The Eight Most Disturbing Criminal Justice Stories of 2003
April 14, 2004 - 6:06pm
In a letter to the governor last week, the union, the New Jersey Law Enforcement Supervisors Association, said that the commissioner’s speech at a conference on minorities in prison was ‘highly inappropriate and racially charged,’ and that it would aggravate tensions between inmates and corrections officers.
Mr. Brown, who is black, said at the Nov. 8 conference at Rutgers that he was distressed by huge racial disparities in the prison population. ‘This state and nation has lost a generation of young African-Americans and Hispanics, both male and female, to the criminal justice juggernaut.’
The union also expressed dismay over comments drawing parallels to slave-era plantations.
‘There are those who with some degree of justification have proclaimed our prisons as being America’s new plantations,’ he said, ‘for not since slavery has our country promoted policies which have visited such enormous economic and human calamity on the black community.’”
On August 26, 1999, Stephanie Summers began to hemorrhage from the mouth and was taken to the University of Missouri hospital. She went into a coma. On September 1, the prison notified her family that she was dying. Arriving at the hospital, her sister and daughter found a guard and the door. Their comatose family member was bloated by 80 pounds of fluid. Both legs were shackled to the bed. The family demanded the shackles be removed. They were removed three hours later when medical parole was finally granted. Ten hours later Stephanie Rane Summers died. The imprints of the shackles were still an inch deep in her legs.
The medical services for the Missouri Department of Corrections are contracted to a private company, Correctional Medical Services (CMS). The 24-year old CMS is headquartered in St. Louis and operates in 27 states. The company receives a fixed amount of money for each of the approximately 225,000 inmates contracted to it. The estimated annual revenues for the corporation are $500 million to $700 million.
Federal Prison Industries (FPI) is a quasi-public, for-profit corporation run by the Bureau of Prisons It employees 21,000 inmates. In 2002, the company sold $678.7 million in goods and services to the government; $400 million of that amount went to the Department of Defense. FPI is the government’s 39th largest contractor.
FPI does so much business with the government because legislation from the time of FDR requires federal agencies to buy its products even if they can be bought more cheaply elsewhere. For example, prisoners make almost all of the desert camouflage pants worn by soldiers. Free labor can make the same pants in the U.S. for $2.39 cheaper a pair, even though inmates are paid $.25 to $1.15 per hour. Unions are concerned because of these sub-minimum wages and because prison workers do not have the same workplace safety standards as are mandatory in other workplaces. Federal Prison Industries is exempt from paying payroll and Social Security taxes.
For-profit prison labor also concerns advocates of rehabilitation programs and small businesses. In California, as the popularity of for-profit prison industry increased, funding for educational and vocational programs was cut by 20%. Small businesses that specialize in producing specific items for the government are concerned that they will go out of business as Federal Prison Industries looks for more ways to put its increasing prison population to work.
The $110 million medium-security prison will hold about 1, 150 inmates…It will bring more than 380 jobs, most of them paying well more than double the county’s average personal income of $12,794, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
But the prison ‘brings in jobs for a horrendous reason,’ said the Rev. Joe Darby, first vice president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP. ‘Some used to argue slavery was good for the economy, but it was bad for the slaves.’…
Textile mill jobs have all but disappeared, and a latex glove manufacturer that employed thousands for decades closed eight years ago…
So plenty of black people who live and work in the county accept the more pragmatic, economic arguments about jobs and nice salaries.
‘Bring the jobs here,’ Linda Nelson said as she sat in a coin-operated laundry in Greeleyville about six miles from the new prison. ‘If you have a job, you can stay out of trouble and stay out of jail.’”
The former weapons storage area lies buried beneath a portion of the United States Penitentiary, Atwater, which houses more than 1,500 inmates.”
Article by Peter Wagner
Prison Union Seeks Ouster of the Chief of Corrections, by Laura Mansnerus, New York Times, December 31, 2003 (New Jersey)
“The union representing sergeants at New Jersey prisons is asking Gov. James E. McGreevey to dismiss Corrections Commissioner Devon Brown, saying he made racially charged comments in a speech about the inequitable treatment of blacks and Hispanics in the criminal justice system.
In a letter to the governor last week, the union, the New Jersey Law Enforcement Supervisors Association, said that the commissioner’s speech at a conference on minorities in prison was ‘highly inappropriate and racially charged,’ and that it would aggravate tensions between inmates and corrections officers.
Mr. Brown, who is black, said at the Nov. 8 conference at Rutgers that he was distressed by huge racial disparities in the prison population. ‘This state and nation has lost a generation of young African-Americans and Hispanics, both male and female, to the criminal justice juggernaut.’
The union also expressed dismay over comments drawing parallels to slave-era plantations.
‘There are those who with some degree of justification have proclaimed our prisons as being America’s new plantations,’ he said, ‘for not since slavery has our country promoted policies which have visited such enormous economic and human calamity on the black community.’”
Dip in Inmate Population Worries Officials, by Miles Jackson, The Daily Journal, March 6, 2003 (New Jersey)
“Prison inmates mean different things to different communities. To some, an inmate is one more dangerous criminal taken off the street. To others, a person behind bars represents the failure of society to keep that person on the straight and narrow.
In Cumberland County, prison inmates translate to dollars and cents. The county’s three state prisons house more than 25 percent of all state inmates, making the N.J. Department of Corrections the area’s largest employer. …(State Assemblymen) Asselta and Van Drew contend the state has a responsibility to keep the prison population at high levels in Cumberland County — especially Maurice River Township, where inmates outnumber non-incarcerated citizens. ‘Cumberland County is in the prison business,’ Asselta said. ‘This is just like the closing of a glass factory and I’m going to fight to keep jobs in my district.’”Dying to Get Out, by Geri L. Dreiling, Riverfront Times, October 15, 2003 (Missouri)
In 1995, Stephanie Rane Summers was sentenced to two consecutive 12- year sentences for forging two checks while on probation for a similar offense. Immediately after entering prison, her health deteriorated. After multiple doctors’ requests for an infectious disease screening, she was finally screened in 1997 and diagnosed with liver disease from hepatitis B and C. The screening was only done after Ms. Summers “began vomiting blood and bleeding from the rectum.”
Recommendations by doctors to put her on the waiting list for liver transplants were not heard by the prison administration. A physician recommended Ms. Summers for a medical parole. It was denied. A second request was made for medical parole in May of 1999. Though Ms. Summers was scheduled for regular parole in January 2000, the parole board denied the request without a hearing.
Ms. Summers wrote the following to her daughter, “’ I am sending this to say that I love you. My medical parole was again denied. I may have to bleed to death. I made some pretty foolish mistakes ...sometimes you learn a little too late. I hope to see you again, but if I don’t remember that I love you and your boys and all my family.’”On August 26, 1999, Stephanie Summers began to hemorrhage from the mouth and was taken to the University of Missouri hospital. She went into a coma. On September 1, the prison notified her family that she was dying. Arriving at the hospital, her sister and daughter found a guard and the door. Their comatose family member was bloated by 80 pounds of fluid. Both legs were shackled to the bed. The family demanded the shackles be removed. They were removed three hours later when medical parole was finally granted. Ten hours later Stephanie Rane Summers died. The imprints of the shackles were still an inch deep in her legs.
The medical services for the Missouri Department of Corrections are contracted to a private company, Correctional Medical Services (CMS). The 24-year old CMS is headquartered in St. Louis and operates in 27 states. The company receives a fixed amount of money for each of the approximately 225,000 inmates contracted to it. The estimated annual revenues for the corporation are $500 million to $700 million.
Hard Time in the Heartland, by Ian Urbina, Middle East Report, September 30, 2003 (National)
Textile and manufacturing jobs are disappearing across the U.S., but one group of workers is fully employed manufacturing goods for the Department of Defense. Prisoners in federal institutions across the country make gloves, uniforms, Kevlar helmets, and parts for missiles and other weapons.Federal Prison Industries (FPI) is a quasi-public, for-profit corporation run by the Bureau of Prisons It employees 21,000 inmates. In 2002, the company sold $678.7 million in goods and services to the government; $400 million of that amount went to the Department of Defense. FPI is the government’s 39th largest contractor.
FPI does so much business with the government because legislation from the time of FDR requires federal agencies to buy its products even if they can be bought more cheaply elsewhere. For example, prisoners make almost all of the desert camouflage pants worn by soldiers. Free labor can make the same pants in the U.S. for $2.39 cheaper a pair, even though inmates are paid $.25 to $1.15 per hour. Unions are concerned because of these sub-minimum wages and because prison workers do not have the same workplace safety standards as are mandatory in other workplaces. Federal Prison Industries is exempt from paying payroll and Social Security taxes.
For-profit prison labor also concerns advocates of rehabilitation programs and small businesses. In California, as the popularity of for-profit prison industry increased, funding for educational and vocational programs was cut by 20%. Small businesses that specialize in producing specific items for the government are concerned that they will go out of business as Federal Prison Industries looks for more ways to put its increasing prison population to work.
Federal Prison a Racial Issue for Poor County, by Jeffrey Collins, Associated Press, Printed in The Post and Courier, September 4, 2003 (South Carolina)
“Officials in struggling Williamsburg County see the new federal prison rising behind the pines along a lonely two-lane highway as the answer to the high unemployment level.
But some black leaders wonder whether a county that is more than two-thirds black should tie its future to a system that locks up so many of their race. …The $110 million medium-security prison will hold about 1, 150 inmates…It will bring more than 380 jobs, most of them paying well more than double the county’s average personal income of $12,794, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
But the prison ‘brings in jobs for a horrendous reason,’ said the Rev. Joe Darby, first vice president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP. ‘Some used to argue slavery was good for the economy, but it was bad for the slaves.’…
Textile mill jobs have all but disappeared, and a latex glove manufacturer that employed thousands for decades closed eight years ago…
So plenty of black people who live and work in the county accept the more pragmatic, economic arguments about jobs and nice salaries.
‘Bring the jobs here,’ Linda Nelson said as she sat in a coin-operated laundry in Greeleyville about six miles from the new prison. ‘If you have a job, you can stay out of trouble and stay out of jail.’”
TV Whodunit Effect, by Carlene Hempel, The Boston Globe Magazine, February 9, 2003 (Massachusetts)
T.V. forensic crime dramas may be bad for the public, defendants and victims of crime. Michael Gorn, an employee of the Boston Police Department’s Crime Laboratory Unit said, “’Crossing Jordan or CSI makes people have this unrealistic expectation of tests that can be performed and the time frame in which they can be performed.’” T.V. shows wrap up complex cases in an hour or two. Real life investigations can take months or years leaving victims and survivors frustrated. Prosecutors order expensive unnecessary tests from over burdened crime labs. Jurors expect forensic evidence even when other evidence is available. The T.V. shows have also led to an increase in “junk scientists,” un-qualified people who travel from state to state posing as forensic experts. The State Police Crime Lab for Massachusetts employ sixteen people, including three DNA experts. Lab workers are responsible for collecting evidence at 260 crimes scenes a year, processing evidence from lesser crimes, and testifying in court. The increased interest in forensics has not yet led to an increase in funding for crime labs.
November Inspection Slated for Ex-Castle Weapons Site, by Stacey Wiebe, Merced Sun-Star, August 27, 2003 (California)
“Air Force officials announced Tuesday night that a site inspection of the region above Castle Air Force Base’s former weapons storage area will take place in November, in light of the possibility that radioactive waste remains buried in the storage facility.The former weapons storage area lies buried beneath a portion of the United States Penitentiary, Atwater, which houses more than 1,500 inmates.”
A Nation Behind Bars, Editorial, Washington Post, April 13, 2003 (National)
“Imagine that the United States locked up the populations of Wyoming, Vermont and North Dakota and then threw in the nation of Iceland for good measure. The result would be an inmate population of approximately the same size as the one currently behind bars in the United States. Last year, for the first time in American history, the states and the federal government – in jails and in prisons around the country – had more than 2 million people behind bars, according to Justice Department statistics. Those locked up include 1.3% of all males in this country, 4.8% of all black males – and a shocking 11.8% of the black men between the ages of 20 and 34. The dramatic rise in the prison population has created a nation of prisoners within American society. While hidden from view, and even the consciousness, of most Americans, the existence of this nation forces those on the outside to ask, in turn, what kind of nation they want to live in. …
The logic of tougher sentencing regimes and extended prison terms for drug offenders has long since become circular. When crime persists in the face of tougher sentences, many policymakers conclude that the sentences need to be tougher still. The cycle has proven enormously difficult to break, in large measure because popular sentiment makes the tough-on-crime posture politically irresistible. But keeping an ever-growing number of people locked up has huge costs: the financial costs associated with maintaining a nation of inmates, the human costs in the wrecked lives of those who could have been rehabilitated under different policies, the costs to society when people are finally released after years of prison socialization. There are also moral costs – hard to define yet real nonetheless. For the incarceration rate reflects on some level the rate at which a society gives up on its members. And 2 million is a huge number to give up on.”