The 'Second Chance Act' was introduced in Congress recently. Gary Fields of the Wall Street Journal reports on the bill (free online here). The bill would assist prisoners released from jail who need housing, work and even id cards, which can be tough to get.

Who will this help? People like Jacqueline Smith, who for a year has had to commute an hour after work with her daughter to sleep at an ex-offender's shelter because her conviction precludes her from living in public housing.

In the kitchen of an Applebee's restaurant in Queens, N.Y., Jacqueline Smith has been a model hire. In less than two years working as a cook, she got a promotion to supervisor, doubled her salary and won the award for employee of the year.

The Detroit News is running a series on a lengthy investigation it conducted into prison guards who sexually assault female inmates .

From April 2002 to spring of the following year, Renee Williams says she received gifts from a prison guard with whom she was having a sexual relationship. When they had a falling out, Williams says the guard withheld her mail. When she complained, he had her committed to a mental services unit claiming she was delusional.

The Justice Department has brought several lawsuits against the state over the abuse:

Via Raw Story we learn of the snafu in New York State whereby 198 sex offenders received Viagra through Medicaid. Here's the Press Release from the New York State Controller's Office.

After his Office found that in New York 198 Level 3 sex offenders are receiving Viagra paid for by Medicaid, New York State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi has asked Michael Leavitt, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to change federal policies on distribution of the drug, Hevesi announced today. Level 3 sex offenders are those considered by the courts most likely to commit crimes again.

by TChris

"Lock 'em up forever" legislation has been popular for a quarter century. The consequences of harsh sentencing laws -- predicted by participants in the criminal justice system but routinely ignored by politicians eager to seem tough on crime -- are painful today. Prisons overflow with aging inmates, and state budgets groan under the increasing weight of geriatric health care bills.

Feeling pressure to adhere to tight budgets, prison administrators and staff sometimes neglect their duty to provide adequate health care to inmates. A federal judge recently recognized that the problem in California is of constitutional magnitude.

Health care in the Department of Corrections has become so unconstitutionally shoddy, U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson found, that he is seriously considering the appointment of a receiver under his control to manage a system that he said is in "a blatant state of crisis."

As the Sacramento Bee reports, neglecting an inmate's health can be disastrous.

Meet Richard Leggett, age 53. He builds coffins at Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana. He's never been busier. (Wall St. Journal, subscription required.)

At the Angola state penitentiary here, Richard Leggett, a yellow pencil tucked behind his right ear, put the molding on his latest creation: a 7-foot coffin . He worked with some urgency, sewing and stapling the white bedding inside. He always likes to keep three coffins in stock, so he doesn't run out.

As the prison's coffin maker, Mr. Leggett, 53 years old, has been busy. The prison has needed one or two of his caskets in each of the last five weeks. At Angola, 97% of inmates now die in prison, up from about 80% a decade ago. "I'll probably end up making my own," he says.

This is the most inane thing I've read all day. In Blair County, PA, inmates are charged $50.00 for a visit with their children. The AP reports:

The fee covers the cost of transporting prisoners two blocks from the Blair County Jail to the county courthouse, where the visits take place, and the cost of paying two sheriff's deputies attend the visits, Sheriff Larry Field said. The fee, which Field instituted last month, also cuts down on frivolous visits, he said.

Frivolous visits? What kind of visit between an incarcerated parent and her child is "frivolous?" Another question is why are the inmates being forced to visit their children at a courthouse? Is there a playground there? The jail should have to provide a suitable place on site for inmates to visit with their children.

Recidivism has declined in New Jersey. What's different? The state has abandoned its "lock 'em up" mentality and is granting more parole. As a result, fewer inmates are returning to prison.

Bucking a national trend, the state prison population in New Jersey has shrunk 14 percent since it reached an all-time high of 31,300 in July 1999. The decline is largely due to a sharp drop in parole violators sent back to prison and a substantial increase in paroles, state records show.

After years of hard-line policies on lawbreakers, New Jersey is following a more measured, reasonable course, state officials say. "In most of the late '80s and the '90s, it was a law-and-order approach of 'lock 'em up and throw away the key,' " said John D'Amico Jr., chairman of the New Jersey State Parole Board and a retired Superior Court judge. Those policies "were not effective and not fiscally responsible," he said.

[hat tip Jim Capozzola at Rittenhouse Review.]

The San Francisco Chronicle today reports on archictect Raphael Sperry's plan to boycott the design of prisons . 274 architects have signed on so far. In March, we reported on Mr. Sperry's boycott of execution chambers, referencing this interview with him.

The group is Adpsr(Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility ). Their website for the boycott is here.

A new government report shows our prison population is soaring.

• 1 of every 138 U.S. residents are in jail

• The prison population grew by 900 inmates per week between 2003 and 2004.

• 8,000 more prisoners were admitted to federal prisons than were released

• 2.1 million people are housed in our prisons and jails.

Colorado's maximum security federal prison, often referred to as Supermax and the Alcatraz of the Rockies because it is home to some of the nation's most serious offenders, lost an inmate to violence Thursday. 64 year old Manuel Torrez was "viciously beaten" by fellow inmates.

Prison staff and medical personnel tried for about 20 minutes to resuscitate Torrez, but he was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Fremont County Coroner Dorothy Twellman says Torrez endured a "vicious" beating, suffering severe injuries to his face, neck and chest. It's the first alleged killing of a prisoner at the hands of other inmates in Supermax history.

Torrez was serving a 160 month sentence for a racketeering conviction from a 1999 California case. The case was one of the second wave of La Eme ("Mexican Mafia") gang indictments that charged 27 defendants with a variety of drug offenses and four murders, three attempted murders, 13 conspiracies to commit murder, four conspiracies to assault and conspiracies to distribute drugs. (Copley News Service February 02, 1999.) One of those murdered was a man named Victor Murillo.

by TChris

The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons began hearings today "aimed at exploring why the corrections system has broken and how it can be fixed." The private commission includes prison and justice administrators, psychologists, former prisoners, and civil rights leaders.

The Commission ... heard testimony, sometimes graphic, from former prisoners and jailers who detailed the horrors taking place behind bars, including rapes and beatings by guards and fellow inmates.

The topic is particularly timely.

One commissioner stated the issue touched Americans when details emerged of soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners but that concern has not translated to the homefront.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an 1868 Florida law that refuses to allow those with felony convictions to vote, even after they have served their sentences.

Tuesday's 10-2 ruling widens an existing split of opinion on the issue among the federal appellate courts across the country and could set the stage for the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the issue. The decision affirmed a 2002 summary judgment by Senior U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King in Miami.

During the 2000 Bush - Gore election campaign, six former offenders had sued the Clemency board seeking the restoration of their right to vote. They based their claim on Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the federal Voting Rights Act.

A disproportionate percentage of felons in Florida are African-Americans, and blacks vote heavily Democratic. In a state where 7.6 million Floridians cast ballots in last year's presidential election, the possible inclusion of 600,000 felon voters could swing close races. But the appeals court, in an opinion noting that about 70 percent of the plaintiff class is white, tossed the case out of court in a 79-page ruling.