book review by Matt Clarke
Incarceration Nations by Baz Dreisinger (Other Press, 2016). 325 pages, $19.00 (hardcover).
When John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Baz Dreisinger began her two-year pilgrimage to prisons around the world, she probably told herself she was seeking the best practices in each penal system to help her understand what might be done to reform the mass-incarceration-driven justice system that prevails in the United States. It certainly seemed to come as a surprise when she concluded that reform may not be the answer at all – reform is too insufficient a concept, and wholesale replacement should be the goal.
That was not the only surprise Dreisinger confronted in her stirring hybrid of memoir and scholarly treatise, which never fails to portray the essential humanity of prisoners, victims and ordinary citizens in exquisite prose. Despite her expertise as a founder of John Jay’s Prison-to-College Pipeline program, which brings college classes into New York prisons and the formerly incarcerated into John Jay as students, Dreisinger was unprepared for the national philosophy of forgiveness and re-acceptance into the community practiced in Rwanda. A greater surprise: such compassion is even extended to the tens of thousands who took part ...
by Matt Clarke
Historic flooding along the Brazos River in southeast Texas last year forced the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to evacuate three facilities near Rosharon that housed more than 4,000 prisoners.
The evacuations began on May 29, 2016, when the Stringfellow and Terrell Units were evacuated, according to TDCJ spokesperson Jason Clark. Those units contained around 2,600 prisoners, most of whom were sent to facilities north of Houston, about 100 miles away. [See: PLN, Nov. 2016, p.63].
An altercation occurred at the Luther Unit when, after the power failed, evacuated prisoners refused to return to their assigned areas. Guards deployed chemical agents on around 50 prisoners who failed to follow orders, Clark said. No guards were injured, he added, and there was “no public safety threat,” but three prisoners were taken to the hospital – one for stitches and two for unidentified reasons.
About 150 trustees were evacuated to the Ramsey Unit which is located on the same large prison farm complex as Stringfellow and Terrell. The current Ramsey Unit was built on higher land after the original flood-damaged Ramsey Unit was demolished. Ironically, the Stringfellow Unit was constructed on the flood-prone site of the original Ramsey ...
by Matt Clarke
Decades after prisons in the Deep South were desegregated by the federal courts, a federal judge has approved a stipulated order desegregating housing and job assignments in Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) facilities. The February 5, 2016 order by U.S. District Court Judge Cindy Jorgenson also provided ...
by Matt Clarke
Current and former Missouri state prisoners have been experiencing “sticker shock” as they are presented with bills for the cost of their incarceration.
The Missouri Incarceration Reimbursement Act (MIRA) has been around since 1988, but wasn’t seriously enforced until 2006. Under MIRA, prisoners can be billed for the full past and future costs of their incarceration if it is believed they have the ability to pay 10% of the cost of two years in prison (about $2,200 annually). The statute allows state officials to seize 90% of a prisoner’s assets or income stream to satisfy the debt. With the costs of incarceration so high, such debts can be significant. [See: PLN, April 2014, p.28].
A hypothetical prisoner serving a ten-year flat prison term would be liable for the entire cost of his incarceration – around $220,000 – should he have approximately $4,400 in assets. And state officials could move to collect the full amount even after he is released. Pensions and government benefits are not exempt, which can leave former prisoners with insufficient funds for housing or even food.
For example, when he was released after serving a four-month “shock” sentence for drunk driving, a former ...
by Matt Clarke
On July 29, 2015, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal district court’s denial of summary judgment to two U.S. Marshals who allegedly arranged to have a prisoner beaten at an Arkansas jail.
James Clayton Solomon was convicted of violating the terms of his federal supervised release and agreed to voluntarily surrender, but instead absconded. Before he fled, Solomon sent a letter to the federal court stating his hope that Chief Judge Jimm Larry Hendren of the Western District of Arkansas “dies a slow and painful death.”
Solomon was apprehended in California and transported to a federal facility in Oklahoma. U.S. Marshal Susan Jones and a contract guard transported him back to Fort Smith, Arkansas. During the trip, Jones showed Solomon a copy of his correspondence and informed him “he’d pay for writing that type of letter to the judge.”
As he was being transported from Fort Smith, the Marshals allegedly told him that he “should never have written that letter to the judge and they were going to make sure [he] was punished for that letter.” They also reportedly said he was being sent to the Benton County Criminal Detention Center (BCCDC), and it ...
by Matt Clarke
Brian Edward Franklin was a Fort Worth, Texas police officer for more than a decade before he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced to life in prison in 1995. On April 6, 2016, the highest criminal court in Texas reversed his conviction, saying the state’s case against him relied on perjured testimony. The testimony in question was that of the alleged victim. The court noted that her perjury had caused other witnesses to give false testimony as well, depriving Franklin of due process.
The reversal allowed the state to prosecute Franklin again using the same indictment. However, there was no DNA or other forensic evidence to support the allegations of sexual assault. And since Franklin’s conviction was reversed based on perjured testimony – upon which the prosecution’s case rested – it would be extraordinarily difficult for prosecutors to win a conviction at a second trial.
On May 4, 2016, two days after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued its mandate reversing the case, Franklin appeared before state District Judge Wayne Salvant for a bond hearing. The bond was set at $10,000 and Franklin was released the next day.
In state habeas ...
by Matt Clarke
As repeatedly reported in Prison Legal News, for over a decade registered sex offenders have been targeted by vigilantes and assaulted, robbed and murdered due to their past crimes. And as noted in this issue’s cover story, that is part of the dark side of sex offender registries, which allow public access to offenders’ residential addresses and other personal information. Such information not only endangers registered sex offenders but also those who live with them and, in at least one case in Dallas, Texas, an innocent victim. That Dallas man, who was beaten with a baseball bat, had simply moved into an apartment recently vacated by a sex offender.
PLN believes these incidents are more widespread and occur with greater frequency than reported in the mainstream media. [See, e.g.: PLN, Sept. 2016, p.49; June 2015, p.63; Feb. 2013, p.50; April 2007, p.18].
In one of the earliest cases of registry vigilantism, two registered sex offenders who were living in the same home in Bellingham, Washington were murdered in 2005 by a man who gained access to their residence by claiming to be an FBI agent investigating threats made against sex offenders. Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, ...
by Matt Clarke
A $200,000 settlement in a lawsuit filed over the death of a mentally ill Oklahoma jail prisoner emphasizes what Oklahoma sheriffs have been saying for years: they are ill prepared to deal with the rapidly increasing number of mentally ill detainees in their jails.
Sheriffs in the ...
by Matt Clarke
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) added a rule to the April 2016 version of its Offender Handbook that bars prisoners from using any form of social media. Rule 111.N.4 states that “Offenders are prohibited from maintaining active social media accounts for the purpose of soliciting, updating, or engaging others, through a third party or otherwise.”
The policy change has sparked criticism among prisoner advocates who believe it violates the First Amendment freedom of speech rights of both prisoners and non-prisoners who wish to communicate with them.
Every U.S. prison system prohibits direct Internet access and cell phone use by prisoners. While a small number manage to post directly to their social media accounts using contraband cell phones, the majority of such accounts are maintained on behalf of prisoners by family members and friends. The TDCJ’s new rule effectively ends that practice.
“These regulations don’t just impact the inmate’s right to speech [but also] everyone else’s right to understand what’s going on in a prison,” said Dave Maass with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group dedicated to defending civil liberties on the Internet. “An inmate can put up information [online] about abuses going on or ...
by Matt Clarke
On February 18, 2014, a Texas state grand jury declined to indict El Paso police officer Jose Flores, 40, who fatally shot Daniel Rodrigo Saenz, 37, a handcuffed man in his custody, on March 8, 2013. That cleared the way for Flores, who had been on leave since the shooting, to return to work.
Saenz was a competitive bodybuilder and fitness trainer who formerly held the title of Mr. El Paso. The final events of his life began around 9:00 a.m. when the manager of an Albertsons supermarket called police to report a man who was "advising that he was feeling paranoid and began crying and asking for hugs." Police and paramedics responded.
Saenz admitted having used cocaine two days earlier, and then began twitching uncontrollably. A paramedic convinced Saenz to report to Del Sol Medical Center so his extremely high blood pressure could be treated.
After arriving at Del Sol, Saenz punched an elderly patient in the shoulder. A police officer arrived to check on him and was attacked by Saenz. The officer used his Taser on Saenz, cycling it five times with little effect. Police managed to take him into custody and handcuff him behind ...
