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).