How parole boards keep prisoners in the dark and behind bars

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Reynaldo Rodriguez was 19 with a young son, a good job and no criminal record when he shot and killed a man. As part of an ongoing family feud, someone — Rodriguez believed it was a man named Robert Cuellar — had shot at Rodriguez’s mother and brother. Then Cuellar slapped Rodriguez’s sister.

“I just blew a fuse,” Rodriguez says now of killing Cuellar.

In 1977 he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and the judge gave him a choice: A sentence of 15 to 30 years would probably mean parole in 12. A life sentence would make him parole-eligible in 10 years.

Rodriguez chose life. At his sentencing, Saginaw County (Mich.) Judge Gary McDonald made it clear that this was “not the mandatory natural life imprisonment sentence” and said that if Rodriguez was a “model prisoner,” McDonald would recommend release in 10 years.

Thirty-seven years later, Rodriguez is still behind bars.

America’s prisons hold tens of thousands of people like Rodriguez — people primarily confined not by the verdicts of a judge or a jury but by the inaction of a parole board. Michigan is one of 26 states where parole boards are vested with almost unlimited power to decide who gets out of prison when, and why.

With more than 1.5 million people behind bars, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and the financial costs are staggering. As politicians from both parties seek alternatives to mass imprisonment, the parole process has emerged as a major obstacle.

A months-long Marshall Project investigation reveals that, in many states, parole boards are so deeply cautious about releasing prisoners who could come back to haunt them that they release only a small fraction of those eligible — and almost none who have committed violent offenses, even those who pose little danger and whom a judge clearly intended to go free.

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By Beth Schwartzapfel 7/11/15

Harsh prison sentences swell ranks of lifers and raise questions about fairness, study finds

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Stricter state sentencing laws in Washington have swelled the ranks of inmates serving life sentences to nearly one in five.

And some lifers who opted to go to trial are serving much longer sentences than others who committed the same crimes and plea-bargained — raising questions about equitable treatment of prisoners.

Those are among the findings in a new analysis by undergraduate honors students in the University of Washington’s Law, Societies & Justice program, who sought to determine the number of lifers in Washington prisons, the legal processes that lead to life sentences and the cost of housing those inmates, many of whom will die behind bars.

Washington largely eliminated its parole system after the state’s Sentencing Reform Act was enacted in 1984. The SRA was intended to increase consistency in sentencing and shift the goal of sentencing from rehabilitation, which research at the time indicated did not reduce crime, to punishment.

“At the time, the conventional wisdom was that rehabilitation didn’t work, and that parole boards were making arbitrary decisions,” said Katherine Beckett, a professor in the Law, Societies & Justice program and the Department of Sociology, who oversaw the students’ research.

The upshot of the SRA was that except for a few categories of inmates — juveniles, certain sex offenders sentenced to life and prisoners sentenced before the law was enacted — most prisoners would never go before a review board, have their sentences reconsidered or have a chance at early release. Ever.

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By Deborah Bach 7/7/2015

"Dying in a Concrete Garden of Life"

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By Azeem
Inmate serving life without parole for an alleged crime as a child

Why kill the rose before it gets the chance to grow? The rose didn’t choose to be cultivated in a hostile and non-hospitable environment…where proper nourishing was almost an impossible feat to accomplish. The rose began growing wildly, with thorns, and rough edges because it adapted to and adopted the characteristics and qualities of the blighted soil and dilapidated environmental circumstances around him.

Being raised in such an environment makes young roses prone to prick others with their thorns…sometimes intentionally and at other times unintentionally…and oftentimes others are harmed by the thorns of such roses while they were intoxicated, by way of the un-natural and un-healthy nutrients of their disintegrated environments. It’s remarkable to see how anunderdeveloped rose can remember so vividly how it cried uncontrolled tears of confusion and sorrow, when it witnessed the results of thorn pricking that it can’t recollect. That rose wasn’t heartless!

Inarticulatable expressions is the fear, pain, loneliness and betrayal felt by thatunderdeveloped rose as vintage plants of various breeds uprooted him from his family and placed him in an unknown environment where experienced strangers of all sorts were the norm…planted in a concrete garden with pure dirt bags and steel furnishings…Sentenced to die a slow death in new life by Misery, hopelessness, and misguidance for harms caused as a child- convicted of being too young to learn from mistakes never committed previously. How can a youthful rose flourish in such an environment while suffering from adequate “oxygen” and sunlight deprivation?

It was said that he was irredeemable, and that he can’t be rehabilitated. The Divine Decree of Allāh transcended the creations grim expectations of that youthful rose. It’s remarkable to see a rose become so beautiful and fully redeemed in an environment in which it wasn’t allowed to experience, and benefit from the natural and normal process of photosynthesis. That’s rewarding enough in this concrete garden that’s filled with dirt bags, nightmares, and steel furnishings. I’ve seen many roses become dried out and wither away…hope abandoned for despair…in many cases hope was stolen and despair was its replacement.

I’ve witnessed many more roses grow upright in such a Bleakish environment…Black Roses, White roses, brown roses and yellow roses…JLWOP is not the solution…it’s an epidemic that’s suffocating society because society can’t benefit from the wholesome oxygen that the foliage of those roses exudes. JLWOP suffocates the future…It’s a Genocide of Progression.

Sometimes…cutting the thorns…punishing for the harms that one causes in moderation and placing the rose in an environment in which he could benefit, grow, and reach his full potential, is Most honorable and beneficial. Condemnation to Death in a Concrete Garden of Life is not a fitting Recompense for the acts of underdeveloped Roses…suffering in first person…Crying out in third person: Give him (and them) a second chance. END JLWOP!

History of Abuse Seen in Many Girls in Juvenile System

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As many as 80 percent of the girls in some states’ juvenile justice systems have a history of sexual or physical abuse, according to a report released Thursday. The report, a rare examination of their plight, recommends that girls who have been sexually trafficked no longer be arrested on prostitution charges.

The study, “The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story,” found that sexual abuse was among the primary predictors of girls’ involvement with juvenile justice systems, but that the systems were ill-equipped to identify or treat the problem.

“Our girls, and especially our girls at the margins, are suffering, and what the study shows is how violence is part of their lives and how the response is criminalization,” said Malika Saada Saar, the executive director of the Human Rights Project for Girls, a Washington-based organization that conducted the research with the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Ms. Foundation for Women.

The report’s authors say that girls involved in criminal behavior receive far less public attention than boys because there are far fewer girls in juvenile detention centers and because crimes committed by girls do not usually involve violence.

Laws in many states allow the police to arrest girls as young as 13 on prostitution charges, even when they are victims of sex trafficking. The report says the policy of incarcerating girls at young ages for prostitution, as well as on suspicion of truancy and running away, leads to profound mistrust of the criminal justice system and, often, more arrests.

“When law enforcement views girls as perpetrators, and when their cases are not dismissed or diverted but sent deeper into the justice system, the cost is twofold: Girls’ abusers are shielded from accountability, and the trauma that is the underlying cause of the behavior is not addressed,” the report says.

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By Timothy Williams July 9, 2015

Huffington Post reporter says MI, US prisons need more transparency

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Current State talks with Huffington Post reporter Dana Liebelson about her recent article about juvenile offenders in Michigan’s prison system and the challenges facing reporters covering the prison system.

In 2013, the Michigan Department of Corrections was sued by seven inmates who first entered the adult prison system before their 18th birthday. They say the state failed to protect them from sexual and physical abuse from both other inmates and prison staff while housed in those facilities. The state has denied those claims. This spring, two of the journalists reporting on the lawsuit had their notes and other materials subpoenaed by the Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s Office. Dana Liebelson from the Huffington Post was one of those reporters.

The subpoenas were later withdrawn, but Liebelson says it’s just one example of a frightening lack of transparency when it comes to the U.S. prison system. Her story on juvenile offenders housed in adult prisons was published last week along with an op-ed looking at the difficulties of reporting on prisons in the U.S.

Current State speaks with Dane Liebelson about the article and the challenges of reporting on prisons in the U.S.

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By April Van Buren July 6, 2015

 

Corresponding with people serving JLWOP provides "transformative" experience for volunteer

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By Kathleen White
Outreach Coordinator

When I began my year-long Jesuit Volunteer position with CFSY 11 months ago, I knew a large part of my  role would be to correspond with individuals sentenced as children to die in prison. However, I did not know how transformative the power of their stories would be and how important these letters would be for me.

Each morning, I sit down at my desk and look down at a stack of letters from men and women who are serving these extreme sentences. Many letters have a stamp labeled with the word “forever.” Although this means the stamp will never expire, I find myself thinking about that word entirely differently. Just how long is forever?

These letters contain the stories of people whom our society has deemed irredeemable. As children, they received permanent judgments based on the worst things they had ever done. They were so young and most of their short lives had been filled with trauma. Imagine being as young as 13, and having a judge tell you that you were a lost cause and deserve no more than to be sent to prison for the rest of your life.

No two letters are the same. Many letters graphically describe the traumatic circumstances that led these children to make a mistake that would cost them the rest of their lives. Other letters are shorter, lacking details but begging for help with such urgency that I can only try to imagine the suffering and loss that the writer has endured. Despite the differences and writing styles, these letters share one key message: adult prisons are not the place for children.

Surely there is a better option than sentencing these vulnerable children to die in prison. There is nothing dignifying about being told that you are irredeemable—especially when we know that children possess a unique capacity for change.

While the role of the Jesuit Volunteer is ever changing and rotating, the influx of letters from individuals serving is a constant part of this position. They serve as a constant reminder that there are far too many individuals serving life without parole sentences for crimes committed before they were old enough to vote, join the military, or sign a contract.

 

Legislative session brings movement closer to eliminating JLWOP

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As we reach the end of most state legislative sessions and the mid-point of 2015, I am thrilled to report on several important victories in our effort to abolish life sentences for children.

Three states – Connecticut, Nevada, and Vermont – eliminated the sentence this year. That brings to nine the number of states that have taken this important step since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that it is unconstitutional to impose a mandatory sentence of life without parole for crimes committed by a person younger than 18. Perhaps more importantly, this demonstrates the incredible momentum we are fostering. In the last three years, we have nearly tripled the number of states that ban these extreme sentences.

In several of these states, the impacts of the new laws extend beyond those sentenced to life without parole to include hundreds of other young people serving time in adult prisons. As a result of legislation passed this year alone, hundreds of people sentenced as children for a variety of crimes are eligible for relief.

These are significant milestones, and we are aware that with every successful reform come challenges to ensure the new laws are meaningfully implemented. Therefore, in Nevada, for example, we are working with the Federal Public Defender to coordinate legal representation for those previously told they would die in prison and who are now eligible for release if approved by the parole board.

We also are partnering with litigators in preparation for Montgomery v. Louisiana, which the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear this fall. It is expected to determine whether Miller must be applied retroactively. To date, most state supreme courts that have taken up this issue have held that youth sentenced before the Miller decision are entitled to review consideration. But as long as there is no consistent rule nationally, the state where a child was sentenced remains a major determinant of whether he or she will remain sentenced to die in prison.

We are serving as the national resource for lawyers representing clients who are preparing for resentencings and those representing clients facing these extreme sentences in an effort to achieve the best outcomes possible for young people. Earlier this year, the Campaign published the first-ever guidelines for legal representation of children who face life sentences. The guidelines, which draw from the ABA Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, set forth a national standard of practice to ensure zealous, constitutionally effective representation consistent with the standards set forth in Miller.

The guidelines have been endorsed by more than 50 organizations, including the leading defense organizations and some of the largest public defender offices throughout the country. We are now helping as these entities work to adopt state-specific guidelines and train attorneys, with the goal of better equipping them for these cases and, ultimately, more positive outcomes for our children.

And it remains a major priority to change the narrative about youth who have been sent to prison for serious crimes. We do this primarily through our public education efforts and through our participation in conferences and other events. We have presented at seven conferences this year.  CFSY staff have presented before judges, advocates, pro bono attorneys, faith communities and even the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Thank you for your support in help in making all of this possible. As you can see, it is crucial that we continue to work alongside one another to accomplish our goals of fair sentencing for youth. And, of course, we could do none of this without your generous financial support.

Much work lies ahead as we work to protect these wins and strive for more. We must keep the momentum going. Our work has brought hope to so many and we are committed to ensuring that it isn’t stripped away from them again.

He Killed Her Daughter. She Forgave Him.

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Final conversations between murder victims and the family members they leave behind have a way of becoming the subject of lifelong regret. Words not spoken or last moments wasted on the trivial can harden into a lasting memory of love left unexpressed. John and Linda White were spared that burden.

The middle of their three children, Cathy O’Daniel, had stumbled through adulthood—there was an unplanned pregnancy, a rushed marriage, divorce, struggles with alcohol. But by age 26, she seemed to be righting her course. Cathy confided to her mother that she was expecting her second child and intended to marry the father, a doctor.

When the couple returned from a trip out of state in November 1986, they dropped by the Whites’ suburban Houston home for dinner so Cathy could introduce her parents to her new beau. The four of them sat around the kitchen table for a relaxed conversation. After the young couple left for the evening, the Whites realized a remarkable coincidence. Cathy’s fiancé was the son of the doctor who had been her pediatrician, back when the Whites had lived in Colorado. It was after 11 p.m., but Linda was too excited to wait to tell Cathy of her realization, so she called her. “And that was the last conversation that we had,” Linda said recently. “But we were laughin’.”

Days later, John and Linda sat vigil at the same table, hoping for encouraging news about their daughter, who had suddenly disappeared. One of the many calls the family received during the four agonizing days she was missing was from a 15-year-old named Gary Brown. Brown called anonymously to assure the family that Cathy was safe but needed time alone to sort out some personal issues. The call was a cruel ploy, Brown’s attempt to buy himself time. He and another 15-year-old named Marion “Marvin” Berry had already abducted Cathy, raped her, and shot her to death.

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By Mark Obbie June 30, 2015

Connecticut abolishes life without parole for children

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Connecticut has abolished life without parole as a sentencing option for all children! Gov. Dannel Malloy signed SB 796 on June 23, 2015, just days before the three-year anniversary of the Miller v. Alabama decision, which abolished mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children.

SB 796 goes further than Miller, however. It requires judges to consider both the hallmark features of adolescence as well as the scientific differences between child and adult offenders whenever children are sentenced in adult court for serious crimes. Furthermore, the law establishes special parole eligibility for children, ensuring review after serving no more than 30 years, and specifying youth-related factors for the parole board to consider.

Finally, the bill provides earlier parole eligibility for over 200 individuals who are currently serving sentences for offenses committed while they were children.

Connecticut is the 14th state to abolish life without parole for children, and the ninth state since Miller.

 

In New Haven, police chiefs from around the nation talk about juvenile justice

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NEW HAVEN >> More than 30 police chiefs flocked to Yale this week, coming from as far as California, Colorado and as close as the New Haven Police Department, as the city played host to a three day symposium on juvenile justice.

The Law Enforcement Leadership Institute of Juvenile Justice holds these conferences across the country. They are sponsored by the International Association of Police Chiefs and funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

“We are looking to influence law enforcement executives and law enforcement leaders to make juvenile justice a priority,” said Aviva Kurash, senior program manager for IACP.

On Wednesday, Mayor Toni Harp gave the opening remarks and welcomed the many chiefs and other attendees to the city. Topics included law enforcement and school collaboration, serious and chronic offenders, racial and ethnic disparities and building trust with young people. The three day symposium was a mix of speeches and roundtable discussions.

“We’re asking them to change their philosophies and not just put in projects or programs or training, though that’s an important piece of it. We’re talking about culture and philosophy,” Kurash said.

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By Ryan Flynn June 24, 2015