Mississippi's Corrections Reform

[Winehole23]

Mississippi's Corrections Reform

How America's reddest state -- and most notorious prison -- became a model of corrections reform.

BY: John Buntin (http://www.governing.com/authors/John-Buntin.html) | August 2010

In January 2002, Margaret Winter, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) National Prison Project, received a letter from Willie Russell, an inmate on Mississippi's death row.


"I am on a hunger strike to the death," the letter began. In highly idiosyncratic language, the letter then described conditions at the facility where death row was housed, Unit 32.


Unit 32 was one of seven prisons located on Mississippi's fabled penal institution, Parchman Farm. As described by Russell, it was also a lot like hell. Inmates were locked in permanent solitary confinement. In the summer, the cells were ovens, with no fans or air circulation. Russell's was even worse: He was in a special "punishment" cell with a solid, unvented Plexiglas door. The cells were also sewers, thanks to a design flaw in cellblock toilets that often flushed excrement from one cell into the next. Prisoners were allowed outside -- to pace or sit alone in metal cages -- just two or three times a week. Inside was a perpetual dusk: One always-on light fixture provided inadequate light for reading but enough light to make it hard to sleep.


Then there were the bugs. The only way to avoid being eaten alive, Russell wrote, was to wrap himself in clothes like a mummy, which made the brutal Delta heat even more unbearable. Worst of all, though, was the noise. Psychotic inmates screamed through the night. Conditions were so bad, Russell continued, that some dozen-odd other inmates -- about one-quarter of Mississippi's death row population -- had also joined the hunger strike.


"I had heard this sort of thing before," Winter says, "but I was gripped by the power of this letter. It was like something out of the Book of Genesis. It had a biblical grandeur to it. And I believed it." Winter hurriedly arranged a trip to Parchman Farm, where she met her correspondent for the first time. He was a giant of a man -- 6 feet 8 inches tall, 250 pounds. Though he was handcuffed, shackled, belly-chained and dressed in the distinctive, solid red jump suits worn by death row inmates, he clearly was a proud man, "fantastically imposing." But he already was visibly wasted by the hunger strike. His skin was ashen, his eyes bluish and dry.



"He didn't want false hope," she recalls. "He said he would stop if I would give him a solemn assurance that we could make changes -- significant changes. He didn't want to be strung along." He'd rather die now instead.
Winter told him that if she could corroborate what he was saying, she felt certain they could change conditions such that he would want to continue living and fighting his death sentence. Russell accepted the offer and agreed to end the hunger strike. Seven months later, in July 2002, the ACLU filed suit against the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) on behalf of Russell, five other inmates and those similarly situated. The ACLU alleged that "defendants knowingly subject the death row prisoners to barbaric and inhumane conditions, which wantonly inflict unnecessary pain and constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth and 14th amendments to the Constitution of the United States."


But where Winter saw a noble giant, Parchman Farm staff saw the 41-year-old Russell as something else -- a murderer with a history of violent crime. In 1987, while serving an armed robbery sentence, Russell was sent to a Jackson, Miss., hospital for medical care. Once there, he kidnapped a guard and escaped, leading police on a high-speed chase that ended with a crash. He was sent to Unit 24 at Parchman Farm, a medium-security prison. Two years later, Russell broke out of his cell and killed a prison guard with a homemade shank. For that, a jury sent Russell to death row. In 2000, Russell shot at a prison guard with a homemade "zip gun." Not surprisingly, prison officials had little sympathy for him.


Many of the measures Russell decried were there (or not there) for a reason. Plexiglas on the cell doors was necessary to prevent inmates from flinging feces and urine at prison guards. Screens were missing because inmates used them to make shanks.


"Basically they didn't think we were doing anything right, and we thought they were all wrong," says MDOC Deputy Commissioner of Institutions Emmitt Sparkman. And so the scene was set for a classic -- and wholly predictable-showdown, one pitting an idealistic civil liberties organization against a beleaguered corrections system.


Except that in the case of Mississippi, that's not what happened. Instead, in 2006, Sparkman's boss, MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps, decided to do something very different: He invited the ACLU in. Shortly thereafter, Epps and Sparkman began a series of deeply counterintuitive reforms that risked their careers.


Epps didn't just take on Parchman Farm. He also challenged Mississippi's commitment to a punitive penal code that had doubled the state's inmate population and tripled its corrections budget in 10 years time.


In early 2008, Epps and his old colleague Sen. Willie Simmons teamed up to pass legislation that amended the state's truth in sentencing law, making nonviolent offenders eligible for parole after serving 25 percent of their sentences. More impressive still, they persuaded Epps' boss, Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Haley Barbour, to sign it. Since then, the state has quietly released more than 3,000 convicted felons. Moreover, Mississippi has accomplished this feat without the kinds of high-profile crimes that have embarrassed would-be corrections reformers in other states, such as Colorado and Illinois. As a result, America's reddest state -- and most notorious prison -- has become an unlikely model for reforming overcrowded prison systems...
Read more: http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/courts-corrections/mississippi-correction-reform.html (http://www.governing.com/topics/public-justice-safety/courts-corrections/mississippi-correction-reform.html)

[Winehole23]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/08/prison-without-walls/8195/

[DarrinS]

Poor, poor death row inmates.

[Winehole23]

Overincarceration and unconstitutional prison conditions cost states $$$. A lot of $$$.

[Winehole23]

Did you read the OP all the way through, or did you stop at the precipitating complaint?

[coyotes_geek]

Good read. :tu

Texas sure could benefit from paroling a bunch of non violent offender types.

[TeyshaBlue]

Good read. :tu

+10 :tu

[boutons_deux]

The PIC incarcerating 1% of the population is just another measure of failure of the Greatest Country In The History Of The Universe.

Whether the prisoners are guilty or not, there's something definitely, seriously diseased about a society that incarcerates 1% of its population, even ignoring the extremely skewed numbers in color of the prisoners skins, ethnicity.

Compare that 1% against the 10s of 1000s lawyers, bankers, accountants, non-bank mortgage initiators that perpetrated the MBS/sub-prime/MERS crimes, and not one in jail or even indicted.

The PIC will buy enough, has bought enough, politicians that the situation will remain or get worse.

a "felony" for streaming a video? GMAFB

[DarrinS]

Whether the prisoners are guilty or not, there's something definitely, seriously diseased about a society that incarcerates 1% of its population, even ignoring the extremely skewed numbers in color of the prisoners skins, ethnicity.


Are the numbers convicted of crimes similarly skewed?

[TeyshaBlue]

*hint* You have to be convicted of a crime to be in prison.

Holy fuck.

[DarrinS]

*hint* You have to be convicted of a crime to be in prison.

Holy fuck.


Ok, COMMIT then.

[Winehole23]

Do you have a point?

[TeyshaBlue]

Ok, COMMIT then.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/teyshablue/handtwo.jpg

[DarrinS]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/teyshablue/handtwo.jpg

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/commit

[TeyshaBlue]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/commit

Ok, I'll substitute the word commit.

Are the numbers commit of crimes similarly skewed?

I'm sure that makes sense in that gibbering sensorium of yours.

[Winehole23]

Instead of acting like retardo Socrates why don't you just say what you mean? You've already derailed the thread, please make your damn point.

[TeyshaBlue]

Actually, I'd just settle for DarrinS making a lucid point. No such luck tho.

Dammit WH!:ihit
:lol

[MannyIsGod]

Does Darrin have figures on the races of all crimes committed? Thats some shit I would like to see.

You're a shitty excuse for a human, Darrin.

[TeyshaBlue]

Instead of acting like retardo Socrates why don't you just say what you mean? You've already derailed the thread, please make your damn point.

Thank you for the title of my next album. Retardo Socrates. Winehole23, Creative Director.:lol

[DarrinS]

Does Darrin have figures on the races of all crimes committed? Thats some shit I would like to see.



See:

Uniform Crime Reports
Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey




You're a shitty excuse for a human, Darrin


This must be the new civility I've been hearing about.

[DarrinS]

Do you have a point?


I'll spoon feed you.


Minorities commit a disproportionate number of crimes and are therefore disproportionately represented in our prison system.

[Winehole23]

Thank you. This relates to the OP how?

[TeyshaBlue]

It doesn't. But bouton's gets the stat for that rabbit path. Darrin just gets the assist.

[Winehole23]

I'm sick of Darrin trying to turn every thread into a racial foofaraw, is all. A little more topical focus would be nice.

[Winehole23]

Tuff on crime policies cost too much, without much appreciable benefit to public safety.

[DarrinS]

I'm sick of Darrin trying to turn every thread into a racial foofaraw, is all. A little more topical focus would be nice.

boutons went there

[Winehole23]

And you were on it like white on rice.

[Winehole23]

The conviction that private prisons save money helped drive more than 30 states to turn to them for housing inmates. But Arizona shows that popular wisdom might be wrong: Data there suggest that privately operated prisons can cost more to operate than state-run prisons — even though they often steer clear of the sickest, costliest inmates.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/us/19prisons.html?_r=1

[boutons_deux]

Somewhat related, CA prison guards make $61K (unionized), while TX prison guards make $31K.

Hidden cost is that CA prison guard churn is 10%, while TX is 50%.

========

"Texas prison guards earned the second-lowest guard salaries in the nation, according to the union that represents many state correctional officers, AFSCME-CEC7."

http://realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2008/04/tx_prisons_go_b.html

[Winehole23]

Conservative states across the South have altered their approach to criminal sentencing in recent years by replacing the tough-on-crime mantra with a “smart on crime” philosophy that supporters say saves money and could even cut repeat offenses. http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/georgia-rethinks-its-prison-1286727.html

[Winehole23]

Ninety-nine times over the last six years, Kansas legislators have changed the law to make sure that crime doesn’t pay.But as tougher penalties pack more criminals into prisons that are already overcrowded, the state is struggling to balance the new costs of justice against needs such as education and social services.http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/02/3349648/tougher-sentences-boost-cost-of.html#storylink=cpy

[boutons_deux]

I'm sick of Darrin trying to turn every thread into a racial foofaraw, is all. A little more topical focus would be nice.

"fryin n!gg@s" and browns with planted evidence is just one tactic police use to arrest/jail, to make their quota.

Jailing, executions, railroading the poor in court are definitely racially/ethnically biased activities.

(NYPD has been accused recently of suppressing criminal reports so it would look like they were succeeding in reducing crime rates.)

[Winehole23]

please catch up. topic is corrections reform.

[Winehole23]

Our view is that a state that has seen its Department of Corrections grow by 97 percent since 1995, becoming a $1.4 billion enterprise, the third largest state agency, ought to at least be interested in taking a long and thoughtful look at whether mandatory sentencing and ever-increasing prison costs amount to the best or only way to fight crime. http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/01/bring_on_the_debate_over_corre.html

[boutons_deux]

Corrections reform would mean less $Bs for CCA and all the other PIC bloodsuckers. A great way to fill/maintain prisons is load them up with poor, poorly defended/railroaded blacks and browns. Corrupt police and prosecutors play along. Can't really separate correction reform from prison contents.

[Winehole23]

prisons are an objective expense which at some point may conflict with other public priorities. many states have already reached that point, more will reach it soon. the question is not whether or not there will be prison reform, but how much and what kind.

[Winehole23]

LE and prosecutors figure in, for sure, but the lege sets the numbers of beds it'll pay for, as well as policies for parole, probation, good time and alternatives to incarceration like drug diversion programs.

[Winehole23]

Deincarceration in California: Evaluating 'realignment' one year in
Last year federal courts ordered California to radically reduce its prison population, and though it hasn't yet met targets (http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/News/3_judge_panel_decision.html) set by the judges, their number of prisoners declined radically, leaving Texas as the state incarcerating the most people (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/06/with-california-de-incarcerating-texas.html), the Golden State's population is half-again ours. Many of those inmates were shifted to county jails while an even greater number ended up on some form of community supervision. Yesterday was the one year anniversary of California's prison "realignment" scheme, which shifted responsibility for supervising certain low-level offenders to counties. According to the group, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (http://www.corrections.com/news/article/31568-one-year-later-for-realignment-californians-continue-to-fight-against-jail-construction) (CURB)

"The good news about realignment is that there were 30,000 fewer people who spent last night in a cell than there were when Gov. Brown was elected," said Emily Harris of Californians United for a Responsible Budget. "Because the state is spending $800 million less on Corrections than we did two years ago, we avoided another $800 million in cuts to services for poor children and the elderly."

The state's prison population has dropped to 124,701 from a high of 173,479 in 2006 while the state's jail population has increased by 2,849 over the last year. Crime rates continue to fall statewide.

"If we can have 30,000 fewer people locked up in a time of massive unemployment and widespread foreclosures without seeing an upturn in crime, then it is clear we didn't need to have all those people locked up in the first place," said Harris. The ACLU of Northern California offered less sanguine figures (https://www.aclunc.org/news/press_releases/at_one-year_anniversary_of_prison_realignment,_aclu_says_ california_failing_to_enact_needed_criminal_justic e_reforms.shtml) on the scope of reduced incarceration, estimating that:

while the state's prison population has decreased by nearly 25,000 during the past year, counties have increased their own jail capacity by more than 7,000 beds, spending tens of millions of dollars in state realignment dollars to expand jail capacity. Billions of additional dollars in the form of state lease-revenue bonds are in the pipeline for even more jail construction that would create an additional 10,000 beds. This despite the ACLU's new polling data showing that 75 percent of state voters favor investing public money in more prevention and alternatives to jail for non-violent offenders. That group issued a briefing paper (https://www.aclunc.org/docs/criminal_justice/realignment_packet.pdf) (pdf) predicting that short-term incarceration reductions wouldn't last unless more resources are devoted to programming aimed at supervising offenders in the community and reducing recidivism. An appendix to that document included polling data focused in part on public attitudes toward pretrial detention, presenting:

to voters a hypothetical match-up between two potential candidates for the State Legislature – one candidate who voted in favor of allowing more monitoring in the community instead of jail for people awaiting trial for non-violent offenses running against a candidate who voted against this proposal. The reform candidate won by a nearly 3-to-1 margin with 63 percent to only 23 percent for the candidate opposing the reform. The reform candidate drew bipartisan support and led among Democrats (74 percent to 14 percent), independents (64 percent to 22 percent) and even Republicans (46 percent to 36 percent). As is the case here in Texas, a sizable majority of inmates in county jails (nearly 70%) are incarcerated while awaiting trial.

It should be noted that the ACLU-NC figures and those from CURB aren't entirely contradictory: CURB compares the present prison population to a 2006 high. And the the ACLU-NC estimated 7,000 beds of expanded jail capacity, while CURB said the the number actually incarcerated in county jails "increased by 2,849 over the last year." While CURB says the prison population reduced "nearly 30,000" in the last year and ACLU-NC pegged the reduction at "nearly 25,000," the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Prison-reforms-results-mixed-after-year-3907655.php#ixzz2899zCxZU) put the figure at 27,000. So the precise figure is apparently a matter of some dispute.

A couple of news stories commemorating realignment's anniversary stand out. For instance, though Alameda County (http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_21675098/alameda-county-assesses-one-year-prison-realignment) (Oakland), "was already sending 30 percent fewer people to prison than the state average, the county still managed to cut new prison admissions by 39 percent during the first nine months of prison realignment" without a noticeable uptick in crime. There have been some problems, though, as "The already-thin probation department staff had to adjust to a new approach: rehabilitation of its inmates, rather than the traditional 'trail 'em and nail 'em,' or watching for violations that would land probationers back in prison."

There has been tremendous variation among counties regarding how realignment has been implemented, reported the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Prison-reforms-results-mixed-after-year-3907655.php#ixzz2899zCxZU): "Stanislaus County, for example, has about half the population of San Francisco but houses nearly 1,200 inmates in its county jails - nearly as many as San Francisco's 1,500. The Stanislaus County jails were at capacity even before realignment took effect, and Sheriff Adam Christianson said the influx of inmates this past year - more than the state forecast - forced the jail to release hundreds of criminals, whom he called "the best of the worst." San Francisco, by contrast, "gave probation 81 percent of its realignment funding and spent 19 percent on health and treatment services. A tiny fraction went to the Sheriff's Department, which is operating jails at below its population capacity. The only new beds in the pipeline are at a center intended to help state prisoners transition back into the community during their last two months before release."

Even critics acknowledge that reported crime statewide hasn't noticeably increased, though they're quick to point to anecdotes to support such a meme. Said the President of the tuff-on-crime Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, "We're not trying to make a statewide case yet, the numbers aren't up, but when you see fires pop up all over the forest, you don't wait a year to say the forest burned down." Given that California's crime rate last year hit a 42 year low (http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2011/09/12/california-crime-rate-hits-42-year-low/), Grits wouldn't be surprised to see a slight uptick, even if realignment hadn't occurred, but I also consider it equally likely the state will follow national trends and see crime continue to drop. My personal view (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/06/hypothesizing-reasons-for-continued.html) is that with incarceration levels at all time highs, the marginal benefit of extra incarceration is minimal, just as the marginal extra crime from reduced incarceration is likely to be low. Especially for violent offenses, I wouldn't expect realignment as it's played out in California - with significant extra funds shifted to counties to aid with supervision - to have a tremendous impact on crime one way or the other. But with such wide disparities in how counties are using that money, it's difficult to judge at this early stage, and of course, time will tell.http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/10/deincarceration-in-california.html?spref=fb

[Winehole23]

Expanded medical parole would save tens of millions
At the Austin Statesman, Mike Ward provides the latest data and arguments for expanding use of medical parole for elderly and infirm inmates ("Old, infirm inmates costly to state; officials looking at alternatives (http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/old-infirm-convicts-costly-to-state-officials-look/nSR2b/)," Oct. 3):

With the Legislature certain to face a tight state budget when it convenes next January, state officials confirmed Tuesday they are exploring a plan that could parole many of the most infirm, bed-ridden offenders into secure nursing homes where the offenders could be kept track of by ankle monitoring bracelets.

State records reveal that the 10 sickest convicts alone cost taxpayers more than $1.9 million during 2011, a figure that prison doctors say is growing every year as Texas’ prison population gets older and more infirm.
In all, records show that convicts over age 55 now make up 8 percent of Texas’ prison population, but account for 30 percent of its medical costs. ...
An internal prison report shows health care for the 10 costliest offenders ranged from $331,651 a year for a 48-year-old Houston robber to $131,294 for a drunk driver who died in prison.
At least three others are mostly bedridden with various ailments: A 40-year-old Dallas drug dealer’s health care cost $226,806 a year, a 57-year-old Corpus Christi armed burglar cost $181,779 a year, and a 34-year-old El Paso murderer cost $181,779.
Some prisoners have had open heart surgery, leg and arm amputations, kidney failure, while others have terminal cancer, paralysis and other maladies that have limited their mobility, officials said.
Taking into account the cost of security, [Texas Civil Rights Project attorney Brian] McGiverin estimated that if the state released on parole its terminally ill and infirm convicts, the savings could reach $76 million over two years. See related coverage from the Texas Tribune (http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/texas-board-of-pardons-and-paroles/inmates-case-highlights-medical-parole-issues/), where the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Marc Levin provided more conservative savings estimate than McGivern:

Marc Levin, director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, agreed that the process is creating needless costs. In a recent report, he noted that granting parole to “infirm” inmates would save the state $42.6 million in 2013, while only adding $1.57 million in parole costs.

Levin said his organization is planning to propose legislation to simplify the process for medical parole. Levin said time and money are wasted when doctors spend write recommendations for inmates who won’t be considered eligible for medical parole anyway. And, he said, the parole board members don’t likely have the medical knowledge to understand the language in the recommendations.

A single commission with doctors and parole officials “in the same room” discussing cases “would really streamline the process,” Levin said. Most of these high-expense prisoners/patients would be eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance if they were paroled, meaning the feds would pick up their medical tab instead of it coming 100% from the state general fund. If the state is going to do this, though, it would behoove them to assist with eligibility determination for SSDI as part of the reentry process so that local hospital districts aren't stuck with the tab for indigent services. http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2012/10/expanded-medical-parole-would-save-tens.html?spref=fb

[boutons_deux]

"high-expenses" are being pocketed by people and corporations who buy politicians, regulators, administrators to keep those expenses high.

[RandomGuy]

McGiverin estimated that if the state released on parole its terminally ill and infirm convicts, the savings could reach $76 million over two years.

Out of one pocket into another.

These prisoners will not magically be given private sector health insurance.

They will be forced on Medicaid/-care rolls.

I guess there is always the ER. pfft.

[RandomGuy]

please catch up. topic is corrections reform.

Look up the thread on bail bond reform. It is all tied up. There is a nasty underbelly in local politics where bail bondsmen have some very perverse incentives that feed the system, and those incentives are rather predatory on the poor.