Education From the Inside Out: A Plea for Prison Education

In a decade of teaching, I have approached many a semester's end wistfully: another goodbye to students I have, week after week, intellectually bonded with. But this semester, wistful feels more like the blues.

I am soon to be exiled from pedagogical heaven: an English 101 class so academically voracious, they rendered my job effortless. My students not only read the material and took extensive notes on it, they read material weeks before I'd assigned it. They arrived armed with studied opinions about each text and page numbers containing relevant passages to shore up these opinions; they begged me for additional grammar worksheets and requested feedback on work they'd assigned themselves. When we read one particular Ralph Ellison essay, they groaned about how many times the piece had driven them to the dictionary, and I held back tears of joy: Oh for a roomful of students who studiously look up words they don't understand!

The blues run deeper, though. Students like those in my English 101 class are few and far between -- because they're incarcerated at Otisville Correctional Facility, the first class in a program I launched at John Jay College of Criminal Justice: the Prison-to-College Pipeline. The pilot program has a simple goal -- maximize the number of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people who go to college and succeed there -- and it was prompted by a question posed by John Jay's President, Jeremy Travis, who has written extensively about prisoner re-entry: "If over 700,000 people are leaving our prisons, how should the nation's educational institutions be organized to help them make a successful transition to free society?"

The Pipeline is designed with reentry in mind, offering for-credit classes, skills workshops and college and re-entry planning to a small pool of men within five years of release. The aim is to funnel them into the CUNY system, where they are guaranteed a slot. We take advantage of educational timing: The three to five years prior to release -- ripe moments for educational intervention -- are perhaps more likely to produce a re-entering community that avails itself of higher educational opportunities.

Via monthly learning exchanges during which John Jay students visit the prison and engage in classes alongside the incarcerated students, the program achieves two additional aims. We acculturate the incarcerated students to the college community of which they will, upon release, be a part. At the same time we acculturate, in a humanizing context, the John Jay students to the incarcerated population -- thereby impacting the way they undertake their future jobs as progressive leaders in the criminal justice and social service arenas.

I have watched the men in my class morph from "inmate" to "college student" -- a profound process with tangible increments: Eventually they stopped writing their DIN numbers on assignments, and grew accustomed to being called by their first names again (prison is a last-name-only milieu). Some are taking on college as part of a "let's-do-this-together" pact with their children, enrolled on the outside. Others return to a path foiled by missteps the last time around: One of my students was enrolled at John Jay 20 years ago, and looks forward to his triumphant return, credits under his belt.

But back to the blues: Programs like the Prison-to-College Pipeline -- shown time and again to be vastly valuable, in both public safety and prisoner re-entry contexts -- are scarce. There are precious few publicly funded post-secondary degree programs in American correctional facilities; the bulk of the some three dozen or so that do exist, including John Jay's, are privately funded and at constant risk of going broke. The result? Approximately 11 percent of state prison inmates have a college degree, compared to 48 percent of the general population. A 2004 survey found that post-secondary correctional education was available to only about 5 percent of the overall prison population.

This was not always so. In 1970, a century after the American Correctional Association Congress endorsed education behind bars, the New York State Corrections Law required New York's Department of Correctional Services to "provide each inmate with a program of education which seems most likely to further the process of socialization and rehabilitation." A year later, the Attica rebels demanded that America's prisons live up to this claim; over the next two decades, higher education in prison flourished, to the tune of some 700 degree-granting prison programs nationally. Federal support for these programs meant that incarcerated individuals were eligible for Pell grants, needs-based college funds for qualifying low-income students, and, in New York, Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) grants, as well.

But a shift in government spending between 1988 and 1998 turned the tide. During those years in New York, for instance, the operating budget for the public university system was slashed by 29 percent while state spending on prisons rose by 76 percent. In 1994, for the first time in history, New York State spent more on prisons than on universities. And shortly thereafter, the big blow came: Congress eliminated inmate eligibility for Pell Grants -- even though such education accounted for a mere one-tenth of 1 percent of the Pell Grants' annual budget. The results were dramatic. Within three years the national number of prison higher education programs dropped from 350 to 8.

This is a prodigious loss. The literal and metaphorical value of a college education -- to incarcerated men and their communities -- is colossal. For one, numerous studies have shown that the higher the educational attainment, the higher the reduction of recidivism; in one such study, inmates who possessed at least two years of college were rearrested at a rate of 10 percent, as compared to a general rate of 60 percent. That, of course, adds up to money saved. One study suggested that for every dollar spent on education, two dollars are saved by ducking the cost of re-incarceration. If we care about equitable prisoner re-entry and about reducing America's absurdly high recidivism rate, we should care about prison education.

The value of higher education behind bars transcends dollars and cents. Considering the fact that 1 out of every 100 Americans -- and more than 3 out of every 100 black men -- are in prison, truly increasing access to education demands that we take college to prison. If we are genuinely committed, too, to a criminal justice system that is not about punishment or revenge but rehabilitation and justice, higher education should be our friend. Studies have shown that it engages students in reading, analyzing, writing and mentoring, not to mention assessing choices and being persistent in the face of obstacles -- critical character traits that are more than just academic. Higher education also bolsters community commitment. One study found that after participation in college, prisoners and former prisoners were far more likely to offer advocacy, social supports, and services to other prisoners, their children and families.

All of this adds up to a very practical agenda, currently being promoted by groups like the New York-based Education from the Inside Out Coalition [http://www.eiocoalition.org] and the Pell Grants for Public Safety Initiative, led by Dallas Pell, daughter of Senator Claiborne Pell, for whom the Pell Grants were named. First, we should restore inmates' eligibility for Pell Grants and TAP. As EIO points out, such a step would cost the government some $5 to $10 million but would result in mid- to long-term benefits -- in terms of reduced recidivism, an increased number of tax-paying citizens, and fewer dependents on public assistance -- that outweigh the short-term cost.

Second, states should intensify appropriations for post-secondary correctional education programs and ensure that public colleges and universities receive state formula funding for serving incarcerated students. State and institutional policies can also encourage experiments with distance education methods and provide funding for corrections staff to participate in the college courses offered at correctional facilities.

In a recent report, 94 percent of state and federal inmates interviewed prior to release named one thing as their most pressing re-entry need -- over and above financial assistance, housing, employment and drug treatment. What did they demand? More education. For their and our community's sakes, let's give them -- including my soon-to-be former English 101 students -- what they want.

Calvin Ash, Maryland political prisoner?

Recommended for parole seven years ago, a 61-year-old inmate remains behind bars.


Dan Rodricks

12:22 p.m. EST, November 30, 2011

WESTOVER

—Nearly 40 years have come and gone since Calvin Ash, a hospital kitchen worker, committed his one and only crime: At the age of 21, he shot to death his estranged wife's boyfriend. A Baltimore judge found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison in 1972. Under the conditions of his sentence, Mr. Ash would one distant day be eligible for parole.

Thirty-two years later, in 2004, the Maryland Parole Commission considered and approved Mr. Ash for release. But there was a catch: In Maryland, the governor can reject the commission's recommendations and, unfortunately for Mr. Ash, his case did not reach the governor's desk until after Martin O'Malley had been elected, in 2006. Mr. O'Malley opposes all parole for lifers. He took another five years to act on Mr. Ash's case. When he did, he rejected it. So Calvin Ash is still in prison, at a cost of up to $30,000 a year to taxpayers.

I visited him inside the Eastern Correctional Institution, south of Salisbury, this week. He'd been tutoring another inmate in reading when called to the visiting room to meet with me and his brother, Carrington Ash, a retired postal carrier and the pastor of a small Baptist congregation in Baltimore.

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At 61, Calvin Ash is one of the older inmates at the Eastern Shore prison, and he's going to be 64, maybe 65, before he gets another shot at getting out.

Here's why: The commission won't recommend him for release again until at least 2014, the last year of Martin O'Malley's second and final term as governor.

"I was told it wouldn't be prudent to try again while O'Malley's governor," Calvin Ash said at ECI-Westover on Monday.

Mr. O'Malley refuses to commute the sentences of anyone serving life, and he doesn't explain his actions. "He's a politician," says another Ash brother, Julian Ash, retired from the Army and living in Oklahoma. "He doesn't want to take responsibility for this."

Attempts to learn why Mr. O'Malley rejected the recommendation for Calvin Ash were unsuccessful. Raquel Guillory, the governor's communications director, referred the question to David Blumberg, chairman of the parole commission.

But, of course, Mr. Blumberg can't explain the governor's reasoning in the Ash case or that of the other six inmates, all between 55 and 73 years of age, Mr. O'Malley rejected earlier this year.

(Maryland is one of only three states that still allow its governors to reject parole recommendations for lifers. Noting Mr. O'Malley's inaction on such recommendations, the General Assembly in its 2011 session set a time limit on this particular gubernatorial power; the governor now has 180 days to reject a commission recommendation before an inmate is freed automatically.)

Mr. Blumberg was familiar with Calvin Ash's case. He was aware of Mr. Ash's relatively young age at the time of the crime, a domestic first-degree murder. As in every case that comes before it, the commission assessed Mr. Ash's level of remorse, his behavior behind bars and plan for reentry.

Following procedure, Mr. Ash waited in line to get a psychological evaluation at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup. That took 18 months. He was there for more than two months, and, he says, his evaluation was positive.

That was between six and five years ago. Mr. O'Malley was on his way to becoming governor, and he was soon either ignoring or refusing parole recommendations for lifers. Four years later, when he finally took action, after being prodded by Maryland senators and delegates of both parties, it was to reject all recommendations, including Calvin Ash's. That happened in May.

So, follow the math on this messed-up system: Calvin Ash will be eligible for parole in 2014 or 2015 — some 10 years after he was first approved for it.

And he has to hope that the governor who succeeds Mr. O'Malley will be — like his Republican predecessor, Bob Ehrlich — open to at least considering the cases sent to him. While he was governor between 2003 and 2007, Mr. Ehrlich considered parole on a case-by-case basis. In four years, he commuted the sentences of five lifers, granted medical parole to one and denied 11.

In the mid-1990s, a previous Democratic governor, Parris Glendening, issued the "life means life" edict that Mr. O'Malley continues to embrace. In doing so, both men tossed aside the parole commission and a fundamental principle of our corrections system: that, with good behavior and the passage of time, some lifers might one day be eligible for parole. Mr. Glendening has since disowned his absolute approach, saying it was wrong and had politicized the parole process.

This is why some of their advocates and kin call the aging lifers, like Calvin Ash, political prisoners. "It's like they've been sentenced twice," says Carrington Ash.

We should either abolish parole or pull the governor's hands out of the process entirely. I vote for the latter.

Too Many In Prison Too Long

If Gov. Rick Scott and Florida legislative leaders would get over their obsession with privatizing prisons, perhaps they might focus on the real cause of Florida's runaway correction spending.

This state locks too many people up for too long.

A succession of "get tough on crime" mandatory minimum sentencing laws are primarily responsible for a state incarceration rate that is 26 percent higher than the national average.

An Associated Press report this month cited the case of a man serving a mandatory five-year prison sentence for possession of a handful of Lortab tablets, "prescription-only pills containing a small amount of a controlled substance but mostly made up of the same ingredient found in Tylenol and similar over-the-counter painkillers."

"Florida's prison system, which has about 102,000 inmates, grew more than 11-fold from 1970 through 2009, while the state's population increased just under three times," The AP reported. "Florida also has done away with parole and requires inmates to serve a minimum of 85 percent of their sentences, which have kept inmates behind bars longer."

CRIME DOWN, COST UP

Thus, Florida's corrections spending continues to escalate even as crime rates decline.

Citing data from "Right on Crime," a prison reform group that advocates doing away with mandatory minimum sentences and relying more on drug courts and substance abuse treatment for offenders, The AP report continued, "If Florida imprisoned people at the same rate it did in 1972-1973 the state would have only 23,848 inmates and be spending $446 million a year on prisons instead of $2.4 billion."


Privatizing prisons simply injects a profit motive into what Alison DeFoor, vice chair of the Center for Smart Justice, in Tallahassee, already calls Florida's "prison-industrial complex."

Real correction reform would involve locking up fewer people, not creating new profit opportunities for the private sector at taxpayers' expense.

State senator seeks ban on shackling pregnant inmates

Tallahassee, Florida - Opponents of restraining pregnant inmates say an anti-shackling movement is growing across the country and they want Florida to get on board.

State Sen. Arthenia Joyner calls the practice of shackling pregnant inmates demeaning and dangerous. The state currently does not have a law against restraints for pregnant women and Joyner wants one on the books.

She has filed a bill banning all correctional facilities, both state and county, from restraining women in labor or recovery, except in rare cases.

"It's demeaning. It's unnecessary. It can cause harm to the prisoner and to the fetus and it's important that we treat people, especially women who are pregnant, with humanity and dignity."

Policies on restraining pregnant inmates vary around Florida. A state policy prohibits restraints on pregnant women in labor, but allows restraints at all other times during a pregnancy and in recovery.

Some county jails in Florida have allowed restraints during labor.

Joyner says she understands the need for security, but she wants a law to spell out the rules for using restraints on pregnant women.

"It's necessary to put it in the law. We don't want a policy by the Department of Corrections because policies come and go at the whim and caprice of whoever is leading the department."

Joyner says restricting or banning restraints for pregnant inmates is supported by the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and nurse associations.

"They say this is unnecessary and they have joined in this effort across the country to make sure that states do not shackle pregnant women."

Currently more than a dozen states have adopted laws restricting or banning the practice of shackling pregnant inmates.

Sen. Joyner's bill would also create strict rules for restraining women in the third trimester of pregnancy. It would include a ban on shackles and mandate that wrist restraints be placed in front of a pregnant inmate so she could protect herself if she fell forward.

This is the second time Joyner has filed the bill in the Florida Legislature. It passed in the Senate on a unanimous vote in the spring legislative session, but died in the House.

L.I.F.E. PROGRAM

The L.I.F.E. Program (Learning Is For Everyone) at the New Jersey State Prison was established in 1985 in response to the needs of a growing illiterate inmate population. It is estimated that 75% of the inmates at New Jersey State Prison are illiterate or functionally illiterate reading below a fourth grade level. With prison education programs losing financial support, founder and community volunteer William Burke realized the need for a corps group of community volunteers, educators and inmates to work together towards the common goal of increasing literacy within prisons:

"I recognized the staggering illiteracy rate in the prisons and realized that a lot of these guys carry a stigma about their inability to read. I thought that a one-on-one tutor session with another inmate would give them the confidentiality needed to encourage them to come back to school. I also know there is a lot of talent in the prison population and the men could run this program themselves. All I had to do was ask the inmates and they jumped at the offer."

Now after seventeen years, this unique inmate-run program has successfully improved the literacy skills of 236 men and has allowed them to either acquire a GED certificate, have the ability to read a book to their children or letters from home.

Assistant Program Manager Gene Berta emphasizes the program's goals:

"If you can't read, you can't function. The guys realize this and they're tired of asking friends for help reading letters or writing home...A lot of guys can't go into the law library and work on their case to try to get themselves either a reduced sentence or an appeal process because they can't read."

The success of the L.I.F.E. program is due to the involvement of the inmates and their sense of ownership of the program. Inmates volunteer to tutor their fellow inmates for a two-hour session once a week. Each tutor is trained and certified by the Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA) as a certified reading instructor. LVA educators Robert and Anne McCleery hold classes to instruct inmate tutors on the best methods of instruction for adult literacy students. The L.I.F.E. inmate managers then match these tutors with students to begin their tutor-student sessions. Anne McCleery, LVA educator, affirms:

"My husband and I teach in many prison literacy programs and often see those programs dissolve. The L.I.F.E. Program is unique because the men are very dedicated and manage a consistently high quality program that has lasted these many years."

One of the unique aspects of the L.I.F.E.. Program is its recognition of learning disabilities among its students. The American prison population has a four times greater percentage of learning-disabled individuals than the general population. Although Learning Volunteers of America train the inmate-tutors with skills needed for reading instruction, a more specialized training using multisensory strategies is needed to teach the learning-disabled student. Volunteers from ABC Literacy Resources conduct additional tutor-training sessions to help them identify strengths and deficiencies in their students and to become skilled teachers of the Orton Gillingham-based instruction. Elaine Phillips, one of the founders of ABC Literacy Resources, states:

"With such disproportionately high numbers of inmates with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, it is vital that we give these inmate tutors the skills to recognize the impediments affecting their students learning."

The benefits to the New Jersey State Prison community are numerous. Not only are inmates improving their literacy skills, but also the program provides a cost-effective, purposeful prisoner activity and gives inmates working as tutors the chance to spend their time in a positive, supportive role while using organization and management skills. Over the years, the L.I.F.E. Program has come under the authority of three prison administrations that have recognized its value to the individual men. Prison Administrator Roy Hendricks recently commented:

"This institution is geared more towards compliance … Inmates are doing 50, 100, 300 years. If an inmate goes to school over a period of time, he begins to feel better about himself and the number of disciplinary charges he incurs are significantly reduced…We depend on our volunteers to provide positive programming for the men here at New Jersey State Prison."

Over the past seventeen years, the program has had 136 tutors and 236 students who have reached their personal goals of obtaining a GED, enrolling in school, reading a book, reading to their children or reading letters from home. One student received his GED and then became a tutor in the program. Program Manager William Brown states:

"We've had students who couldn't read or write and after completing the program, they got their GED. For us, that's a success story."

The L.I.F.E. Program was the first literacy program in the New Jersey prison system to use community and prisoner volunteers and has become a model for other literacy programs. The Program continues to tutor 44 students with 46 tutors and has a wait list for both new tutors and students. The L.I.F.E. managers have also assisted fellow Hispanic inmates to establish H.E.L.P. (Hispanic Education Literacy Program), a Hispanic literacy program. The managers have published a detailed manual with instructions and suggestions on managing the specifics of the program, recruiting tutors and community volunteers, fund-raising and publicity, and maintaining a relationship with prison officials. It is the hopes of the founders and managers that other correctional institutions will establish their own inmate-run literacy program.

The program depends on financial assistance from grants and private sources. This has allowed the program to remain financially independent, thus relieving New Jersey State Prison of the fiscal responsibility for the program. By receiving these donations, the L.I.F.E. Program has been able to successfully continue its mission.

Anyone interested in making a donation to support
the program can make checks payable to
"L.I.F.E. Program, New Jersey State Prison"

Mail to:
Peter Ronaghan, Business Manager
Business Office
New Jersey State Prison
P.O. Box 861
Trenton, NJ 08625-0861

The managers of the L.I.F.E. Program have prepared
a manual for those interested in starting an inmate-run literacy program
in correctional institutions. To receive a manual free of charge
or to contact members of the program, write to:

L.I.F.E. Program
c/o William Brown, Program Manager
77729-187619A
New Jersey State Prison
P.O. Box 861
Trenton, NJ 08625-0861

Push reading skills at prison

Building reading skills among prison inmates represents the kind of small idea that can pay off with much bigger results for those incarcerated, as well as the larger community.




The work of Rose Kreitinger, the Read Right coordinator at the North Dakota State Penitentiary, addresses a key barrier to getting a job and getting along in life for many prison inmates - the inability to be an effective reader. It's an obstacle to getting a good job. It's a hindrance to good citizenship.

We like that it's a practical, pragmatic program. It's no sea change. No silver bullet. No social makeover. It's a program that assists people with a fundamental skill: reading. It doesn't fix people; it gives people a tool for fixing their own lives.

Twenty percent of the 520 inmates at the state pen do not have a GED or high school diploma. That lack of basic education speaks loudly to the potential for recidivism. Prison authorities require those without a high school degree, or equivalent, to attend educational classes aimed at earning a diploma. It's a common-sense requirement.

It's hard to imagine the difficulties that people returning to their communities face after serving time. But to face the music with limited reading and other basic learning skills must be overwhelming. It leads to the "same old, same old." This not an issue for public sympathy; rather, it represents the potential for more lawlessness, for which the public pays for in taxes and is the victim.

Pumping up a felon's ability to read will not guarantee a job, a better life or a law-abiding life. But it can help. Effective reading also requires the development of logical thought processes and critical thinking. Add to that access to ideas and knowledge, all of which one might hope improves judgment.

Those prison inmates who constructively take part in the program have an opportunity to change their lives. That's the best anyone gets. The rest must be earned. What percentage of them will succeed, we do not know. We are not naive about the prospects. Turning someone's life around is remarkably difficult, as experience indicates.

The work of Kreitinger was presented by Tribune photographer Mike McCleary as a "Neighbors" feature on Monday. Her work deserves support and acknowledgement. She's making a difference.

www.sureshotbooks.com

A visit to the toughest cell block in California at Pelican Bay State Prison

Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border houses some of California’s toughest, most dangerous inmates. About a thousand of those inmates are labeled prison gang leaders or associates.


They’re kept in indefinite isolation in the Security Housing Unit, or the “SHU” — a prison within the prison. Last month, hundreds of inmates in the SHU staged a hunger strike to protest the conditions there. They also protested the strict conditions for getting out. KPCC toured the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay this week.

A cement path from the prison staff entrance crawls up grey-graveled yards. An electrified barbed-wire fence encircles the perimeter.

Lieutenant Chris Acosta has worked at Pelican Bay for 21 years. "We call this like the 'no man’s land' out here, where there will be no inmates out here at all," Acosta says. "The only persons you’re going to see are the corrections officers, or maintenance staff cleaning up doing landscaping or security checks."

By “landscaping,” he means pulling weeds. There are no shrubs, plants or trees outside.

Inside, the SHU looks like any other prison: long corridors, tiers of cells with grated metal doors, dim fluorescent lights. But there is one big difference: Lt. Acosta asks the reporters what we hear.

"Guards," says one.

"Air conditioning," says another.

"There’s 600 inmates housed over here," Lt. Acosta says. "It’s pretty quiet over here in the SHU."

There are reminders that the Pelican Bay SHU is more dangerous than other prisons: red signs that read “Protective Vest Required,” and riot gear on a gurney outside the corridor.

And there are other warnings. Lt. Dave Barneburg monitors prison gangs. He reminded us reporters to think about what we say on the tour.

"Any inmate worth his salt down here already knows there’s a tour coming through the SHU and there’s a bunch of people coming through SHU." Barneburg says. "You’re talking to each other, you’re talking to us, but you’re also talking to the inmates."

Inmates in the SHU spend nearly every hour of the day inside individual 8-by-10 foot cells.

There’s just enough room for a metal sink and toilet, a built-in bunk bed, some shelves, a wastebasket and a desk. They’re allowed to have 10 books in their cell, magazines, newspapers, and for those with families that can afford to spend $200 to purchase it, a television with a cable hookup, that offers access to ESPN. The TV’s made of see-through plastic that shows all its components.

"The correctional officers and the staff love them because they’re easy to search," Lt. Acosta says. That's important, he explains, because throughout the years, "a lot of guys would take their TVs apart and hide weapons in them."

SHU inmates leave their cells each day for a 15 minute shower. Inmates also get 90 minutes to exercise in a concrete yard. The 15-foot-high walls block direct sunlight. Prison officials don’t allow exercise equipment in the yard.

Pelican Bay Warden Greg Lewis says that would be too risky. "Anything attached to the wall they would use to scale the wall," Lewis explains. "The other concerns we have is them cutting metal. These guys are good at cutting metal. That's metal they'd use to make weapons."

SHU inmates are allowed no phone calls. They see visitors only through a glass wall.

Inmates call the Pelican Bay SHU “the end of the line.”

Warden Lewis says 95 percent of the inmates in the Pelican Bay SHU ran criminal enterprises inside and outside prison. He says Pelican Bay is a life they’ve earned.

"I haven’t seen any validated gang member or associate yet that had not committed and been prosecuted for a crime, or they wouldn’t be in prison," Lewis says.

The Department of Corrections offers all inmates in the SHU a way out: renounce prison gang life – and tell Corrections officers everything you know about the gang. Do that, and you’re out of the toughest prison block in California.

Corrections officials didn’t allow media to talk to any of the inmates who participated in the hunger strike on the tour.

Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program

MARION - The Ohio State University - Marion sociology lecturer Brenda Chaney plans to lead a group of college students through an exchange program with the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville.

According to a news release, Chaney plans to have a group of students participate in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, which invites college students and inmates to come together and learn in the same classroom. The program is national, headquartered at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., and includes 12 colleges and universities with about 7,500 students involved to date.

Chaney is hopeful that the students and inmates will write papers, read books, discuss social issues, do presentations and take part in a graduation ceremony together.

"Students will learn that there is a fine line between who goes to prison and who goes to college," she said in a statement. "Students will learn that a slight change in circumstance could put them in the other place."

Chaney will go through specialized training provided by the Inside-Out program. She said the program, which is being offered as an Ohio State Marion course, could benefit any student but particularly those focusing on criminology, sociology and psychology.

Chaney can be reached at 740-725-6282 or by email at chaney.2@osu.edu.

Facebook stalker turned email hacker sentenced to four years in prison; sent nude photos of victims.

George Bronk, 24, was sentenced to four years in prison.

A California man who searched women's Facebook pages for clues that allowed him to break into their email accounts was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday.

Prosecutors said George Bronk would take over the email accounts, then search their email folders for nude pics they sent – and then forward it to their entire contact list – including their families, friends and coworkers.

Brown pleaded guilty in January to charges that included false impersonation, possession of child pornography and computer intrusion.

"This case serves as a stark example of what occurs in so-called cyberspace. It has very real consequences," Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown said.

Prosecutors expressed concern that Bronk, 24, demonstrated a "high degree of callousness" though an evaluation by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation showed that Bronk demonstrated remorse and said he was an alcoholic.

According to prosecutors, the 24-year-old began his email attacks while taking care of his ailing parents in December of 2009 and continued them until he was busted last September.

After he took over victims' accounts, he taunted them and would even threaten some into sending more explicit photos.

Perhaps even more frightening, according to prosecutors, he proved that social networking can provide easy information to make many people's emails hackable.

"The victims we went to said 'I had very robust passwords.' But it didn't matter how robust the password was if the recovery question is easy," Robert Morgester said. "Lost your password? What's your favorite color or what high school did you go to? Or what's your dog's name? And he was able to glean that information from social media."

Prosecutors told the AP there were victims in at least 17 states.

The California creep isn't the only person sentenced even this month for wreaking havoc on someone's life by hacking into their email. In Minnesota, Barry Ardolf was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he hacked into his next door neighbor's Wi-Fi network and among other things, used his email account to send sexual emails to the victims' coworkers as well as threaten to kill Vice President Joe Biden.

Education liberated me from a life of crime

Bob Cummines, OBE, FRSA and chief executive of Unlock, the national association of ex-offenders, was formerly a notorious bank robber.


"Education liberated me from a life of crime," says Bobby Cummines, now a life fellow of the RSA, soon to receive an honorary master's from the Open University, and, last month, awarded the OBE by the Queen at Buckingham Palace for his services to reformed offenders. It's not bad for a former armed robber who spent a total of 13 years in high security prisons before deciding he needed to change for the better.

As founder member and chief executive of Unlock, the national association of reformed offenders, Cummines has spent the last 12 years campaigning against the social exclusion and discrimination that stymies the efforts of many reformed offenders to "go straight."

He leads a team of four staff operating from a tiny office above a dentist in Snodland, Kent. Unlock receives no government funding and relies on charity donations for its existence. But the organisation thinks big and boasts some significant successes in its fight for the right of offenders who have served their sentences and have a desire to live crime-free, productive lives to be treated by fairly by the rest of society.

A notable success was persuading sections of the insurance and banking industries of the merits of welcoming prisoners and ex-prisoners as customers. Unlock has established a specialist insurance broker service and now has a list of 17 insurers on its Insurance and Convictions Consumer Guidance leaflet. Working with Halifax and Barclays, Cummines has developed a guide to enable prison staff to assist people in prison or on the verge of release to open bank accounts. "The emphasis of our work is to reduce the likelihood of re-offending by people who have served their sentences," he says. "Without bank accounts people cannot access the financial services the rest of us take for granted."

It is hard to imagine that Cummines was ever part of a criminal culture. But like many who end up in prison, he started young. "I was a bright kid, but I never played by the rules. I was from a big Irish family of eight children. We lived in King's Cross in London when it was at its worst with drugs, gangs, prostitutes, you name it. To get out of the slums you became a bricklayer, joined the army or became a villain. Thieving was quite acceptable, so long as you didn't rob your own people."

He left school at 15 with no qualifications, but got a job in a shipping office. He puts the wrong turn his life took down to his first encounter with the police. "I was in a park with my mates when somebody let off a starting pistol. The police were called and began bullying us. I stood up to them." He says the police returned later and produced a cut-throat razor they said was his. "It was a fit-up," he says. "My dad said the police don't tell lies, plead guilty, you'll get a fine and it'll be forgotten about in a few years."

He got the fine, but his bosses at the shipping office saw his guilty plea and sacked him. "I was gutted," he says. "I thought, if you want me to be bad I'll show you how bad I can be." Within a year he was sentenced to six months in a detention centre for the possession of a sawn off shotgun. "It was supposed to be a short sharp shock, but it was just violence practised against vulnerable kids. I came out of there tougher and angrier than ever."

Over the next two decades Cummines established himself as a hard-core professional criminal. "If I had carried on, I would either have been shot dead by the police or innocent members of the public could have been shot."

The change came while he was serving a 12-year sentence and he credits a prison education officer, a prison probation officer and a former south London gang boss. "I started studying social science and psychology with the Open University. I began reading about deviant behaviour and thought, 'I'm reading about me!' The more I read, the more I realised I didn't have to be the way I was. The high I used to get from crime was replaced by a bigger high from learning."

Cummines left prison for the last time almost 25 years ago. He struggled to get work and fit into the "straight" world, but eventually succeeded, getting a degree at Greenwich University and going on to hold senior positions with various employers. "Getting work was hard because I had to make up my employment history," he says. "To live an honest life, I had to be dishonest about my past. That was one of my motivations for joining Unlock and one of the things we are campaigning to resolve," he says. As chief executive he has been a member of the home affairs select committee inquiry into the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, an expert witness on to the home affairs select committee on prisoner education and a specialist adviser in the 2004 public inquiry into murder of Zahid Mubarek in Feltham Young Offenders Institution.

"Prison doesn't work, education works," Cummines concludes. His one big dream is for a series of super academies, which he has christened the Diamond Project. The aim would be to provide training, education, advice and guidance for low tariff offenders and those at risk of breaking the law. Cummines and his colleagues have spent years working on the proposals. They held talks with the last Labour government and have met the coalition government. During his last meeting with Lord McNally, minister of state for justice, the peer promised to arrange meetings between Unlock and other senior officials.

The recent government review of prisoner education pledged to put education and training at the heart of Ken Clarke's promised "rehabilitation revolution" in our jails. Cummines, who has already secured the promise of several hundred million pounds' worth of private finance for the project, is hopeful. "I told Lord McNally, 'People usually come here to ask you for money, but I want to give you money,'" he says, smiling.

With an average cost of £37,000 a year to keep someone in prison and the cost of re-offending estimated by the home office at between £9bn and £13bn a year perhaps he has a point.

"They would be investing in good behaviour. You can educate people out of crime. Or you can educate people into crime, by giving them no education and banging them up with experienced criminals."

Prisoners reintroduction to society

In the Federal & State, prisoners face many problems upon release. Most releases have limited financial resources or none at all.

Many do not have employment, and some do not have homes or families to whom they may return. Most of them receive indifferent or hostile reactions or treatment from the community. Those who have been in prison for long periods of time have the additional problems of catching up on how our contemporary society does things.

All encounter emotional problems in reacting to the new environment and many feel depressed, estranged, lonely and rejected.

One official said, “Some organizations such as their local community Church help prepare prisoners for release, but the availability of pre-release programs is limited.”

I am of the view that Federal & State Prisons should offer training programs to assist prisoners in preparing them for release or a gradual re-entry into society. Prisons should make some attempts to deal with the two most immediate problems; money and jobs.

I believe that there are a variety of ways to assist prisoners in making this transition. One is to develop better pre-release programs. These programs are to be held within the prison environment. The purpose is to train the prisoner or offender in ways of daily living such as how to get a job, how to keep a job, how to relate to family members and others, and how to live in a world that may have changed significantly since the offender began his or her period of incarceration.

I also believe that pre-release programs should include educational and vocational programs, treatment programs or life enrichment programs, in which offenders are taught how to control their emotions, plan for the future and establish goals.

The second problem for ex-prisoner or ex-offender is employment. I was informed by a top prison official in an interview that there are programs at Federal & State Facility's that help prisoners for employment, such as survival skills (carpentry, painting, farming etc), goal setting, stress management, and reintegration into society.

During the said interview, the official said that the prisoners are taught how to manage money and they participate in recreational and other leisure activities. I suggested to the official that there should be decision making and problems solving classes as well.

However, from a recent study I have conducted where I interviewed a number of ex-prisoners, I have concluded that the employment picture is very bleak for ex-offenders and that many of them have not had adequate training before or during incarceration. So, the prison becomes a revolving door for most of them.

They come out and go right back in. As a community, we need to try and alleviate this problem. One way to start is by implementing the mentioned programs for the prisoners before they are release from the Correctional Institution.

SureShot Books helps Prison Inmates

SureShot Books makes it possible for family and friends of prison inmates to send books to prisoners as well as sending magazines to inmates and we also have newspapers available from all states.

SureShot Books is part of the SureShot 2k family of companies that was founded in 1990 to help the families of prison inmates to make it possible for their loved ones to improve their lives through education enabled by providing them the ability to send books to inmates to help them learn useful life skills, which also has an influence how efficiently an inmate will respond upon release.

Here at SureShot Books, we fervently believe that the fact that you have made a mistake does and should not mean that your life is ruined forever. We believe that everyone deserves a second chance.

Based on studies made by the US Department of Corrections, an inmate that takes the opportunity to improve their education while incarcerated has a much better chance of reintegrating into society and becoming a productive contributing member of society. Providing books for prisoners is an effective method of helping them to improve their lives.

Our hope is that by enabling families and friends to send books to inmates we can have a positive influence on the lives of both the inmate and his or her family. Families can help their loved ones by ordering books from the comfort of their homes.

To make education available to more inmates, SureShot Books has a complete library of books, newspapers, magazines and greeting cards available in Spanish so the fact that a prisoner may not speak English well does not prevent him or her from taking advantage of our books for prisoners due to a language problem. We also have books that can help them to improve their English comprehension or any other language.

Looking ahead, SureShot Books remains committed to ensuring that stable, secure and reasonably priced supplies of Books, newspapers, & magazines are available to inmates at all times.

To make the prisoners able to interact with their children even though they are away, we have added a NEW program where inmates can order Children's Books from our catalog or web-site and have them send directly to their children.

We firmly believe that even though a prisoner's body is locked up, their mind can always be free to travel the world and learn about anything they are interested through the magic or books.

visit us @ www.sureshotbooks.com

Did jail strip search go too far?

A federal appeals court ruled that a woman's intimate search of a male inmate – which was filmed and watched by dozens – was unreasonable. The Supreme Court declined to take the case.


Washington

The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to examine a federal appeals court ruling that the strip search of a male detainee by a female guard in an Arizona jail was an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The action lets stand a 6-to-5 ruling by the full Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco involving a search conducted by a female cadet at a jail run by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department.

The case comes at a time of heightened public awareness of intrusive searches as a condition of air travel, including intimate pat downs and technology capable of simulating a strip search. The case dismissed on Monday, however, took place in the context of a jail.

How much do you know about the US Constitution? A quiz.

At issue was a 2004 search of Charles Byrd, a pretrial detainee, at a minimum security jail in Phoenix.

Mr. Byrd was one of 90 detainees ordered to submit to a unit-wide search for contraband and weapons. Byrd was told to remove his clothing except his boxer shorts, which were described as pink and comprised of very thin, revealing material. The searches took place four to six at a time. Some were conducted by cadets from the detention officer training academy. Present during the searches were an estimated 25 cadets, a number of training supervisors, and 10 to 15 uniformed guards. The procedure was also videotaped.

Byrd said in his lawsuit that he should not be subject to such an intrusive search by a female guard. He also charged that the female guard – later identified as Cadet Kathleen O’Connell – squeezed his genitals and kneaded his buttocks during the search.

Unlike a standard strip search, which involves visual inspection of the naked body, Byrd’s search was a cross between a pat-down search and a strip search. Rather than a visual inspection, Byrd’s search relied on the sense of touch to identify concealed weapons or contraband.

The cadet ran her hands over parts of Byrd’s body, including the most private parts of his body. The cadet estimated the search took 10 to 20 seconds; Byrd says it was closer to 60 seconds.

No weapons or contraband were found. But the experience left Byrd feeling humiliated.

A federal judge threw out portions of his lawsuit but allowed a jury to decide whether the incident was an unreasonable and unconstitutional search. The jury ruled against Byrd.

A federal appeals court panel upheld the jury’s conclusion.

The full Ninth Circuit in San Francisco agreed to hear Byrd’s appeal. The court split 6 to 5, ruling that the cross-gender strip search performed on Byrd was unreasonable and violated his Fourth Amendment rights.

“The indignity of the non-emergency strip search conducted by an unidentified female cadet was compounded by the fact that there were onlookers, at least one of whom videotaped the humiliating event,” wrote Judge Johnnie Rawlinson for the court majority.

“Courts throughout the country have universally frowned upon cross-gender strip searches in the absence of an emergency or exigent circumstances,” Judge Rawlinson said.

Judge N. Randy Smith filed a dissent joined by four other judges. “Not lightly do I find reasonable a female officer’s probing search of a male detainee wearing only thin boxer shorts,” Judge Smith said. “Nevertheless, I believe the precedent and the facts compel this result, unsavory to our sensibilities though that result may be.”

Smith said he felt the case was more a pat-down search than strip search, since Byrd wore his boxers throughout the procedure.

The judge said court precedent allows female officers to conduct pat-down searches of the groin area of fully clothed male inmates. He said precedent also allows female officers to observe unclothed male inmates in their cells and in the showers.

Smith said judges should defer to decisions made by corrections officials regarding such searches. With 10,000 prisoners in the Maricopa jail system, there are not enough male guards to conduct all the searches necessary to run the jail, he said.

Restricting the ability of female guards to conduct certain kinds of searches might “perpetuate sexist notions that a female is only useful when a male is not available,” Smith said in his dissent.

The judge added: “Instead of converting Durango Jail into a target for equal opportunity litigation, I defer to the prison officials’ reasoned and sensible judgment on these matters.”

The case is Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department v. Byrd (10-1201).

116 Federal Prisons in the U.S. provide e-mail access

The Facebook page reads: "We are inmates in the federal system who are looking for someone to talk to. We have e-mail capability so we may chat."

A few caveats: "You must be educated and (non-ghetto) please." Oh, and only women need reply.

Welcome to 21st-Century prison life, a world where those on the inside can communicate with those on the outside via cyberspace.

As of this month, all 116 federal prisons in the U.S. provide e-mail access to qualifying inmates who pay 5 cents per minute to use the computer.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons reads all the e-mails, and recipients have to agree to be contacted.


Internet access, though, remains off-limits.

Some states are following suit.

Kansas, for example, lets inmates use e-mail, online banking and videoconferencing with friends and family. Washington state has installed e-mail kiosks in several large prisons. And North Dakota lets inmates e-mail those on pre-approved lists.

Michigan uses a program called JPay, which lets outsiders e-mail inmates. But prisoners cannot reply electronically.

"We still have to ensure facility security," said John Cordell, a Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman, pointing out that full-scale e-mail "is not viable for us."

Maybe in the future, he said. But for now, snail mail, pay phones and personal visits will have to do.
Nearly 122,300 U.S. inmates qualify to use e-mail

Prisoners have been trying to find ways to communicate with the outside world for years, even secreting smartphones into footballs tossed over security fences.

But now, federal prisons have another high-tech -- and sanctioned -- option to stay in touch.

This spring, the Federal Bureau of Prisons officially made e-mail available in all 116 of its prisons, with nearly 122,300 inmates -- more than half the federal prison population -- already qualifying for the program. The idea is to help inmates keep ties with the community and family members by letting them talk online.

Of course, inmates trying to communicate with the outside world isn't new. Cell phones and smartphones are getting smuggled inside by the thousands.

But prison officials say e-mail offers a link that can be easily monitored. The messages going in and out are screened. The recipients are pre-approved, and only those who agree to be e-mailed can get messages.

"The Bureau of Prisons has taken a lot of pains to make sure that any security concerns are taken care of. If the public is scared that some inmate is going to be stalking in cyberspace, that is not going to happen," said Elizabeth Kelley, co-chairwoman of the Corrections Committee for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Kelley, a supporter of the prison e-mail system, said it lets inmates go over matters with their lawyers without requiring a visit. It also helps prisoners conduct limited job searches, reaching out to employers who may be willing to hire ex-offenders.

"We know that maintaining ties to the community is absolutely essential to the re-entry process," Kelley said.

No tax dollars are used for the program, known as TRULINCS -- Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System. The program is funded by profits from inmate purchases of commissary products and telephone services. Inmates are charged 5 cents per minute to use the computer.

Based on recent Internet activity, inmates are doing plenty of cybertalking.
Tweets from Riddle

In state and federal prisons nationwide, cell phones and smartphones are regularly smuggled in -- in some cases getting tossed over fences -- leaving the corrections community scrambling to stay on top of the problem.

Inmates are texting, tweeting and posting on Facebook, thumbing their noses at rules banning Internet use.

The ever-defiant Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle continues to update his Twitter page from federal prison, most recently posting photos of himself and fellow inmates in North Carolina, where he is serving a 37-month bribery sentence.

In California, notorious cult leader Charles Manson was caught twice in recent months with a cell phone in his prison cell.

In Georgia, a group of inmates used smartphones to organize a strike, triggering lockdowns at four facilities in December.

In South Carolina, a guard was shot six times in September after an inmate used a smuggled cell phone to order a hit on the man at his home.
Inside Michigan prisons

It is those kinds of stories that keep the Michigan Department of Corrections Internet-free.

MDOC spokesman John Cordell said Michigan hasn't yet decided to jump on the prison e-mail bandwagon. In addition to the federal prison system, a handful of states are allowing inmates to e-mail family, friends and their lawyers.

"Michigan has a pretty strict Internet-based policy. There are no network connections inside the prison setting that a prisoner could utilize," said Cordell, noting any kind of Internet use could jeopardize inmate and public security, even tightly monitored e-mail.

Instead, Michigan inmates communicate using the pay phone, written letters or actual visits at the prison, he said.

There's also JPay, a system that allows outsiders to send an e-mail to the prison a printed copy is delivered to the inmate. But the prisoner can't respond via e-mail.

"It's one of the things that ultimately we may consider," Cordell said of full-scale e-mail. "But right now, it's not something that's viable for us."

That's too bad, say prisoner advocates and criminal defense lawyers.

They say prison e-mail has several benefits: it's easier to monitor and read than regular mail, it's cheaper than pay phones for inmates, and it helps prepare inmates for re-entry by keeping them in touch with the outside world.

"That's a lot more reasonable than them using the phones," said criminal defense attorney Anthony Chambers, who has several clients in federal prison and views prison e-mail as "extremely helpful."

Chambers is serving as standby counsel to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian national charged with trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.
Abdulmutallab is detained at a federal prison in Milan, but he is among those who do not have access to e-mail.

Neither does former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is in state prison in Jackson on a probation violation stemming from the text message scandal that drove him from office.

Visit www.sureshotbooks.com for inmate books, magazine's, newspapers & gifts

Stats You Should Know About Our Prison System

America certainly has a unique stance on crime and punishment. Some actions that would cause the typical American to go to prison for a significant period of time aren’t even considered crimes in most other countries around the world.


As a result, we’ve accumulated some interesting, sometimes alarming statistics showing just how crowded we’ve made our prison system. The ones below describe the state of the system, especially compared to the rest of the world, and the social impact of our policies.

1. The U.S. has an incarceration rate of 743 per 100,000 people (2009): That’s the highest rate in the world, an astonishing fact that can’t be repeated enough. However, it should be noted that crime in the U.S. in general has decreased over the last 20 years. For example, from 1980 to 2009, the murder rate decreased from 10.2 per 10,000 inhabitants to 5.0 in 2009; the violent crime rate decreased from 596.6 per 10,000 inhabitants to 429.4; and the robbery rate decreased from 251.1 per 10,000 inhabitants to 133. Now, whether or not the improvements are a result of harsher punishment has yet to be proven. For comparison, from 1925 to 1975, the crime rate stayed at about 110 per 100,000 people, excluding those kept in state and local jails.


2. The U.S. houses a quarter of the world’s prisoners (2008): The U.S. population is 311,341,000, roughly 4.5 percent of the world’s population, and in 2008, it kept 2.3 million people behind bars. China, the world’s most populous country with 1,339,725,000 people, kept 1.6 million people behind bars the same year, though it should be noted that it had hundreds of thousands of people in administrative detention. During America’s younger years, it was regarded around the world as more relaxed on criminal justice, hence the Wild West reputation. But as the population has grown, particularly in cities, we’ve taken more drastic measures to control crime.


3. The U.S. houses more inmates than the top 35 European countries combined (2010): Europe, which has a denser population than the U.S., is well-below the U.S. when it comes to incarceration rates. In England and Wales, for example, 139 people are imprisoned per 10,000, one of the highest rates in Western Europe. Harsher sentencing in recent years is blamed for the rise in prison population in the U.K. Nevertheless, it pales in comparison to America’s rate; only Easter Europe’s Belarus comes close, with a rate of 385 people imprisoned per 10,000.


4. The federal prison population has more than doubled since 1995 (2010): Because the federal system is generally stricter than state systems and has expanded its jurisdiction over certain offenses, it has seen a drastic increase in the amount of people it houses. In particular, an increase in immigration cases since 1994 has been a main contributor, as they accounted for 28.2 percent of all federal sentencing in 2008, for example.


5. The number of state prisoners declined by 4,777 from December 2008 to January 2010: Possibly due to the recession, many have attributed the decline in state prisoners to large state budget deficits, which have forced states to release inmates to save money. However, according to the Pew Center on the States, the decline actually started just before the economic downturn due to a reduction in the amount of people sent to prison for new crimes, while the number of people released from prison increased. Of course, prison rates vary from state to state.


6. The most significant decreases in state prison populations from 2008 to 2009 occurred in California (-4,257), Michigan (-3,260) and New York (-1,699): Overall, 26 states saw a decrease in prison population. California led them all, as the state has made an effort to cut the number of low-risk parolees returning to prison by expanding the use of intermediate sanctions. Overcrowding has been a problem for California; so much so that a deferral court in 2009 ordered the state to reduce its prison population by 40,000 in just two years. Michigan has cut its prison population by decreasing parole revocation rates, improving its reentry planning and supervision, and reducing the number of inmates who serve more than 100 percent of their minimum sentence.


7. The most significant increases in state prison populations from 2008 to 2009 occurred in Pennsylvania (+2,122), Florida (+1,527) and Indiana (+1,496): During the last three decades, Pennsylvania’s prison population has expanded from 8,243 to 51,326. In recent years, the increase can be attributed to former Gov. Ed Rendell’s 2008 moratorium on paroles in response to the killing of a Philadelphia police officer by a paroled felon. The state also transferred prisoners out of state due to overcrowding. In Florida’s case, some attribute the rise to legislators failing to cut corrections spending like in many of the states that saw reductions in their prison populations.


8. Those who have spent time in prison earn 40 percent less annually (2010): Universally, crime is associated with people from poor economic backgrounds who have few options in life. In many cases, those who’ve been incarcerated grew up around family members and friends who suffered the same fate. Their ability to escape the rut decreases greatly after their first offense, as their annual earnings are almost slashed in half because many employers refuse to hire them. Most unsettling is the fact that more than half of those incarcerated were the primary financial providers for their children.


9. One in every 28 children has an incarcerated parent (2010): A quarter of a century ago, one in every 125 children had an incarcerated parent. The rise, of course, can be attributed to the implementation of harsher laws for lesser crimes; two-thirds of today’s incarcerated parents committed non-violent offenses. The above stat is one of the most disconcerting of all U.S.-related prison stats because common sense dictates that a child’s chances of growing up as a productive, law-abiding adult are greater when both of their parents play significant roles in their life.


10. More than one in three young black men without a high school diploma are in prison (2010): Additionally, more black men without a high school diploma are incarcerated than employed. As previously mentioned, it’s more difficult to secure a job once a person has spent time in prison, further limiting the options of the already less fortunate. In fact, black men earn 44 percent less after they’ve been incarcerated, four percent less than the average for all races/ethnicities.

Students investigate staples threat, U.S. Justice lawyers visit

MONCKS CORNER -- At the Berkeley County jail, God's Word is the only one allowed.

Three lawyers with the U.S. Justice Department arrived at the jail Monday morning to investigate a complaint that inmates have been denied reading material other than the Bible.

Sandy Senn, an attorney representing Berkeley County jail, talks about the four Charleston School of Law students and one USC student Monday who are going through more than 40,500 documents at the facility in Moncks Corner. The students are looking for proof of damage by inmates using staples brought into the jail through letters or reading material.
Photo by Sarah Bates


Inmates at the Hill-Finklea Detention Center used staples and toothbrushes to make tattoo needles.


While the attorneys toured the Hill-Finklea Detention Center, specifically seeking out non-Christian inmates with no interest in the paperback Bibles allowed inside, another group of visitors started their work in one of the jail's hallways.

County officials hired four Charleston School of Law students and a University of South Carolina student to comb through 40,500 files to show that inmates used staples to cause harm in or damage the jail.

Monday's dramatic inquiries showed the level of interest in the American

Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit against the jail, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt and other officials, a case that calls the Bible-only policy unconstitutional.

DeWitt noted that, unlike prisoners serving sentences, most county jail inmates only spend a day or two at the jail before trial. But he said he would work with the Justice Department.

"However, we do not have federal funding and we simply cannot and will not make our jail a Marriott," DeWitt added.

In fact, the jail continues operating well over capacity, sometimes at triple its intended population of 154. A sparkling $10 million expansion originally scheduled to come online more than a year ago still awaits state approval and necessary funding.

The ACLU's lawsuit came about after the jail turned away mail, including the Prison Legal News. Sandy Senn, an attorney representing the jail in the lawsuit, walked through the detention center Monday showing the damage that staples binding the publication can cause.

Inmates can jam staples in their toilets' flushing mechanisms and flood out their cells. They can use them to destroy $900 locks and to manipulate wiring. And they can straighten them into needles for makeshift tattoo guns.

Senn and a sheriff's sergeant showed some of those primitive instruments: A toothbrush and a pen, each with a staple sticking out of the base for tattooing, and more sophisticated version with a small ink well.

David Fathi, director of the ACLU's National Prison Project in Washington, called the staple argument "an after-the-fact rationale" and noted that the jail never mentioned staples in its original reason for rejecting Prison Legal News.

"It's unfortunate that the county is continuing to spend thousands of dollars to defend an indefensible policy," Fathi said.

He also noted that the jail still sold inmates legal pads which contained staples, even three months after the lawsuit's filing. Senn said jail officials, upon discovering the staples inside the pads, switched to a glue only brand.

A federal judge ordered that either jail officials or the ACLU review three years of inmate files to determine if staples posed problems. Senn showed the walk-in file room filled with the more than 40,500 manila folders that five students will spend the next two weeks perusing at a cost of $20 per hour.

Senn pointed out that the withheld mail, including Prison Legal News, primarily shows up at the jail unsolicited. She also said that jail officials met with local mosque leaders to ensure access to the Koran in addition to the Bible.

"We acknowledge that our written policy has been behind the times. ... But, in practice, we have been allowing a lot of religious reading materials in for a very long time," Senn said.

The case heads to court next month, when a judge will hear the ACLU's case for a temporary injunction which would require that the jail accept Prison Legal News and other publications.

SureShotBooks.com helps the relative to send books for prisoners directly online

Many new organizations have started working with the prisoners mental development and intellectual support in these recent few years. One of the pioneers in this field is definitely one of the renowned organization named SureShotBooks.

This company is associated with SureShot 2K family and started serving their consumers back in the year of 1990. This company, from the very beginning targeted a group of people for providing exclusive services.

Their subjects were, well, pretty exceptional i.e. the prisoners living in the jails. Sureshot wanted to work on the psychological developments and evaluations of the criminals taking part in correction programs in jails inside and outside the US. Another idea of this organization was to provide services to the relatives of the prisoners who want to help their relatives inside the jails by all means.

Sending books for prisoners is a great way to help those people who are actually suffering for their committed crimes. Relatives of the prisoners wanted to work really hard so that they can contribute to the improvement of the lives of their suffering relatives.

SureShot became very interested about serving them and opened an online store where a user can place order to send books for inmates. This way, the inmates are also getting indulged into some constructive acts and they get the chance to learn new things that improve their skills in different ways.

According to the criminal psychologists, helping the prisoners in the later days of correction becomes more difficult. However, in the beginning stage, the rate and extent of prognosis is way better.

In many cases, it has been seen that a person with better improvisation facilities and approaches has come up as a better human being than he ever was. Reading books is definitely the best intellectual act of an educated person. He can not only learn new things reading the verses in a book, but also get the opportunity to evaluate and evolve his talents through different activities.

A person is always full of potentials. If you can show a person the ways effectively, you will get the best result what you haven’t even expected from him. A criminal is nowhere different in this particular issue.

No doubt he has committed a great mistake for which he has been suffering from imprisonment, but he must get the second chance to improvise himself. If you want to provide the best second chance to him, go for good books for prisoners and send them to the sufferers inside the prison.

Books for prisoners or books for inmates don’t have an exclusive genre. All these books fall under a great and noble genre of literature books popular as inspirational books among the laymen.

SureShotBooks.com is working with these books since long. They house one of the greatest collection of inspirational books on earth than can really influence a person to improvise at personal level.

This company provides the best support you could ever expect. What you need to do is go and place your order online for the prisoners you want to send the books.

Family literacy: Get involved in your kids' learning

The latest trend in educational excellence is parental engagement. Schools are struggling with how to get parents to even come through the door, much less be truly involved. It is particularly difficult for adults who didn't have good experiences when they were students or those who are unfamiliar with the U.S. education system.

But a model for true parental engagement does exist, and it's been evolving and innovating for 30 years family literacy.

It is the most important step communities and schools can take to help parents leverage their important role into meaningful change and improvement. There are some who believe striving for parental involvement is too difficult a task and that parents are not interested in being involved in their children's education. This is far from the truth.

There are thousands of family literacy sites across the country where parents come to their children's school daily or weekly.

The family literacy model has transformed lives. For the past 20 years, the National Center for Family Literacy and Toyota have worked together to create, duplicate and innovate model laboratories of learning in 50 cities across the country. Multiple generations come together to learn, and the benefit extends to the entire family and community. Such is the case in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where three different literacy programs dating to 1992 have been implemented.

Over the past 20 years, this partnership has improved the education and economic attainment of more than 1 million U.S. families. These families face some of the biggest hurdles to improving educational outcomes. Nearly 60 percent of the parents have less than a 10th grade education.

National research verifies the success of family literacy priorities and programs:

A mother's reading skill is the greatest determinant of her children's future academic success, outweighing other factors, such as neighborhood and family income (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development).

Children who have parents who help them learn to read score 10 points higher on standardized reading tests (NCFL research).

NCFL's work with Hispanic/Latino and other immigrant families in 30 cities through the Toyota Family Literacy Program has experienced extraordinary outcomes in English language and literacy development, parent involvement and engagement, literacy behaviors at home, and school-related attitudes.

The proven track record is here. The question then becomes: How do communities and schools effectively implement family literacy?

First, public and private partnerships should be leveraged to develop approaches that work. Private resources present the best opportunities to fuel innovation. In addition, seed money from private sources encourages collaboration.

Second, existing resources must be focused on a family approach to education for Hispanic learners nationwide. Programs to help parents gain basic academic and English skills in the context of helping their children are proving to be successful with high participation among parents and promising results.

Third, strategies must be developed to increase parental leadership. Parental involvement is a key predictor of a child's success. However, parents who have less education are more likely to find schools intimidating. Taking the time for a phone call or visit can make all the difference.

Communication is the start toward comprehensive parental involvement. Ongoing communication and teamwork between teachers and parents result in students who are continuously motivated and supported in their education.

Fourth, family literacy should be incorporated into existing services. Educational efforts should embrace an intergenerational approach by connecting family literacy to all child-serving agencies, such as school districts, Head Start programs and faith-based program initiatives.

By taking these steps, parents will become more active in their children's education, and a successful 21st-century community and work force will result.

Sharon Darling is president and founder of the National Center for Family Literacy.

By Sharon Darling

American Civil Liberties Union says jail in South Carolina is banning books 'for no good reason'

Prisoners at a jail in South Carolina are being denied any reading material other than the Bible, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the "unconstitutional" policy at Berkeley County detention centre in Moncks Corner on behalf of monthly journal Prison Legal News last autumn. Last week a request by the US Department of Justice to stand alongside Prison Legal News as a plaintiff in the lawsuit was granted by a federal judge, and the ACLU has now asked a federal judge to block enforcement of a policy which it claims sees the jail's officials "unconstitutionally refusing to allow prisoners to receive any materials that contain staples or pictures of any level of nudity, including beachwear or underwear", effectively banning most books, magazines and newspapers.

Last year's lawsuit quotes an email from a member of staff at the prison to Prison Legal News, which said that "our inmates are only allowed to receive soft back bibles in the mail directly from the publisher. They are not allowed to have magazines, newspapers, or any other type of books". It charges that, since 2008, copies of Prison Legal News and books – including Protecting Your Health and Safety, which explains legal rights to inmates – sent to prisoners at the jail have been returned to sender. There is no library at the Berkeley County detention centre, the ACLU says, so that "prisoners who are incarcerated for extended periods of time have been deprived of access to magazines, newspapers and books – other than the Bible – for months or even years on end".

Officials at the jail responded to the ACLU lawsuit by saying that they only banned material containing staples and nudity. But the new ACLU motion to block this policy points out that legal pads containing staples were being sold at the jail. It claims that the no staples or nudity policy was "adopted post hoc and in response to this Case", and that it "eliminate[s] access to reading material almost as completely as the 'Bible only' rule".

"This is nothing more than an excuse by jail officials to ban books and magazines for no good reason," said David Shapiro, staff attorney with the ACLU national prison project. "There is no justification for denying detainees access to periodicals and in the process cutting them off from the outside world."

"Jail officials are looking for any excuse they can come up with to obscure the fact that they are unconstitutionally censoring materials sent to detainees," added Victoria Middleton, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina. "And in so doing they are failing to serve the detainees and the taxpayers of South Carolina. Helping prisoners rehabilitate themselves and maintain a connection to the outside world by reading books and magazines is a key part of what should be our larger and fiscally prudent objective of reducing the number of people we lock up by lowering recidivism rates."

New Site Helps Inmates Blog from Behind Bars

Although inmates are denied Internet access in jail, they can still blog albeit in a different form. Their sketches, poems and musings circulate online after being posted by those outside of prison. There are dozens of these blogs, but inmates need tech-savvy friends or family to maintain them.

For those without such connections, Between the Bars offers an alternative. Charlie DeTar and Benjamin Mako Hill, fellows at MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media, conceived of a blogging platform for prisoners in 2008 after America reached an infamous milestone: one out of 100 U.S. adults were in jail.

To post on the blog, inmates send handwritten letters to Between the Bars, whose team then scans them and uploads them as PDFs. The group decided that scanning the letters, rather than transcribing them, would be the most efficient way to get them online.

They later realized that displaying the originals could also foster deeper personal connections. “You get a much clearer sense of somebody’s identity when you’re reading their real handwriting instead of standard computer font,” DeTar told TechNewsDaily.

A human connection

Once the letters are online, anyone can comment on them or create a transcript. To keep in communication, the bloggers receive paper copies of their posts, along with any comments they received. Currently, the team at Between the Bars is focused on generating more commenting activity.

“People are writing because they want to get a human connection, they want to talk to someone, so any comment they can get on a blog post is really helpful and really meaningful,” DeTar said.

The topics and tone of the letters vary widely. One recent letter, written by inmate William Medina, reads, “I am composing this communiqué from another world. A cold, distant, isolated planet. A sphere that consumes personalities and human identities.”

Another letter, written by inmate Timothy Muise, is typical in that it tells a story and begins: “Many years ago I was a sternman on my brother’s lobsterboat the Genesis III.”

Some prisoners choose not to write anything at all, and opt instead to submit sketches.


Blogging with purpose

The creators of Between the Bars said they have three main goals for the project. The first is helping inmates maintain their weaker, more casual connections.

“The more mundane connections that we tend to take for granted are actually the types of connections that help us to get by in life transitions,” DeTar said. “If we have to find a new job, generally your mother is not going to be able to find you a job. A friend of a friend might. That’s really the level of connection that we’re trying to support.”

As a space for self-expression, Between the Bars also encourages inmates to retain their individual identities. Since many prisons have a policy of referring to their populations as "offenders," this practice tends to reinforce a criminal self, while weakening the personal one, DeTar said.

In fact, sociological evidence shows that those who maintain self-perceptions separate from the system fare better when they are released. Thus, the act of blogging may help lower recidivism rates.

One letter at a time

DeTar and Hill also hope Between the Bars will help change general attitude toward those in jail.

By spreading “human stories from prison,” those on the outside can learn to sympathize with an otherwise stigmatized and underrepresented group. Empathy and awareness may prompt changes in behavior, such as the refusal of employers to hire those with criminal backgrounds.

“Yes, these people committed a crime, yes they made a mistake, but they’re still people,” said DeTar.

“They’re going to be doing much better in society if we can communicate with them, if we can help them socialize more and not just ignore them.”

By Paulina Reso, TechNewsDaily