Thursday, August 22, 2013

Every Crime Is Born of Necessity

Every crime is born of necessity. If you want less crime, you must change the conditions. Poverty often creates crime. Wants, needs, misfortune - all these awaken the beast in man. He finally takes that which is not his and thus a criminal is born.

What does society do with this person? He is punished. Why not punish someone for having a medical condition? The time will surface when one will see that this thought is just as logical! What does society do with this criminal?

The criminal is sent into the state prison system - one that is already overcrowded with many repeat offenders. In Utah, (and several other states), this criminal is sentenced, by the justice system to a yet to be determined sentence. The legislature has ruled that the pronouncement of sentencing should be taken away from the presiding judge and jury and given to a board of appointed people. These people do not know the case as well as the judge, who has sat through all of the preliminary hearings and days of trial. There are five people who, after a hearing officer meets with the offender, make a decision on the criminal’s fate. Now these five board members do not meet as a group to make this decision. They are sent the file of the offender and they sign off as to what the sentence should be.

Something is very wrong with this Indeterminate Sentencing. These five people, six if you include the hearing officer, only have in front of them a file. With the number of offenders coming before the Board of Pardons in any given week, this is a daunting task to say the least. How can it be humanly possible for these people to read each and every file that comes before them? I say it is humanly IMPOSSIBLE!

Some of the offenders who appear at their original hearing are first time offenders. Some of these offenders have already served more than the recommended time to serve. There is a matrix that is used by the Adult Parole and Probation office. Based on several criteria, the AP&P officer makes their recommendation. Again, this recommendation is based on published criteria that all officers are bound by law to follow. These same criteria are used by the Court. Every offender has a Pre-Sentencing Investigation done by AP&P. Based on this PSI, the Court has a baseline. Now, the legislature has set criteria also. Depending on the seriousness of the charges, the Court will sentence the offender to the range of possible term; i.e. a Second Degree Felony will be sentenced to one to Fifteen years.

Now the offender, and their family, has to wait to see how much time will actually be served. Even though the AP&P report has given a determinate range of so many months - this is the matrix - the offender often has to wait months before they learn their fate.

With prison system crying “we are overcrowded”, does indeterminate sentencing make sense? I say it does not! Why not give the job of sentencing back to the Court instead of the “elected” officials. And I say “elected” because I wonder how many of these officials actually gain something monetarily when the prison is full and talk of building a new prison starts.


I say abolish Indeterminate Sentencing and let the one who knows the case better than anyone – the Court – make the decision!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

EDUCATION EQUALS REHABILITATION

Got your attention? I hope so! There has been so much talk about relocating the Utah State Prison. Media reports say it is because of overcrowding. Has anyone stopped to examine the “why” of the overcrowding? I have. And here are my thoughts.

Overcrowding in the prison stems from many repeat offenders. Why are these people returning time and time again? It seems to be a revolving door at the front entrances of both Draper and Gunnison.  It all boils down to one thing; lack of education in the state prison system. Now before anyone starts yelling that there are programs, just wait. Yes there are programs but what are the Offenders learning? Some of the programs are geared to help the Offender examine themselves….what happened to make me make this choice? Why did the Offender choose the path they chose? But what marketable skills are being offered to those behind the walls?

 The Utah Department of Corrections has constantly reduced its education, programming and treatment of inmates mainly because of budget cuts. This reduction also comes by choice. It has eliminated post-secondary education and most vocational training programs, exactly the kind of programs that directly result in reduced recidivism. Utah has one of the highest rates of recidivism in the country – over 50%.
There are some certificate programs available. But they are not available to all. There are restrictions such as the Offender has to have a parole or termination date before they can enroll. And then there is the cost for the Offender. Many of the Offenders do work in the prison….for a mere forty cents an hour. Out of this sixteen dollars a week (assuming that they work 40 hours) they have charges such as medical care, medicine, child support , etc. taken. These are paid first and then whatever is left is put on the Offender’s books. The Offender is in debt before they are released! And then if they take these offered certificate courses, they are in even more debt.

Draper and Gunnison (part of the Utah Department of Corrections)  recently graduate a large number of Offenders who earned their high school diplomas. Congratulations to these men and women. But, if an Offender holds a GED, they are still FORCED to enroll in a high school diploma course. Why? On the outside, a GED is equivalent to a high school diploma. Many GED holders made a personal choice to get the GED; whether it was because the Offender was bored with the public school and wanted to complete it early or they had to drop out to support a family. Many of today’s Multi-millionaires have GEDs.  Why waste funds forcing the Offender who has that GED to get a high school diploma? Why not put that money into the certificate programs and teach them a marketable skill; a skill from which they will be able to make a living; a skill that will help them support the family.
 Over 95 percent of Offenders will rejoin society. The cure for this incarceration situation is not in spending the least amount possible, but rather to spend the right amount, whatever the cost. Treat, educate and re-integrate the Offenders back into society. What kind of community do you want to invest in?
I would like to pose a question, who would you rather have living next door to you, a person who has spent years in prison watching television, hanging out playing cards, lifting weights, not acquiring any skills or education or trying to improve himself, who when he leaves prison is filled with hate and anger and resentment; or a person who has spent his years in prison learning how his negative choices brought him to prison, affected his family and friends and most importantly his victims and society, recognizing those faults and learning through programs to deal with adversity, and how to think positively, how to love him/herself so that he/she can help and love others? If your answer is the second person then it is incumbent upon you to take action and make sure that prisons are places of rehabilitation.

 It is up to us, WE THE PEOPLE, to enforce these programs in our prisons. How do we do this? You elected the heads of government into those positions, so make sure they are doing the job they are there to do. I like to think this: DOC has a boss, who has a boss, who has a boss. If someone isn't doing what they are supposed to or they do not have sufficient programs THEN DO SOMETHING!
Many prisons have the resources.  They don’t want to use it to truly fully rehabilitate the offender. Unfortunately money and funding seem to matter more than rehabilitation.
Our society is more about revenge than rehabilitation. Speak up and let us change this concept!

Today’s offenders are tomorrow’s neighbors, is what I say. GIVE THEM opportunities to make it on the outside. Give them the knowledge and tools to succeed. Don’t keep them handicapped!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

What Happened to Separation of Church and State in Utah?????

chaplain
This is a picture from the Utah Department of Corrections website. I find it interesting that the only "religious" material seen is from the Church of the Latter Day Saints. What happened to separation of church and state? The majority of the programming offered to the Offenders in the Utah Prison system is run by the church! Something is definitely wrong with this picture. When the gentleman pictured above was asked about a specific educational program his reply was, "I don't know anything about that." although he was at the Family Orientation meeting as a representative from Programming! 

High Cost of Recidivism in Utah

Education in our state prison system is a must if we are to reduce the number of offenders being housed. Merely offering programming, many sponsored by church groups, is NOT the answer. Offenders need to learn a marketable skill in order to become a functioning, contributing member of society when released.  Not only will these men and women once again become members of society, they will not return to the system time and time again. This in itself will save the taxpayers of Utah millions of dollars by stopping this revolving door!

Over $30,000 annually is spent on incarcerating one person in the state of Utah. Add to this the cost of booking that offender into custody (in 2012 the cost was $1700.00) .Then there is the cost of the substance abuse programs at $3500 per offender and the sex offender programs at $3900 per offender. Plus add the cost of medical care for these offenders. How is the state going to keep going at this rate? The Utah prison system has a capacity of close to 7000 offenders housed in the two main facilities at Draper and Gunnison. And the system is at capacity! Offenders are being housed in county jails to assist with the overcrowding.
Utah ranked third in the nation in a 2008 “Study of Recidivism Rates Nationally”.

Reducing this recidivism rate would lower overall crime rates in Utah. There would be less of a chance of victimization.  Lowering of the recidivism rate would obviously reduce the cost Utah taxpayers are paying to house the offenders.

 Offenders in an educational program are 20% less to return to prison than those who are not enrolled. If one million dollars were to be invested in education, this would facilitate reducing crimes by 600 cases. But spend one million dollars to keep the offenders incarcerated without educational programs and this would only prevent approximately 350 new criminal cases. (UCLA Study, Correctional Education as a Crime Control Program, 2010)

Right now in the Utah prison system, there are educational programs in place through several local colleges. But there is only room for 175 offenders in these programs. (Apples and Oranges, Nathan Brady, January 31, 2012) As one can see, the ratio is not the greatest!