Cuccinelli’s Prison Reform Op Ed

            Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia Attorney General and GOP candidate for Governor has come out in favor of prison reform. In a June 19^th Op Ed in The Washington Post, Cuccinelli – a stalwart conservative – wrote the following:

            “In short, we must reserve our harshest and most expensive sanctions – prison – for violent and career criminals while strengthening cost-effective alternatives for lower-level, nonviolent offenders …

            With today’s sophisticated assessment tools, we can better sort offenders and match them with the levels of treatment and community supervision that offer the best chance for them to stay crime free.”

            Mr. Cuccinelli is right. It’s time for the Republicans and Democrats in Richmond to come together and reform Virginia’s broken, expensive criminal justice and corrections system. Too much money and lives are being wasted.

            Governor McAuliffe, reach across party lines and embrace Mr. Cuccinelli’s stance. Do it for the good of the Commonwealth.

           

Ken and Bobby

Ken and Bobby.  Who are they?  They’re the two best know Republicans from Virginia on the National scene.  And, every week they make headlines.  What they do daily effects every Virginian, especially the nearly 40,000 of us locked up in Virginia’s prison system.

Ken is Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.  A darling of the right, Cuccinelli none the less has overseen a series of court decisions and headlines that have called into question his leadership as chief legal officer of the Commonwealth.

And Bobby?  That would be Governor Bob McDonnell who ran for office on a platform of openness and bipartisanship.  Instead, Virginia government has been declared one of the three most susceptible to corruption by a recent independent study and witness to budget deadlock because of the numerous heavy-handed decisions Republican Party leadership made to block Democrat participation in key General Assembly governance.

How, you may ask, do these two gentlemen affect what goes on in prison and why should you care?  Because these men are both lawyers and elected to uphold the Constitution and Laws of the Commonwealth.  They, therefore, need to act with the utmost integrity and enforce the law justly.  Inmates already believe the system is corrupt.  These guys provide them the proof. 

Here are a few examples.  This week the Virginia Department of Corrections was lampooned with the dubious “Muzzle Award” given by the Thomas Jefferson Center for Protection of Free Expression.  The Jefferson Center recognized VDOC for a “lifetime achievement award”.  Josh Wheeler, the center’s director said VDOC “has earned this recognition for a pattern of disregard for First Amendment rights of Virginia inmates.”  For three straight years the center has lambasted VDOC for its denial of inmate first amendment rights even as Governor Bob announces “the incarcerated have civil rights”. 

How ironic.  AG Cuccinelli continues to unsuccessfully defend repressive First Amendment denials by DOC.  And, he continues to lose.  Who pays when a judge orders DOC to lift their book and magazine subscription restrictions and awards the prevailing inmate $100,000 plus in attorney fees?  Virginia’s taxpayers.  Over the last two years VDOC has either lost or settled (in the face of pending adverse judicial action) six inmate-led lawsuits challenging limitations imposed by DOC on religious materials, foreign language CDs, and access to both classic and modern literature.  All of this has been done under the leadership of Ken with Bob’s acquiescence. 

Then there is the pending class-action lawsuit brought by eleven inmates denied parole.   Arguments and briefs are underway and the court has tipped its hand finding Virginia’s parole system questionable.  For approximately 9,000 Virginia inmates, still under the old parole system that initial finding was a first where a court actually “got it”.

Governor McDonnell presides over a Byzantine corrections system that does little to rehabilitate, little to break the cycle of hopelessness and discrimination that leads many released felons to recommit. 

This past week when his budget finally cleared the Virginia senate by one vote (a lone Democratic senator from Northern Virginia crossed party lines to vote “yes”), Governor McDonnell spoke to the press and said “that’s $600 million for our K through twelve education.”

But what of the $1.1 billion that is spent sustaining a broken prison system where rape, hepatitis C and mental illness flourishes?  Where inmates have poor medical, mental health, and drug and alcohol treatment?  Where a significant number are kept in overcrowded dirty facilities?  Where money is spent on barbed wire, not education?

Virginia’s prison system is a rat hole.  Ken and Bob are the two chief law enforcement officers in the Commonwealth.  It’s high time they take their responsibilities seriously.

Update: Live

In prior blogs I’ve written about a young, bright black IT student named “Live” who was leader of a “blood” gang sect.  He was a funny, personable young guy who was too tied into gang life.  It led to his departure from this facility and removal from the program.  I liked him, though I knew from conversations with him he was ruthless and cold blooded.  Gang trumped even his own kids.  He was expected to lead, and he met expectations.

This week, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported that “Live” was in Federal custody in a maximum security facility.  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced they had intercepted instructions to his “loyal soldiers” to “take out” a few disloyal members.  Gang activity in Richmond is on the increase.  Live’s crew is notorious for their brutality.

In all likelihood, the multi-count indictment will lead to Live spending much of the rest of his life behind bars.  It’s a shame really.  Much like the fictitious Michael Corleone of “Godfather” fame realized, it’s easier getting in the life than getting out.  I’m left to wonder, what might Live become?  A veterinarian (his dream)? Or, an aging gang banger, living and ultimately dying, in prison?  I wonder.

At Least This Isn't California

About a week ago, a riot broke out at California’s Folsom Prison (think “the Man in Black”, Johnny Cash) on a handball court. When it was over about 250 inmates were injured or charged with fighting. California has 155,000 men and women incarcerated in a system only built to house half that many. They are currently operating under a Federal Court order to release 40,000 inmates in the next 18 months to reduce their inmate population to 137% of bed capacity [Note: the inmate lawsuit over this issue took the Federal Courts 10 years to finally order the mass release. For eight years California operated under a consent order to either release or build more prisons. Oh yeah, they have a $19 billion budget shortfall so they can’t afford to build any new prisons.]



Things are so bad with California prison medical care that “Governor Aahnold” agreed by consent order to spend $150 million immediately to improve medical care for inmates when faced with “an alarmingly high rate of deaths of inmates due to poor care and suicide”.


At least Virginia doesn’t have the problems California has. Really? Last Friday, August 27th, one inmate was stabbed to death and three others seriously injured at the level 4 Nottoway Correction Center.


At Greensville, a massive 3,000 inmate prison holding level 2 and 3 inmates, since January two inmates have been murdered and one committed suicide. And, at Red Onion prison – the Commonwealth’s Super Max facility – two inmates have been murdered – by the same inmate.


But forget that. After all, those guys are felons. They deserve what happens to them (I wonder how many people dare say that while they’re sitting in their church pews on Sunday morning). Instead, think about the cost.


According to Virginia’s State Government website, there are approximately 38,900 inmates serving time in Virginia’s prisons. That does not include another 5,000 with DOC numbers awaiting transfer to a DOC facility who are sitting in regional jails, overcrowding them. The DOC website announces “fortunately, we don’t yet have an overcrowding problem”.


I guess it depends on how you define “overcrowding”. Having bunks sitting in fire lanes must not meet DOC’s definition of overcrowding. Having 200 inmates being watched by two officers must not meet their definition either. And, I guess being so understaffed that COs at Nottoway couldn’t search for “shanks” isn’t overcrowding, at least according to DOC’s spokesman, Larry Traylor.


Still not convinced, consider the other costs. As former Lt. Governor (and now head of Prison Ministries) Mark Earley recently said: “Virginia spends more than $1.1 billion annually on its prisons”. That’s more than is spent on education or healthcare in the Commonwealth.


Then there are the legal costs. In between filing lawsuits challenging the new federal health care plan, or going after a University of Virginia Professor who conducts research on global warming for fraud, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is responsible for defending DOC in a myriad of cases.


Each year, inmates file thousands of Habeas Corpus petitions in an attempt to get their sentences reviewed. Each case requires an Assistant Attorney General (and support staff) to defend the legitimacy of the incarceration.


Each year thousands of other suits are filed by inmates over violations of constitutional rights, such as religious freedom. Injured inmates or inmates denied adequate medical care sue.


Then, there are the major lawsuits brought by or on behalf of inmates. Currently, Troutman Sanders (a major Richmond law firm) is providing counsel to eleven inmates who have been denied parole (guys locked up pre-1994 are still parole eligible).


The National Lawyer’s Guild filed suit against DOC for refusing to allow inmates to order a legal self-help book. Prison Legal News filed a similar lawsuit over censorships of their paper, a monthly compilation of cases around the country involving inmates and prisons.


On September 2nd, U.S. District Court Judge James Turk, sitting in Roanoke, found “laughable” the Attorney General’s argument in an inmate censorship suit. In that case, the inmate sued because Augusta Correction Center refused him access, under Operating Procedure 803.2, to literary classics such as James Joyce’s Ulysses, DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Nabokov’s Lolita (all three books appear on various “100 Must Read Books”). The reason for denying access to these books according to the Attorney General? Inmates read these books for the sex scenes depicted in them, then “barter” the books for goods and services.


The Judge – not a bleeding heart, a no-nonsense conservative – found the policy unconstitutional censorship. DOC has dozens of rules that are selectively enforced and/or vague and nonsensical that lead to litigation. Imagine the dollars Virginia taxpayers spend just on legal costs alone. Add that to the $1.1 billion annual budget and you start talking about “real money”.


In this case, Virginia DOC is well on the road to copying its neighbor to the west. Soon Virginians will be able to paraphrase President Kennedy’s famous words. When it comes to prisons, Virginians can say: “Ich bin ein Californian”.