On May 19th, California will hold a special election on several propositions related to the budget (the propositions, among other things, increase some taxes for a short period and divert money from early childhood and school programs to reduce the budget shortfall). Every poll suggests the propositions will fail. In order to increase support for the propositions, Governor Schwarzenegger is releasing his budget early in two versions — one if the props pass, another if they do not. Included in the latter is reportedly a plan to release 38,000 inmates from prison early. This will be the third time the Governor has suggested early release for some inmates — it failed miserably the first two times, largely for political reasons.

It begs the question — how far will the politics of fear get you? Will people vote for higher taxes in order to avoid releasing inmates? Will the voters choose to lay off teachers or release inmates? While these choices needn’t be pitted against one another, the press and the Governor are framing the choices this way.

Several reports also have the Governor proposing to sell San Quentin. Putting aside the apparent contradiction of why we would sell one prison while simultaneously building many more, I can’t help but wonder… do the inmates come with that?

next thursday’s join for justice event will be part fundraiser, part research release, part networking event, part entertainment, part cocktail party, and part documentary film. my research team is opening for the band, so the talk might be a bit livelier than the one we’ll give at ASA. we’ll also hear from council president judge pamela alexander — a wise and gracious leader, known to criminologists for her pioneering role in challenging gross sentencing inequities for crack and powder cocaine. all are welcome.

according to the financial times, the sicilian mob is muscling its way into the renewable energy sector:

“Operation Wind” revealed Mafia promises to local officials in Mazara del Vallo of money and votes in exchange for help in approving wind farm projects….Prosecutors suspect the hand of the Mafia in fixing permits and building wind farms that are then sold on to Italian and eventually foreign companies. In an effort to assert its control over the sector, the Mafia is suspected of destroying two wind towers that were in storage in the port of Trapani after their delivery by ship from northern Europe, local officials told the FT.

why would organized crime get involved in clean-n-green alternative energy? because they’d like to be involved in all transactions in which large amounts of money will change hands. plus, the mobsters already have the social connections, control over territory, and “friends” in local government. from the times piece:

“It is a refined system of connections to business and politicians. A handful of people control the wind sector. Many companies exist but it is the same people behind them,” said Mr Scarpinato, whose investigations have focused on the evolution of the Mafia into a modern business organisation … Sicily’s Cosa Nostrais evolving and finding new business opportunities, including the renewable energy sector, by exploiting its historic grip over territory, construction and ability to corrupt local officials.

via utne and we are supervision: a nice selection of chicago gang calling cards from the 1970s and 1980s.

i don’t recall any mention of these in thrasher or
short and strodtbeck, but i remember seeing similar cards on st. paul’s west side in the early 1980s.

there was a righteous mullet at the theatre last weekend, which directed my attention to this minneapolis blogger:

In 1959 journalist John Howard Griffin darkened his skin for an undercover experiment with racial tensions that would later be published as ‘Black Like Me.’ Now, fifty years later, a man with markedly less courage takes on a mission with markedly lower stakes. mullet like me.

strange how a haircut can fall so far out of fashion that it becomes hip, then become such an icon of irony that it becomes painfully unhip. apart from being unfashionable today, a mullet also conveys something about working-class rural white masculinity. so, wearing it now provokes derision in middle-class urban spaces, much like stone-washed jeans. yet the local hipsters are sporting mullets today, in much the same way they affected foam trucker hats and grain belt premium a few years back.

that’s why mullet like me might be a bit too arch for a breaching experiment or sociology exercise. if a sociology student recorded the reactions to his mullet at the mall, karaoke night, and the high-end grocery store, any savvy bystander would quickly suss him out as an ironic hipster. he’d either blend into the background or get the half-smile of the half-amused.

there are, of course, men and women who can pull off a real unironic mullet with style. for example, jared allen of the vikings offers a 3-part code to living the life of the mullet:

1. In everything you do and wear, you must highlight your mullet.
2. Always respect another mullet — no matter where it’s at, a mullet always has the right of way.
3. Most importantly, sleeves are optional.

tor could really rock a mullet in his lanky preschool years, so i wouldn’t be surprised if he returns to form in college — a couple incisions in the mane and he’d be good to go.

long time no blogging — i’m feeling a little guilt about that, but it is trumped by feeling overwhelmed by my schedule and projects these days.  we’re on a quarter system at oregon state, so we’re just entering week 5 of our spring quarter and hitting midterms.  as i wrote about earlier, i’m still holding an informal class in the girls’ correctional facility one night a week, and i’m also teaching the first inside-out class in a new (to the program) prison one night a week.  i’m also trying to organize community service-learning projects for my 45 delinquency students, which is a huge hassle but will hopefully be worth it.  i guess all of that is to say i’m still committed to public criminology, but most of it is incorporated into my teaching at the moment.

this story in the new york times caught my eye, however, and inspired me to log on and write this post.  at the age of 16, donald schmidt committed a terrible crime; he molested and drowned a 3-year-old girl while high on meth.  the strange part is that schmidt is now 37 years-old and has been incarcerated in juvenile facilities for more than two decades.

from the article:

Under California law, juvenile offenders who commit serious crimes can be kept in the system until they are 25. Mr. Schmidt’s detention, though, has been extended under a rarely invoked state code that allows continued detention if a jury finds the inmate has a “mental disorder, defect or abnormality that causes the person to have serious difficulty controlling his or her dangerous behavior.”

Because Mr. Schmidt was convicted as a juvenile and continued to be held under the mental health code, he cannot be transferred to an adult facility.

The code requires such petitions for extended detention to be renewed or rejected every two years. On Tuesday, prosecutors will again go to trial to argue that Mr. Schmidt should remain in juvenile custody, an argument they have made repeatedly, and successfully, since 1997, when he was first eligible for release.

in the earlier version of our pubcrim blog, chris and i both wrote about the civil commitment of sex offenders, but i don’t think i’ve ever heard of a case of a juvenile sex offender held for more than two decades in the juvenile system.  presumably, with petitions for extended detention renewed every two years, he could be held in juvenile custody his entire life. it must be tricky for staff members and incarcerated youth to figure out how to interact with him in the closed community of the institution.

what a strange and sad case.

there’ve been a few problems at the big cinco de mayo celebration on st. paul’s west side, including a drive-by shooting last year. this year, the city is seeking an injunction against 10 suspected members of the sureno 13 gang.

having grown up around the west side, i’m sympathetic to the organizers’ concerns about public safety in a growing, kid-friendly event. as a criminologist, i’m well aware of the repeated violence and disruption in similar festivals, as well as this festival in previous years. that said, i’m agnostic-bordering-on-skeptical about the claimed effectiveness of such narrowly targeted civil gang injunctions. as a citizen, i’m concerned about restrictions on freedom of assembly, movement, and spatial exclusions.

according to the pi press, the city got the injunction by proving that the gang is a public nuisance whose members have been involved in at least three instances of gang activity in the past 12 months. a ramsey county judge ordered the 10 alleged surenos 13 gang members to be prohibited from engaging in the following activities inside a circumscribed “safety zone” on the west side from 4 p.m. may 1 to 6 a.m. may 3:

No association with known criminal gang members
No intimidation
No use of gang signs
No gang clothing
Don’t force any person to join the defendant
Don’t prevent any person from leaving the defendant

about 100,000 people attend the event, so the order only targets .01% of the anticipated participants — the other 99.99% are apparently free to flash gang signs and consort with other gang members. it would be impressive police work indeed if such strategies proved effective in reducing violence at festivals. what happens if any of the 7 named adults or 3 juveniles violates the court order? violation is a misdemeanor, which also provides probable cause for police to remove them from the event.

via susan tucker at the open society institute:

The Released a new FRONTLINE/PBS documentary, will be broadcast and made available online starting Tuesday, April 28th at 9pm est.

This documentary promises to be as powerful and disturbing as The New Asylums, also from MeadStreetFilms, where we saw seriously mentally ill men in cages receiving “therapy” and being shuttled back and forth between a maximum security prison in Ohio and the state’s hospital for the criminally insane. And we came to understand the genuine complexity of their situations and yearned for more equally complex and humane responses.

The Released follows some of the same men featured in the first film who were subsequently returned “to the community” — but more often to the street — and in some cases have ended up back in prison.

We’re pleased that OSI has been able to support dissemination of the film and development of a, highly informative website… Similar support was awarded for The New Asylums (which can still be seen on Frontline’s website) and before that for The Exonerated by director Ofra Bikel, also shown on PBS.

via boingboing:

i’ve read some good histories on minneapolis’ old gateway and skid row, but this is the first film i’ve seen from the period. it isn’t pretty, but the footage is amazing. the narrator is johnny rex, proprietor of the sourdough and king of skid row.

via mnspeak and stuff about minneapolis:

this sign dates to the early days of the incarceration boom. with so many going to prison each year, i’m surprised that i’ve never seen such an advertisement before. more typically, i see divorce cited as the reason that a car or household goods must be sold.

perhaps prison is too stigmatized to make for an effective marketing pitch. note that the parenthetical — (for tax evasion) — appears to have been added after the rest of the sign was prepared. this presumably destigmatizes the seller so as to overcome customers’ fears of visiting a prisoner’s home. it could also draw buyers, signalling that high-quality goods will be available at the sale. that said, bernard madoff would have a tough time attracting customers if he offered a full-disclosure parenthetical: (for securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, perjury and making false filings with the SEC). i suspect he’ll use christie’s instead.