Jobs (Pt 2 Is This any way to Run Things?)

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 2014.

            As inmates go, I’m one of the fortunate few. I have family and friends who help me. They visit regularly, they write often, they send money. Data on the population here (as of June 2013) showed that roughly 70% of the 1050 men were “returning” inmates. In other words, this wasn’t their first trip to the circus. Almost 40% were below a high school education level (15% were below 3^rd grade). At that time, there were 5 men with four year college degrees – that includes me and a school teacher who, coincidentally was also a sex offender. No sex offenders can work at the school. Less than 24 hours after my arrival here I got a job – at the school – as a teacher’s aide. It’s unheard of: a job within a day and at the lightest non-factory pay rate: 45 cents per hour. Pay. Jobs (non-factory, that is) come on part-time and full-time levels with hourly rate set at 27 cents, 35 cents, and for the lucky few, 45 cents.

            If you are a part-time building cleaner you get 15 hours a week at 27 cents. In a four week pay cycle you earn $16.20 before state-ordered mandatory ten percent forced-savings (in a non-interest bearing account) and five percent court fines/fees account. So, the guy keeping the building clean gets approximately $14.00. He then must buy detergent (offenders get 1 state wash a week in laundry; all other wash is at your own cost; we are only provided 3 sets of t-shirts, boxers, socks, pants and shirts), deodorant, toothpaste, and all other hygiene products. Heard the expression, “three hots and a cot?” Don’t believe it. Fact is, prison is a Spartan existence and without support from outside it is difficult to survive with just what’s provided.

            Work and school keeps men occupied. Any idiot in here sees that. So what does the chief housing/program guy decide to do during lock? He cuts all jobs in buildings from 20 workers to 4. Why? Who knows.

            Here is what happens when guys have no jobs, and no money. People will do what they have to do to survive. Stealing, robbery, extortion increase. Fights go up. Hustles – those without will hustle food from the chow hall, drugs, sex, anything to make a buck.

            The program manager has even tried to gut education aide pay: “Spending too much on income salaries.” Meanwhile, his staff is held to no professional baseline standards on recidivism results, or problems in the re-entry buildings or backlog on annual reviews.

            Worse, the slave-labor like “Virginia Corrections Enterprise” factory where products are made by inmates paid 55 cents to 85 cents an hour then sold to state agencies at significant markups (30% to 50% above what they could spend buying from private companies) keeps running with no one daring to slow that spending down.

            It is almost as if the people in charge do things that deliberately create chaos and trouble in the facility and add to men’s misery and likelihood of failure at release to keep this place “necessary and relevant.”

            Is this any way to run a prison? Shame on the Commonwealth of Virginia. It’s time to shed light on this corrupt, inept, inefficient system. Too many lives are being lost in the grinder that is corrections.

Central Park 5 – The Truth Wills Out

            Twenty-five years ago a young white woman left for a run through New York City’s Central Park. That run and the resulting brutal rape and beating she endured set in motion a chain of events that altered the lives of five young black men and their families.

            The attack on the victim quickly riveted the nation’s attention beyond its senseless viciousness. The young woman was an attractive, athletic white college graduate who was employed by a Wall Street firm. Almost, immediately after she was discovered beaten in the park the press began reporting her attackers were a roving gang of black youths preying on victims in a pack-like frenzy. Soon, the public was introduced to the word “wilding,” a term talking heads in the press created to describe such group attacks.

            New York’s Mayor and police commissioner vowed they would find the perpetrators and “bring them to justice.” Massive resources – police officers and the latest tools in criminal investigations – were employed to find the roving band. And America watched each day as reports came out about the victim: head trauma, broken bones. The horrendous details went on and on until … until justice was done.

            With great fanfare, New York’s finest announced the arrest of five African-American teenagers. The case was airtight; there was physical evidence and there were confessions.

            And it was life-imitating art, imitating life, the droning on about the racial makeup of victim and attacker.

            The five defendants – brutal, violent sociopaths, animalistic in their bloodlust – were tried and justice meted out. And the city was once again safe for pretty young white women to jog in …

            Except it was all wrong.

            In what would later turn out to be bad police work, the investigation wrongly focused on these five young men who actually had no physical connection to the attack, nor any physical evidence to even warrant any suspicion. The police used improper interview techniques and cajoled and coerced some of these five boys to give phony confessions implicating themselves and each other.

            And the poor victim who struggled to recover from the serious injuries she sustained was led to believe “these are the attackers.” These five young men, labeled rapists and sent to a New York maximum-security prison proclaimed their innocence … and no one listened.

            Two weeks ago, New York City announced a $40 million settlement with these men. The truth had come out years earlier. The truth about their innocence, the police malfeasance, it all came out and they were released and exonerated. The attacker a lone sex-predator – was in custody. His DNA matched the crime scene; his confession was airtight. There was no “wilding,” there was no “Central Park 5.” There were only five wrongly convicted men who were destroyed in the press and sent to prison.

            Forty million dollars. It sounds like a lot. But, consider that for years – even after the men were exonerated and released; even after it was admitted in court that the confessions were improperly obtained and evidence lacking – the city refused to acknowledge its mistakes. For years these men, these innocent men who had suffered through the hell of New York’s maximum security prison apparatus and who lost years from their lives, were never even given an apology.

            How much is your freedom worth? How much is your reputation, your name worth after it’s been smeared in the press? $40 million feels like thirty pieces of silver. And worse, the money these men received is more than ten times what a wrongly convicted person would receive in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The government doesn’t like admitting its missteps or adequately compensating the wrongly convicted.

            “J'accuse.” In 1894 a French military officer named Dreyfus was accused of conspiring with the hated Germans. Dreyfus was an easy target. He was Jewish and everyone in French military and political circles knew how “those Jews” couldn’t be trusted. Convicted of treason, he was sent to France’s notorious penal colony off Guyana, Devil’s Island, to pay for his crimes.

            The writer Emile Zola refused to accept the rush to judgment and the neatness of the investigation. “J'accuse” – “I accuse the authorities of betraying and convicting an innocent man.” And the truth willed out, Zola prevailed, and Dreyfus was freed from hell.

            In our rush to judge we often rely on our prejudices and our fears to direct our opinions. We forget the police, the government, are made up of fallible individuals who can be manipulated or are lazy, greedy, stupid, or just plain wrong. Perhaps that is why the great theologian Martin Luther, in response to his church’s call to recant – to accept the “political reality” of his times uttered “On the (God’s word) I stand. On this and no other.”

            The “Central Park 5” are free. Yet, like Dreyfus in 1894 innocent men and women still suffer when government rushes toward guilt. Consider that the next time our 24-hour news channels tell you the police have “broken a case.” Someday, you could be Dreyfus.

           

Thomas

There’s a young man in the building named Thomas and he goes home in one hundred days. Just twenty-five, he’s spent almost five years behind bars for an armed robbery he committed. He doesn’t look like your typical inmate. He looks like any clean cut glasses-wearing college kid you know. Thomas reminded me of my older son: quick-witted, funny, polite. As one of my students in our college program, I got to know a good deal about him.

            His is a cautionary tale of kids gone astray. But, it also reminds you that prisons are full of regular people who’ve made mistakes. And – to follow up on a comment someone made about prison being about punishment – I’m not sure if sending someone like Thomas to prison is either moral or corrective. Prison isn’t for kids like Thomas and the cost to society and him, while it may not be known for some time, far exceeds whatever retribution – or pound of flesh – the Commonwealth derives from sending him inside.

            Thomas is a good kid. “Sure he is, Larry,” you’re probably saying. Don’t take my word. A law professor and capital case defender from a prestigious law school located in Lexington, Virginia, wrote a letter on Thomas’s behalf before his sentencing. The letter wasn’t written as a legal filing; instead, it was from a father who had seen Thomas in his home on numerous occasions. Thomas was best friends with the professor’s oldest son. “Thomas is a sweet, polite young man who was placed in turmoil as his family went through a divorce and bitter custody dispute.”

            The Professor described Thomas as despondent and depressed. Drugs became an outlet, an escape. And the armed robbery? It was the desperate act of a young man hoping to die. The Professor concluded with a plea for mercy, “I understand fully the ramifications of Thomas’s actions. As an attorney I understand the need for punishment,” he wrote. But he called on the court to temper its desire for swift and heavy punishment and look at the defendant as a whole, not just as a lawbreaker. The court felt otherwise.

            So Thomas, a skinny, bespeckled white kid, was sent to a “level 3” facility. And, he had a tough time. Prison is not a nice place. Before any self-righteous reader thinks to respond with “He should have thought of that before he broke the law,” no young man – or woman – should be subjected to the threat of sexual assault or physical harm in a supposed state controlled facility.

            Thomas finally made it to a “level 2,” and landed here. His prior education qualified him for admittance to the college program. He did alright. He excelled in the computer classes; English was a different matter. He didn’t like putting his thoughts on paper. Most guys learn not to share their thoughts inside. You never know when your comments will lead to a lock hitting you in the side of your head.

            Thomas also had to deal with his depression. Prison is not the place to get mental health care. Thomas was on way too much medication. It numbed him, but didn’t address the hurt, pain, and fear he carried. What did turn him around was God. I know, there’s a lot of jailhouse epiphanies that are all done for appearance. Guys talk religion like they talk football. But you know when it’s real. And, Thomas’s was real.

            He stayed in touch with the law professor. And the professor’s church “adopted” Thomas. A few months ago, an aunt and uncle in Oklahoma came to see him. They’re a professional couple and their kids are grown. They asked Thomas to come to Oklahoma, move in with them and start his life anew.

            Thomas is a young man with peace in his eyes and a smile on his face. He knows he has been led through the valley of the shadow of death.

            In our rush to pass judgment we tend to forget a basic truth: God loves the Thomas’s of the world. Even when we go astray God gives new beginnings. The thing we have to remember is, we’re all closer to Thomas than we like to admit. It’s a shame Thomas’s sentencing judge didn’t know that. Thomas’s last hundred days will go fast and he’ll move on and be alright. The reason is that God is in the rebuilding business. The Commonwealth of Virginia isn’t.

 

Justice - A Thought

This past week Pope Benedict XVI made an emotional visit to Rome’s main prison.  The Pontiff – the spiritual head of the one billion member Roman Catholic Church – used his visit to call attention to the plight of the incarcerated.

“Inmates are human beings who, despite their crimes, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity…They need our concern.”

The Pope urged the government to “overhaul the system so that prisoners are not subjected to a ‘double punishment’ by serving time in insufferable conditions”.  And, in an even more eye-popping statement, he said justice is not just about righting a wrong, but also showing mercy.

“For God…there’s no just action that isn’t also an act of mercy and forgiveness, and at the same time there’s no merciful action that isn’t perfectly just.”

Pope Benedict called on the Italian government to ease prison overcrowding and have alternatives to detention.  The Cabinet followed with a sweeping prison reform measure that will release thousands of low custody offenders.

Where, I wonder, are the moral voices in this state and this country – a nation, ironically, who professes to be overwhelmingly Christian and yet misses the crucial tenets of the Savior’s message?

Prior to his death, Apple founder Steve Jobs explained his difficulty with Christians.  “Too many Christians”, he said, “don’t want to live like Christ”.  I’ve pondered that thought for months.  What, I wonder; would Jesus say about the men in here?  What would Jesus say about our society’s “lock em up and throw away the key” attitude?

It was Jesus who was imprisoned and condemned to death for healing the sick and lame, and spreading a message of mercy, grace and salvation.  I’ve discovered during these three and a half years that while society may condemn felons the Lord opens His arms to us.  There is a reason that prophets and psalmists and apostles stated over and over “He comes to set the prisoners free”. 

As the New Year begins I pray the leaders of the Commonwealth of Virginia and this Nation take the words set forth by Pope Benedict to heart.  Justice, without mercy, is not just.  Virginia’s prison system, America’s prison system, is inhuman and unChristlike.  It is time for a new way of thinking.  It is time to set many of us free.

Lying About Justice

There are consequences for your behavior.  “We tell our kids that.  Hell, Judges say the same thing when they sentence you (my Judge said “I don’t know which man is before me, the one who did so much good in the community or the one who stole...”).  Why is it then, in the name of “justice” that we tolerate public officials lying about crime, sentences and public safety?  Isn’t it time our elected officials (and those hired to manage public agencies) are held to the same standards they so self-righteously espouse?  This week that issue came to mind as I read about Virginia Governor McDonnell’s decision to close Mecklenburg Corrections Center and Judge Timothy Sanner’s sentencing of former Goochland Treasurer Brenda Grubbs for her guilty plea to embezzling in excess of $200,000.

As a matter of self-disclosure, I was sentenced by Judge Sanner.  As I’ve detailed numerous times in the pages of this blog, I volunteered all information about my case, cooperated fully with the prosecution and pled guilty to six counts (five embezzlement and one forgery of public record).  Shortly before my sentencing hearing began, a young man appeared for his sentencing.  This early twenties male was in jail for a third DUI.  The third arrest involved an accident – his friend was killed.  This young man was entered in an alcohol treatment program at the jail.  The Judge, noting he’d completed twelve of eighteen months of the program gave this young man only the remaining six months to complete the program.

I don’t begrudge a lenient sentence to this young man.  Prison wouldn’t bring back his dead friend, nor is prison the place to address an obvious alcohol problem, but how do you sentence a man who has caused a death to a total of 18 months and turn around and sentence another man to 15 years for embezzling from a profitable company (which, coincidentally, is politically well connected in your jurisdiction)?

Brenda Grubbs was the Treasurer of Goochland County.  Married for 30 plus years to a local farmer, Ms. Grubbs embezzled over $200,000 from county funds while carrying out a romantic, internet liaison with a Nigerian con artist.  Sanner allowed Ms. Grubbs out on bond while her case was pending (a luxury I was not afforded).  Then came sentencing day.  Both her husband (who has stood by her) and minister testified on her behalf.

A request was made to allow her to report after the holidays and begin serving her four year imposed sentence.  The Judge rejected the request.  Why?  Because, Judge Sanner noted “defendant is deeply depressed and in need of mental health services”.  Sending her to prison will not address her mental health issues.  In fact, sending her to prison will hurt her mental health.

If a primary purpose of the criminal justice system is the creation of remorse, then the mere process – in cases such as Ms. Grubbs and mine – is enough to create the desired results.  The problem with pronouncement from the bench such as those made by Judge Sanner is they are completely devoid of truth.  He doesn’t have the guts to say “I want to punish you, ruin your family, make you a financial drain on the state because I can.”  Instead he says some quasi – Solomonese statement about justice.

Here’s a message for Judge Sanner and the others who hand down sentences:  justice does not exist in a vacuum.  Justice always includes mercy.  No Judge should serve on the bench without spending a week in the “corrections” system to understand the “consequences” of their decisions.  And, spare us the moral platitudes from the bench.  If morals and righteous behavior were pre-requisites to serving as a judge, there’d be nothing but vacancies.

And then there is the McDonnell Administration announcing the closing of the prison in Mecklenburg County.  The real reason for the closing – Pennsylvania removing 1,000 inmates from Virginia’s Green Rock Prison and cancelling the $20 million annual lease – was correctly set out in the opening sentence.  But then, McDonnell’s spokespeople veered off into the great sea of subterfuge and misstatement.

Closing Mecklenburg and sending those inmates to Green Rock “will save approximately $10,000 per inmate on an annual basis”; the Governor said (“currently it costs $29,562 per year, per inmate housed at Mecklenburg; that cost will shrink to $19,213 at Green Rock”).  “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”  Virginia’s Department of Corrections holds approximately 39,000 inmates (two-thirds of whom are classified as “low custody”).  DOC’s budget is just north of $1 billion.  That equals a per inmate cost of $25,564 per year.  The old expression “numbers don’t lie, but liars use numbers” seems to have been created by governmental bureaucrats to justify their complete lack of cost efficiency and effectiveness and candor.

Here are the facts:  it costs money, lots of money to operate and maintain a prison.  It is labor intensive.  The reason Green Rock wasn’t being used, the reason James River, Brunswick and Southampton were closed (along with a number of other facilities) was simply due to cost.  On average, it takes $25 million annually to operate a 1,000 bed prison in Virginia.  That the Commonwealth is now – by their own acknowledgement – at 137% of adequate bed capacity in corrections is just further evidence of the failure and lies perpetrated in the name of public safety.

Governor McDonnell stated, “In these difficult times, it is incumbent upon DOC and state government to ensure that public safety continues to be paramount and, while doing so, to be the best stewards of taxpayer’s money.”

Nice words Governor.  Problem is, prisons do not ensure public safety.  And, as I have repeatedly documented in the pages of this blog, DOC spending is a sinking hole.  Money doesn’t go for programs to end recidivism.  Money doesn’t even go to create secure facilities.  Virginia’s prisons are rife with crime, violence, disease, dishonest officers and administrators, and a glaring lack of creative programs and hope.

Governor McDonnell’s closing announcement was nothing but his political attempt to dress up the economic tsunami striking Virginia after years of lies about its public safety and corrections “successes”.

I broke the law.  I was told there were consequences for my actions.  Fair enough.  Its high time Judges and Governors are held to the same standard.

Frank and Sam and other Lawbreakers

I watched the news this week as two young American hikers were released from prison in Iran and flown “to freedom” to the Sultanate of Oman.  The Sultan, it seems, paid the Iranian authorities $1,000,000 to secure the early release of the two Americans, two years into eight year sentences for illegally crossing the border into Iran.  How ironic, I thought.  The “dark and sinister” Iran has a more progressive early release system than the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Those two hikers – who broke legitimate Iranian laws on border integrity (a favorite topic for the Tea Party crowd:  border security) were released after serving 25% of their sentence.  In Virginia, those two guys would still have five more years to go:  85% of an eight year sentence is 84 months (7 years).

“But those two young Americans are innocent”, you respond.  We’ll come back to that later.  Let me tell you about Frank and Sam.

Frank and Sam are two new students assigned to me in the adult basic ed class I tutor.  Frank was born in 1945.  He is a soft spoken 66 year old black man with a slight stammer.  He reads at the 2^nd grade level.  Sam is a 61 year old black man confined to a wheelchair.  He suffers from diabetes.  His left leg was amputated slightly above the knee from complications with the disease.  Where his leg was, he now ties his state-issued jeans in a knot.  He has sparkling bright eyes and an impish smile.  He reads at the 3^rd grade level.

The law in Virginia is that every “offender” at least be enrolled in adult basic ed with the goal of receiving a state-issued GED.  The law in Virginia is that “offenders” earn a maximum of 4.5 early release credit days for time served per month.  Offenders – in Virginia at least – must serve at a minimum 85% of their sentence.  As Charles Dickens so aptly put it, “the law my dear sir is a ass”. 

Frank and Sam will never earn their GEDs.  For the vast majority of their lives they have been treated as the refuse of a fast-paced economy that values technology but disrespects the integrity of simple labor.  Both men have meandered through life as unskilled laborers, barely making enough to support and sustain their families.

So every day these two guys, Frank and Sam, hauled bricks, cleaned toilets and picked up the trash from those of us fortunate enough to come from families with money.  And their kids?  They saw the same ads for all the “must haves”.  Only they couldn’t have.

So both men over their lives strayed from “the law”.  They broke into houses, sold “hot” property, and sold drugs.  They are part of the vast “criminal” underclass in this country:  men and women who were discarded by the public schools and society years ago, illiterate, forgotten, unable to provide for themselves and their families.

What does Virginia do?  The glorious Commonwealth returns them to prison in their sixties for “probation” violations at a cost, estimated by the Richmond Times Dispatch in an article on elderly inmates in December 2010, of $70,000 per year.  These men are lied to everyday.  “We’re going to retrain you and prepare you for a successful return to society.”  Excuse my language, but that dear readers is a load of shit.

These two older convicts are functionally illiterate men who have been ignored and treated unfairly their entire adult lives.  They have been run in and out of the “corrections” system for three and four year bids at a time. DOC is doing nothing to change their lives.  They will do their bids and return home to no money, no jobs, no nothing.

What good is prison doing Frank and Sam and the thousands and thousands of other inmates just languishing away in these corrections cesspools?

Which leads me back to our two “hero hikers” who accidentally crossed the Iranian border while hiking, “seeing the world”.  They violate Iran’s territorial integrity and are prosecuted under Iranian law.  We react with a great big “how dare you”.  Is Iranian law and trial procedures and sentencing somehow less worthy of support than American or Virginia law and criminal procedure?  And why is it we expect, no demand, Iran release these two “lawbreakers” while we applaud “lock em up and throw away the key” justice in America?

“But they’re innocent”, you remind me. 

Nine chief witnesses recanted in Troy Davis’s case and the State of Georgia still gave him the needle this week.  Perhaps we are no better than Iran.  Perhaps we’re nothing but hypocrites.  Explain the difference to Frank and Sam.

It's All About the "Benjamins"

Any young guy can tell you “Benjamins” (slang for money) make the world go round. DOC spends annually over $1 billion. And yet, as sentences have increased and parole abolished, the number of inmates and cost to house those inmates continues to increase.



In a newsletter release put out this week, DOC’s Director admitted DOC has lost 2400 beds due to prison closings. Additionally, there are currently 3500 DOC inmates being housed in regional jails. Director Johnson then admitted more cuts are likely in the next budget. The Director stated, “DOC would prefer to close facilities than cut programs.”


Most inmates believe prisons flourish and sentences are so long because “the people in power make money off inmates”. Conspiracy theories run rampant in the prison about money made by prisons. And conspiracy theories lead to anger, distrust, and disrespect for the justice system.


“They did away with parole ‘cause the Federal government pays ‘em $100 a day.”


“They make millions off us . . .”


Try and explain to these guys that DOC actually bleeds the state budget and they look at you like you’re crazy.


“If it costs so much, why they lock us up for so long?”


Good question. Locking up a drug user doesn’t help him overcome his addiction. Locking up the mentally ill doesn’t treat their mental illness. Locking up white collar criminals doesn’t help their victims get repaid.


Those are just a few examples. Try these as well:


What is the cost to society for all those children growing up with their fathers incarcerated? How many of those kids live below the poverty level, end up using drugs, quitting school, and end up in prison themselves?


Maybe there’s some truth to all the conspiracy theories. The Commonwealth must be making money off corrections because no sane person would quietly sit by while such an obviously flawed system continued to perpetuate itself and fail over and over.


Instead, politicians lie to voters about “getting tough on crime” and they blindly follow. Here’s a basic truth (and the DOC Director agrees with me): sentences are too long for the vast majority of convicted felons. Too many felons locked up for too long overwhelms the system. Programs can’t keep up; inmates get bitter and on release they’re willing to try almost anything to get back what they lost.


Virginia is one of the worst at treating released felons. As USA Today reported on October 3rd, Virginia is one of the 15 states with the largest prison population (ironically Virginia is not one of the 15 most populous states). Indigent defendants are saddled with exorbitant court costs. Virginia is one of only 13 states that assess public defender costs back to the indigent defendant. Paying off court costs is a term of probation. Inmates in here leave owing thousands. Then, they’re restricted on getting a drivers license. No license, no employment. The conspiracy theorists are starting to look even more credible.


Released felons have to apply to get their voting rights restored. Virginia is one of only three states that doesn’t automatically restore a felon’s rights.


In Virginia your felony conviction affects your creditworthiness, your employability, where you live, who you associate with.


The idea behind prisons in this country was originally quite noble. Sentenced to the “penitentiary” a person would reflect on his wrong doing. Through work and study he would be “corrected”. On release, restored to society.


That’s not what we have today. It’s all about the “Benjamins”. $100 million here for a new prison; $10,000 there in court costs to the defendant that he can’t pay back. The money keeps adding up and the cost, in dollars spent and lives altered, grows and grows. Something’s got to change.