i’m not sure what to think about this article from conde nast’s portfolio.com. it basically offers a list of 10 recommendations for CEOs about to enter prison. at first i thought it might be a joke or at least meant to be read sarcastically, but given the authors’ affiliations, i don’t know…
any thoughts?
a seattle high school has started a program called “dads in the halls” in which fathers, uncles, and male mentors are invited to spend a few hours in the school on designated days interacting with the students and teachers. as the seattle times reports, the program is designed to increase fathers’ participation in their kids’ lives at school and to also serve as role models for other students.
this seems like a good idea — low cost investment with real potential to let young people know that men in their community care about them. i know how lucky i was to have a new father come into my life when i was 13 and to have him totally accept me as his own. he has been a wonderful father and mentor and his love, support, and guidance have helped to shape who i am. i hope the “dads in the halls” program continues and grows and i hope today’s young people can receive the same kind of support and encouragement.
happy father’s day.
the georgia superior court judge vacated genarlow wilson’s 10-year mandatory sentence today and ordered him released from prison. the new york times quotes from the judge’s decision:
it would be a “grave miscarriage of Justice” for Mr. Wilson to be kept in prison for the remaining eight years of his sentence. “If this Court, or any court, cannot recognize the inJustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish: Justice being served in a fair and equal manner,” he wrote in the order granting release.
while all of the attention of late has been focused on paris hilton, her on-again, off-again, on-again jail sentence, and questions of celebrity Justice, there will be an important decision in genarlow wilson’s case on june 11th. the judge will decide whether to release him from prison.
his case has received extensive and thoughtful media coverage, but if you haven’t heard about it, here’s a summary from the website for his appeal:
Genarlow Wilson sits in prison despite being a good son, a good athlete and high school student with a 3.2 GPA. He never had any criminal trouble. On the day he was to sit for the SAT, at seventeen years old, his life changed forever. He was arrested. In Douglas County he was accused of inappropriate sexual acts at a News Year’s Eve party. A jury acquitted him of the allegation of Rape but convicted him of Aggravated Child Molestation for a voluntary act of oral sex with another teenager. He was 17, and she was 15.
Along with the label “child molester” which will require him throughout his life to be on a sexual offender registry, Genarlow received a sentence of eleven years — a mandatory 10 years in prison and 1 year on probation.
On July 1st, the new Romeo and Juliet law went into effect in Georgia for any other teen that engages in consensual sexual acts. That change in the law means that no teen prosecuted for consensual oral sex could receive more than a 12 months sentence or be required to register as a sex offender.
Had this law been in effect when Genarlow Wilson was arrested, or had been done after the Marcus Dixon case, Genarlow would not now be in jail.
Genarlow and his mother are overjoyed that no one else in Georgia will have to know their pain. In the meantime, however, the legal fight goes on for Genarlow Wilson.
Genarlow has been incarcerated since February 25, 2005.
the seattle times reports that barack obama is warning of “quiet riots” among blacks after the disaster of hurricane katrina and the current administration’s poor treatment of new orleans’ residents in its afttermath.
“This administration was colorblind in its incompetence,” Obama said at a conference of black clergy, “but the poverty and the hopelessness was there long before the hurricane…All the hurricane did was to pull the curtain back for all the world to see,” he said.
“Those ‘quiet riots’ that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths,” Obama said. “They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better.”
an inmate on death row in texas is seeking jokes so that he can select the funniest one and offer it as his last statement before his execution on june 26. to read the full story from the AP, click here.
the short version is this: patrick knight is on death row for shooting his neighbors to death 16 years ago. he claims that his idea to offer humorous last words is not intended to disrespect his victims; instead, he says: “I’m not trying to say I don’t care what’s going on. I’m about to die. I’m not going to sit here and whine and cry and moan and everything like that when I’m facing the punishment I’ve been given.”
knight got the idea for a joke as his last statement after a friend was executed earlier this year and laughed from the death chamber gurney: “Where’s a stunt double when you need one?”
for many inmates, the use of humor is an important survival strategy in prison. is it taking it too far for a condemned inmate to tell a joke before being executed, or should the individual be allowed to express whatever last sentiment s/he chooses?
the Salem Statesman Journal reports:
Oregon has begun a new effort to increase the odds of success for inmates when they leave prison — and decrease the likelihood they will return for longer and more expensive stays. Gov. Ted Kulongoski has created a 19-member council to oversee the efforts of government and nonprofit agencies. He said it will be good not only for inmates — 4,000 of whom are released annually from state prisons — but for the public and the tax-supported general fund.
“Criminal Justice has to be about more than punishment; it’s also about hope,” Kulongoski said Friday. “People who have served their time need an opportunity to turn their lives around — a job, a place to live, a chance for a new start. “
Max Williams, the state corrections director, said the council’s aim is to draw together all the government and nonprofit agencies working on employment, housing, medical and mental health services, alcohol and drug treatment, and personal skills to help those inmates succeed out of prison.
from today’s seattle times:
For four months, Federal Way police sent two undercover detectives — a 29-year-old woman and a 33-year-old man — to infiltrate an area of increasing drug use:
High schools.
Officials provided few details Thursday on how the detectives, well out of their teens, were able to pass themselves off as students, but their undercover operation succeeded to an alarming extent.
With little difficulty, they purchased a cornucopia of illicit drugs — including marijuana, Ecstasy, cocaine and the prescription drug oxycodone — as well as rifles and semiautomatic handguns.
The investigation culminated Thursday with criminal charges filed against 12 students, ranging in age from 13 to 18, and against two adults not associated with Federal Way schools.
Outside-In is a group of Oregon State University students who have organized under sociology professor Michelle Inderbitzin. We have recently graduated from Inside-Out, a program that combines fifteen inmates from a local prison and fifteen university students in a class that studies issues of crime, Justice and public policy. Our class was the first on the west coast to be held in a men’s maximum security prison, the Oregon State Penitentiary. While all thirty students, both inside and out, and Professor Inderbitzin took away a priceless experience, seven of us have decided to attempt to give back, not only to our inside classmates, but to all the inmates of OSP.
One of the many goals of Outside-In is to provide the institution with scholarly literature focusing on issues of racial, social and economic inequality within the Justice system, as well as society at large, by organizing a book drive. Providing inmates with quality reading will allow them to become aware of the social and political context in which they have been imprisoned. By empowering inmates, it is our hope that they will have a greater opportunity to create change within the institution as well as on the outside, if and when upon release. Empowerment is a catalyst to reform and our prison system is overdue.
Please send your donation to:
Outside-In
C/o Professor Michelle Inderbitzin
307 Fairbanks Hall
Department of Sociology
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
over the past few weeks, The Oregonian has been publishing some very interesting stories about prisons and sentencing in oregon. one series makes clear that “prison costs are shackling oregon” and offers compelling evidence to make the case.
more recently, another article reported that “With Democrats now in charge of the Legislature, lawmakers may try to soften a 1994 get-tough-on-crime law in a way that would allow the early release of juvenile offenders charged with murder, kidnapping and other serious crimes.” while this change would not have a huge impact on costs (about 50 youths every year are sentenced under Measure 11 and given mandatory minimum sentences), it would certainly impact hope and morale amongst young offenders serving time in oregon prisons.
as journalist brad cain reports it, the proposed “second look” would give 15-, 16-, and 17-year-olds convicted of serious offenses and sentenced to mandatory minimums a chance to go before a judge after they have served half of their sentences. if the judge felt that significant progress was made while incarcerated, s/he could allow the young offenders to serve the rest of their sentences back out in the community under post-prison supervision.
this seems like a good idea to me, a bit like blended sentences used with young offenders in other states. one of the students in our inside-out class last quarter was sentenced at 16 to a minimum of 25 years. he’s eleven years into his sentence now and, if this law were in place (and retroactive), he would have the possibility of getting a second look and being rewarded for the hard work he has done and the maturity he has shown while in prison. perhaps most importantly, it could offer him the hope of building a life. in prison, a little hope can go a long way.
*the photo above is from the oregonian and was taken in the oregon state penitentiary where we held our inside-out class.
