Study: “tough on crime” legislation has quadrupled number of “lifers” in past 25 years
July 22, 2009
A report released today finds a record number of people — 140,610 — serving life sentences in US prisons. Over the last quarter-century, the number of individuals serving life sentences has more than quadrupled from 34,000 in 1984.
No Exit: The Expanding Use of Life Sentences in America, compiled by The Sentencing Project, a sentencing reform advocacy organization,eA is the first nationwide collection of life sentence data documenting race, ethnicity and gender. Not surprisingly, the report reveals overwhelming racial and ethnic disparities in the allocation of life sentences: 66% of all persons sentenced to life are non-white, and 77% of juveniles serving life sentences are non-white.
The authors of the report blame legislation that has dramatically increased punishment and restricted parole consideration.
Some findings in the report include:
*Of the 140,610 individuals now serving life sentences in state and federal prisons, 6,807 were juveniles at the time of the crime.
* In five states – Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and New York -at least 1 in 6 prisoners is serving a life sentence.
* Five states – California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania – each have more than 3,000 people serving life without parole.
* Pennsylvania leads the nation with 345 juveniles serving sentences of life without parole.
* In six states – Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota – and the federal government, all life sentences are imposed without the possibility of parole.
The authors of the report, Ashley Nellis, Ph.D. and Ryan S. King, wrote that persons serving life sentences “include those who present a serious threat to public safety, but also include those for whom the length of sentence is questionable.” One such case documented is that of Ali Foroutan, currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life for possession of 0.03 grams of methamphetamine under California’s “three strikes” law.
The report recommends the elimination of sentences of life without parole, and the restoration of parole board discretion, to determine, on a case-by-case basis, an offender’s suitability for release. The authors also recommend that individuals serving parole-eligible life sentences be properly prepared for reentry back into the community.
The full report can be accessed here.
Elizabeth McGowan, Michael Tillman's younger sister, at a press conference announcing his petition for a new trial.
Michael Tillman says that he was suffocated, had 7-Up poured up his nose, was beaten until the blood formed a pool on the interrogation room floor and was the target of a mock execution while in the custody of Chicago police officers. The torture didn’t stop, he says, until he uttered a confession to a murder he didn’t commit. Today, exactly, 23 years after his arrest, lawyers with the People’s Law Office and Northwestern University’s MacArthur Justice Center filed a petition seeking a new hearing in his case, claiming that the use of torture by the detectives at Area 2, where the alleged incidents occurred, is now common knowledge.
“In 1986, Michael Tillman didn’t have any of the evidence that we have here today. It is a veritable mountain of evidence… that not only has convinced courts, special prosecutors, the federal government and many others that there was a systemic pattern of torture at Area 2 under Jon Burge and John Byrne,” said Flint Taylor, co-counsel in the case. “We are asking this court today, in a 55-page petition, to reopen Michael Tillman’s case, to give him some modicum of justice, 23 years after he was brought in for questioning.”
As I reported exactly one year ago for AlterNet.org, Michael Tillman was convicted in 1986 in the murder and sexual assault of 42-year-old mail clerk Betty Howard. He claimed during his original trial, and continues to claim, that police detectives working under former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge suffocated him with a plastic bag, beat him and subjected him to a mock execution during a marathon three-day interrogation.
His lawyers are calling on the state to address Tillman’s case on its merits, despite an expired statute of limitations.
“It would be manifestly unfair and unjust for Michael Tillman, as a victim of police torture, as an innocent man who has spent 23 years in jail, not to have a new hearing on his allegations of torture and not to be afforded a trial that is free of a tortured confession. That is what we’re asking the courts, that’s what we are asking [Attorney General] Lisa Madigan, that is what we are asking the state of Illinois. We are asking them to honor their obligation to not only prosecute but to prosecute fairly and justly and to deal with the evidence that is before them.”
Stephen Bell, Tillman’s co-defendant, was acquitted of all charges in his simultaneous 1986 trial.
Months after Tillman’s original conviction, another man, Clarence Trotter, whose fingerprints were found at the scene of the crime and who was in possession of many of the victim’s personal items, was also convicted of the murder. Although Trotter has not confessed to the murder, he has stated on more than one occasion that Michael Tillman is innocent.
When Tillman was arrested, at the age of 20, he left behind a live-in girlfriend and two small children. “My brother left when I was 17 years old; I’m 40 years now. That’s 23 years,“ Tillman‘s younger sister, Elizabeth McGowan, said today. “He has missed out on raising his kids, missed out on raising his family.. It’s been terrible.”
Tillman’s mother, Jean Tillman, said in a phone interview that although she is aware that her son’s case “has a long way to go,” she is hopeful. “I’m really grateful for what’s happening right now, because it seemed as thought nothing was ever going to happen,” she said.
Taylor said today that he is aware of at least 23 other pending cases in which African-American men who were tortured into confessing to murders by officers working under Burge.
Newt for prison reform
July 1, 2009
It’s true.
Newt Gingrich, whose 1995 Contract with America paved the way for tougher sentencing laws and more prisons, spoke in favor of prison reform and rehabilitation this week during a speech in Wisconsin.
“Gingrich said nonviolent offenders should be given a real chance to rehabilitate, in a prison system that doesn’t expose them to gang turf wars and threats of rape,” a Madison, Wisc. CBS affiliate reported Tuesday. The statement was made at a fundraiser for Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker.
The about-face is not that new. Gingrich came out as a proponent of rehabilitation in his 2008 book, Real Change, which devotes an entire chapter to “The Need for Fundamental Prison Reform.” In the book, Gingrich highlights the work of two organizations that work with currently and formerly incarcerated individuals and focus more on rehabilitation than the “tough on crime” policies Gingrich used to champion — the Prison Fellowship, a faith-based organization that advocates for and works with inmates, and America Works, a New York-based organization that aims to find permanent jobs for ex-offenders and other “hard to place” individuals.
Non-violent offenders make up about half of the total state and federal prison population across the US.
Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA)
The hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs Thursday reflected the growing momentum in support of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009, S.714, introduced by Webb (D-VA) in March. The bill so far has garnered twenty-nine cosponsors, including three Republicans.
Speaking in support of the bill were: Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department; Professor Charles J. Ogletree of Harvard Law School; Pat Nolan of Prison Fellowship, an international Christian organization; and Brian W. Walsh the The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 would create a commission to conduct an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of the nation’s entire criminal justice system and offer concrete recommendations for reform. Among other issues, the commission would examine:
- Reasons for increase in the U.S. incarceration rate compared to historical standards
- Incarceration and other policies in similar democratic, western countries
- Prison administration policies, including the availability of pre-employment training programs and career progression for guards and prison administrators
- Costs of current incarceration policies at the federal, state & local level
- Drug policy and its impact on incarceration, crime and sentencing
- Policies as they relate to the mentally ill
“The goal of this legislation is nothing less than a complete restructuring of the criminal justice system in the United States,” said Webb.
“I commend and am encouraged by Sen. Webb’s attempts to date to overcome the political and ideological boundaries that have caused many of the problems in our criminal justice systems,” said Walsh, who added that his views do not neccesarily reflect those of the Heritage Foundation. Walsh said that he did have several concerns about the bill, including what he called “unstated assumptions that are not necessarily well-founded,” including an idea that “incarceration rates need to decrease across the board.”
The United States has by far the world’s highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world’s population, our country now houses twenty-five percent of the world’s reported prisoners. More than 2.38 million Americans are now in prison, and another 5 million remain on probation or parole.
Full testimony and a webcast of the hearing can be found here.
Sen. Webb’s background materials on the Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 can be found here.
Supermax prison opponents stencil Chicago
June 11, 2009
courtesy Just Seeds
“I am using earth, the most basic substance, to express my concerns regarding the state of the environment I am living in,” said Jesse Graves, a Milwaukee artist who led a demonstration on the technique of “mud-stenciling” earlier in the day. “I am using what sustains us to offer ideas on how we can sustain ourselves.”
The action was designed to draw attention to the Tamms supermax prison. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn said last month that a complete re-examination of practices at Tamms, where many prisonsers have lived in solitary confinement since the facility opened 11 years ago, will be a “top priority” of his newly-appointed chief of prisons, Michael Randle.
Tamms Year Ten, a coalition of over 70 groups throughout Illinois, initiated a campaign last year to overhaul practices at the prison, which they say amount to torture.
“Most people agree that psychological torture can’t be justified for American prisoners of war or for detainees at Guantanamo, and it can’t be justified for people in custody in Illinois,” said Tamms Year Ten organizer Laurie Jo Reynolds.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both called on the Illinois Department of Corrections and Governor Quinn to reform Tamms.
Last year, Rep. Julie Hamos (Evanston) introduced a bill that would have established a clearer entry and exit policy at the prison and prohibit Tamms from housing mentally ill inmates. However, after Quinn appointed a new prisons chief in May, activists and legislators agreed to back off of their push for reforms until the new administration has a chance to initiate their own changes.
Hamos announced earlier this week that she plans to run for an unspecified statewide office.
Nationally, supermaxes are on the decline, with many either closing or converting to regular maximum security prisons, due to the unwanted psychological consequences of long-term isolation, as well as high operation costs.
According to the Illinois Department of Corrections, the average annual cost of housing a prisoner at Tamms is about $60,000, twice the amount spent per prisoner at most other Illinois Department of Corrections facilities.
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Find more photos of the demonstration here.
In-depth coverage of conditions at Tamms supermax can be found here.
….but is it just semantics?
The new White House Drug Czar, otherwise known as the former Seattle Chief of Police, says he the analogy is counterproductive, according to a Wall Street Journal article published today. “We’re not in a war with people in this country,” WSJ quoted Gil Kerlikowske, the new head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, as saying Wednesday. Although this could signal a huge shift in US drug policy, it could also simply signal a shift in the vocabulary used to talk about that policy.
Read the coverage here.
IL Gov Targets Supermax Reform
May 12, 2009
In a press conference today, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn announced he will appoint a new head of the Illinois Department of Corrections and that his pick will review conditions at Tamms Supermax Prison. “It’s an issue I take seriously,” he said.
A bill that would reform conditions and entry/exit criteria at Tamms is currently ready to come up for a vote in the Illinois General Assembly. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Julie Hamos (D-18th), said in a phone interview last week that it will likely be called to a vote before the end of this legislative session. At the moment, the main opponent of the bill is the prison guard’s union, represented by AFSCME, who fear that jobs will be cut if the population at Tamms supermax decreases.
“I am pleased Gov. Quinn has made reform of Tamms Supermax Prison a priority,” Hamos said today in an issued statement. “I am looking forward to meeting Gov. Quinn’s new Department of Corrections chief and discussing with him how we can improve Tamms.”
Tamms supermax prison, located in southern Illinois, opened in 1998. Inmates spend 23 to 24 hours per day in isolation and although the facility was originally intended by the General Assembly to serve as “shock treatment” for particularly troublesome inmates, many current inmates have been there since the supermax opened its doors. HB2633 would establish clear criteria for sending prisoners to Tamms from other maximum security facilities, and place a one-year limit on their time there, unless a transfer would endanger them, other inmates or prison staff.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International recently put a spotlight on Tamms, with Amnesty finding that Tamms, “may breach international standards for humane treatment.”
You can find more in-depth coverage of conditions at Tamms supermax here.
Rep. Hamos’ online petition in support of HB2633 can be found here.
The text of the bill can be found here.
