As many as one of every seven black men in Atlanta who have been convicted of a felony, and one of every four in Providence, R.I., cannot vote in this year's election, according to a pair of studies released Wednesday. The studies, the first to look at felon disenfranchisement laws' effect on voting in individual cities, add to a growing body of evidence that those laws have a disproportionate effect on African-Americans because the percentage of black men sentenced to prison is much larger than their share of the general population. [continues 265 words]
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. - Crime doesn't pay, but criminals just might. That is what more and more local governments are hoping, as they grapple with soaring prison populations and budget pressures. To help cover the costs of incarceration, corrections officers and politicians are more frequently billing inmates for their room and board, an idea popular with voters. Here in suburban Macomb County, 25 miles north of Detroit, Sheriff Mark Hackel has one of the most successful of these programs in the nation. Last year, the sheriff's department collected nearly $1.5 million in what are being called "pay to stay" fees from many of the 22,000 people who spent time in the county jail. [continues 1613 words]
The number of Americans under the control of the criminal justice system grew by 130,700 last year to reach a new high of nearly 6.9 million, according to a Justice Department report that is being released today. The total includes people in jail and prison as well as those on probation and parole. This is about 3.2 percent of the adult population in the United States, the report said. The growth in what the report termed the "correctional population" comes at a time when the crime rate nationwide has been relatively stable for several years. The report does not address why the number of men and women in jail and prison and on probation and parole has continued to increase. But experts say the most likely reason is the cumulative effect of the tougher sentencing laws passed in the 1990s. [continues 222 words]
The number of Americans under the control of the criminal justice system grew by 130,700 last year to reach a new high of nearly 6.9 million, according to a Justice Department report released today. The total includes people in jail and prison as well as those on probation and parole. This is about 3.2 percent of the adult population in the United States, the report said. The growth in what the report termed the "correctional population" comes at a time when the crime rate nationwide has been relatively stable for several years. It also comes when many states, faced with budget deficits, have passed new, less strict sentencing laws in an attempt to reduce the number of inmates. [continues 401 words]
One early clue that Texas prisons had a new contraband problem was a letter, intercepted in a routine mail check, from a mother telling her inmate son that she was putting more minutes on his cellphone. Then there was the mother who wrote the warden complaining about the poor reception for her son's cellphone. But Texas officials say they learned the seriousness of cellphones' being smuggled into prisons only during a recent undercover investigation of a violent gang, the Texas Syndicate, when electronic surveillance showed that a gang member was making and receiving calls on his cellphone from the Darrington prison, near Houston. [continues 1059 words]
Almost 10 percent of all inmates in state and federal prisons are serving life sentences, an increase of 83 percent from 1992, according to a report released yesterday by the Sentencing Project, a prison research and advocacy group. In two states, New York and California, almost 20 percent of inmates are serving life sentences, the report found. Advertisement The increase is not the result of a growth in crime, which actually fell 35 percent from 1992 to 2002, the report pointed out. Instead, it is the result of more punitive laws adopted by Congress and state legislatures as part of the movement to get tough on crime, the report said. [continues 686 words]
Physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, similar to what has been uncovered in Iraq, takes place in American prisons with little public knowledge or concern, according to corrections officials, inmates and human rights advocates. In Pennsylvania and some other states, inmates are routinely stripped in front of other inmates before being moved to a new prison or a new unit within their prison. In Arizona, male inmates at the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix are made to wear women's pink underwear as a form of humiliation. [continues 361 words]
Physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, similar to what has been uncovered in Iraq, takes place in American prisons with little public knowledge or concern, according to corrections officials, inmates and human rights advocates. In Pennsylvania and some other states, inmates are routinely stripped in front of other inmates before being moved to a new prison or a new unit within their prison. In Arizona, male inmates at the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix are made to wear women's pink underwear as a form of humiliation. [continues 1201 words]
A study mapping the prisons built in the boom of the last two decades has found that some counties in the United States now have more than 30 percent of their residents behind bars. The study, by the Urban Institute, also found that nearly a third of counties have at least one prison. "This study shows that the prison network is now deeply intertwined with American life, deeply integrated into the physical and economic infrastructure of a large number of American counties," said Jeremy Travis, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and an author of the study. [continues 632 words]
Girls Slept Next To Area Where Mom, Boyfriend Made Drug BOONE - Sandra Rupert, a counselor at an elementary school in this town tucked high up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, wondered about two sisters who were second- and third-graders. They had headaches, colds and coughs virtually every day. Sheriff Mark Shook found the explanation when he raided the children's home and discovered their mother and her boyfriend were cooking methamphetamine in the attic, next to where the girls slept. [continues 836 words]
BOONE, N.C. - Sandra Rupert, a counselor at an elementary school in this Blue Ridge Mountain town, wondered about two sisters who had headaches, colds and coughs virtually every day. Sheriff Mark Shook found the explanation when he raided the children's home and discovered their mother and her boyfriend were cooking methamphetamine in the attic, where the girls slept. The girls, in the second and third grades, were suffering from the toxic fumes emitted by the methamphetamine cooking, said Chad Slagle, a social worker with the Watauga County Child Protective Services Unit. They were removed immediately from the house and taken away from their mother. [continues 248 words]
BOONE, N.C. - Sandra Rupert, a counselor at an elementary school in this town tucked high up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, wondered last year about two sisters who were second and third graders. They had headaches, colds and coughs virtually every day. Sheriff Mark Shook found the explanation when he raided the children's home and discovered their mother and her boyfriend were cooking methamphetamine in the attic, next to where the girls slept. The girls were suffering from the toxic fumes emitted by the methamphetamine cooking, said Chad Slagle, a social worker with the Watauga County Child Protective Services Unit. They were removed immediately from the house and taken away from their mother. They had to leave without taking any of their clothes or toys, Mr. Slagle said, for fear of further contamination. [continues 1279 words]
The Justice Department has quietly ended a program to measure criminals' use of drugs and forecast new drug epidemics, citing budget cuts by Congress. The program, the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program, or ADAM, tests newly arrested criminals entering jail for narcotics violations in 35 cities. Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d, in the Reagan administration, started it in 1986. Law enforcement officials and criminal justice experts criticized ending the program, saying it was a useful tool in the battle against crime and drugs and was widely credited for tracking the rise and fall of the crack epidemic and detecting the beginning of the methamphetamine epidemic on the West Coast. [continues 665 words]
LOVELL, Wyo. a " Tucked under the snowcapped wall of the Big Horn Mountains, with its cattle and horse ranches and large Mormon church, this could be "that sleepy little town everyone wants," said Nick Lewis, the police chief. Except for one thing. Lovell, population 2,264, and two nearby towns have become infested by methamphetamine. In the past two years, about 70 people from this small slice of northwestern Wyoming have been convicted of buying or selling methamphetamine, with more arrests and convictions expected soon, the authorities say. Methamphetamine-related crimes now consume half the time of Chief Lewis's seven-officer force. Burglaries have mushroomed, one suspected witness's house was firebombed and the State Department of Family Services has taken children away from parents so incapacitated by methamphetamine that they forgot to feed them. Many people have simply quit work and ended up selling drugs to pay for methamphetamine, a powerful manufactured stimulant that produces bursts of energy and euphoria but can lead to depression, violent paranoia and brain damage. Methamphetamine is also draining precious money out of Lovell, which has already lost three of its four groceries, its Sears, its movie theater and two of its few factories. [continues 1358 words]
OLYMPIA, Wash., - After two decades of passing ever tougher sentencing laws and prompting a prison building boom, state legislatures facing budget crises are beginning to rethink their costly approaches to crime. In the past year, about 25 states have passed laws eliminating some of the lengthy mandatory minimum sentences so popular in the 1980's and 1990's, restoring early release for parole and offering treatment instead of incarceration for some drug offenders. In the process, politicians across the political spectrum say they are discovering a new motto. Instead of being tough on crime, it is more effective to be smart on crime. [continues 1503 words]
The nation's prison population grew 2.6 percent last year, the largest increase since 1999, according to a study by the Justice Department. The jump came despite a small decline in serious crime in 2002. It also came at a time when a growing number of states facing large budget deficits have begun trying to reduce prison costs by easing tough sentencing laws passed in the 1990s, thereby decreasing the number of inmates. ``The key finding in the report is this growth, which is somewhat surprising in its size after several years of relative stability in the prison population,'' said Allen J. Beck, an author of the report. Beck is the chief prison demographer for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical arm of the Justice Department, which puts out an annual study of the number of people incarcerated in the United States. [continues 468 words]
The nation's prison population grew 2.6 percent last year, the largest increase since 1999, according to a study by the Justice Department. The jump came despite a small decline in serious crime in 2002. It also came when a growing number of states facing large budget deficits have begun trying to reduce prison costs by easing tough sentencing laws passed in the 1990's, thereby decreasing the number of inmates. "The key finding in the report is this growth, which is somewhat surprising in its size after several years of relative stability in the prison population," said Allen J. Beck, an author of the report. Mr. Beck is the chief prison demographer for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical arm of the Justice Department, which releases an annual study of the number of people incarcerated in the United States. [continues 815 words]
An estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20 to 34 are in jail or prison, according to a report released yesterday by the Justice Department. The proportion of young black men who are incarcerated has been rising in recent years, and this is the highest rate ever measured, said Allen J. Beck, the chief prison demographer for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical arm of the Justice Department. By comparison, 1.6 percent of white men in the same age group are incarcerated. [continues 225 words]
Bush's Budget Eliminates $250 Million In Block Grants; Advocates Object PORTLAND, Ore. - At 15, Karl had dropped out of school, had a small-time drug habit and was hanging out on the streets with friends who were supporting themselves by shoplifting. When Karl was picked up by the police for possession of marijuana, he would normally have been taken to the Multnomah County Juvenile Detention Center, the juvenile jail here. But two years ago, with a $200,000 federal grant, the county started a program under which Karl and teen-agers like him who would have been charged with minor offenses were instead taken to a privately run center where they received a clinical assessment, drug treatment and the chance to remake their lives. [continues 362 words]
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich., Jan. 27 - Marva Johnson was thrilled when her longtime boyfriend, Randy Vallad, was paroled from prison in 1999. They went back to living together, and once when he had a bad cut on his head, she took care of him. She was splattered with his blood, but the couple did not think anything of it at the time. It was not until Mr. Vallad was sent back to prison in 2001 for a parole violation that he was accidentally shown his Michigan Department of Corrections medical records. They reported that Mr. Vallad had tested positive for hepatitis C, a blood-borne virus that can cause potentially fatal liver disease, when he was first admitted to prison years before. [continues 958 words]
