So what happens next?
Meanwhile, Peekskill police and the county’s Special Investigation
Unit found Aponte, confiscated the genuine jumpsuit and let him go.Aponte was arrested and charged Wednesday with petty larceny and
possession of stolen property, Tolchin said. She said prisoners are not
permitted to take their jumpsuits home when they are released."They get their possessions in a clear plastic bag, so it’s hard to see how he got a jumpsuit out, if he did," she said.
Isn’t that the real question here? How did he get his real jumpsuit out of the prison? To top it off, they’re going to prosecute him for this? It seems that NY doesn’t have any serious crimes to prosecute anymore.
First arrest under new law
Nov 1st
A 21-year old was arraigned on Monday in what might just be the first arrest in the state for violation of a new statute: sexual assault in the fourth degree.
Sexual assault in the fourth degree criminalizes forcing someone to have "unwanted contact with bodily fluids". Here is the public act that changed the statute.
So how long before someone is charged with emitting something that is not your "commonly contemplated bodily fluid"?
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