IF YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE HOW YOUR TAX DOLLARS WERE TO BE SPENT; HOW WOULD TO CHOOSE?
EDUCATION Vs. INCARCERATION
Supreme Court rules against longer prison sentences in order to rehabilitate
By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
Reporting from Washington— Judges may not send criminals to longer terms in federal prison with the aim of rehabilitating them, the Supreme Court ruled.
The 9-0 ruling Thursday is a victory for a San Diego-area woman who questioned a judge's decision to give her more time behind bars so she could participate in a drug treatment program.
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More than 80,000 convicted criminals are sentenced by federal judges each year, and until Thursday, the courts were split over whether defendants could be given more time behind bars for their own good.
Citing the words of the federal sentencing act, the justices said the law forbids using imprisonment as a "means of promoting correction and rehabilitation."
The ruling will likely shorten the sentence of Alejandra Tapia. She was arrested at San Ysidro in 2008 and charged with trying to smuggle two illegal immigrants across the border from Mexico. When she did not appear for a court hearing, agents went to her apartment and found methamphetamine.
The minimum sentence for her crimes was three years, but U.S. District Judge Barry Moskowitz decided on the maximum term of 51 months, just over four years. "She needs help," the judge said. She needs to be in prison "long enough to get the 500-hour drug program" so she can "start to make a recovery," he said.
Meanwhile, in a case out of Alabama, the court warned again that it is determined to narrow the scope of the "exclusionary rule" and its requirement for throwing out evidence resulting from illegal searches.
"Society must swallow this bitter pill when necessary, but only as a last resort," wrote Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. The exclusion of evidence "is not a personal constitutional right," he said for a 7-2 majority, but only a means to "deter future" wrongdoing by the police.
In Davis vs. United States, the high court upheld gun charges against Willie Davis, an Alabama man who was a passenger in a car stopped on suspicion of drunken driving. He was handcuffed, and an officer searched the car, found a weapon and arrested him on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Two years later, the Supreme Court ruled that the police may not search cars when a motorist is stopped, unless there is an apparent danger. Davis said his gun was found through such an illegal search, and he said his conviction should be overturned.
The high court disagreed.
"It is one thing for the criminal 'to go free because the constable has blundered.' It is quite another to set the criminal free because the constable has scrupulously adhered to the law," Alito wrote.
Since the police in Alabama did nothing wrong under the law at that time, the evidence need not be excluded, he said.
Only Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.
In a third criminal case, Carol Bond, a Philadelphia-area chemist, won the right to challenge her conviction under a federal anti-terrorism law. When she learned that a friend had an affair with her husband, she allegedly tried to poison the woman by putting caustic chemicals in her mailbox and on a car door handle.
Rather than charge her with a domestic crime, a federal prosecutor charged her under a chemical weapons provision, and she was given six years in prison.
To no one's surprise, the high court agreed that Bond had a right to challenge this prosecution as an unconstitutional use of federal power. But Justice Anthony M. Kennedy took the opportunity to write a broad opinion on the need to restrain federal power to protect individual liberty.
"By denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power," he wrote. "When government acts in excess of its lawful power, that liberty is at stake."
Kennedy is seen as holding the crucial vote if the high court takes up a constitutional challenge to President Obama's national healthcare law and its mandate that all Americans have health insurance. Critics of the law were quick to cite Kennedy's words as bolstering their legal attack.
david.savage@latimes.com
By Whitney Grunder CENTER, TX (KTRE) and Bishop L.J. Guillory, Ombudsman Press News
Prison or Education? That's a choice some first time and repeat offenders will have in three East Texas Counties.
Judges from Nacogdoches, Center, and Henderson, Texas toured the region to promote youth preservation colleges.
It was once a segregated high school. This historic building has since taken on many names. Now it's getting a second chance, just like the offenders it will house.
"We can educate and train our parolees, our first time offenders to do those jobs to save America from paying more taxes on the recidivism rate," said Bishop L.J. Guillory, Ombudsman General to Ombudsman International, Inc. a not for profit United States Government Oversight Agency.
"I see the offenders that come before me that are first time offenders and you know, they make a mistake, but I believe in giving someone a second chance," said Shelby County Judge Rick Campbell.
Offenders can earn an Associate degree, or get their GED. Students can even study a specific trade. After graduating, students will return to court, to have their records erased.
"Our students, 17 through 24. Well you can make a choice, a conscious decision to go to college for two years and get an education, become a productive citizen, rather than a burden on the state or you can go to prison," said CEO, and creator of the school's curriculum, Dr. Merilyn Session.
"Their tuition's, their housing, their food. Everything is going to be paid for by the tax dollars that are already paying for them to be on parole or be in prison," said Guillory.
"They've got the grants to get the school up and running but organizers say this building still needs help."
"We need this place cleaned up. We need it painted. We need the roofs re-done, we need some maintenance work on the building that the grants are not going to cover," said Session.
With the community behind them, organizers believe the colleges will transform lives.
"Just show them we care and that we love them and they can become productive citizens again," said J.P. of Precinct 2 for Nacogdoches County, Dorothy Tigner-Thompson.
It will help those who've done wrong, make right.
Organizers hope the first preservation college can get underway by September.
Again, they do need volunteers to get this building ready.
If you'd like to help, contact Bishop L.J. Guillory at (310) 980-0816
By Erin McKeon, Staff Writer, Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel (TX) and Bishop L. J. Guillory, Ombudsman Press News
What started as a life mission to help rehabilitate and reintegrate first-time criminal offenders into society has taken off and will soon lead to three accredited colleges and dormitories for men, women and juveniles.
The "Youth Preservation Colleges" will be in Nacogdoches, Center and Henderson and could be ready this year for first-time offenders to move into, but won't likely be opened as colleges yet, said Nacogdoches County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Dorothy Tigner-Thompson
The Nacogdoches facility will be for women, the Henderson facility for juveniles and the Center location for men, she said.
Once the residents complete the program or receive their associate's degree, they can go back to the courts and ask for their records to be expunged so they can re-enter society with no setbacks, she said.
"It's for those women who are getting charged with Misdemeanor C and Misdemeanor B (offenses) to try to deter them from going to prison," Tigner-Thompson said. The programs are also for people with addictions and for first-time felony offenders, depending on the nature of the crime, she said.
The county judges in Nacogdoches, Henderson and Center are all supportive of the proposed schools, she said.
"This is a cycle, and when you see 90 percent of those people are revolving, then the only way to break that cycle is for someone to get involved and say, 'No, we're going to help you with housing, and we're going to help you with a job,'" Nacogdoches County Judge Joe English said. "Some of those obstacles they're facing on their own, there are now people that are helping them with it."
The colleges and dormitories
The home, which will house up to 12 women at a time, will be a place where they can learn how to fill out applications, go to job interviews, receive spiritual guidance and counseling and learn other life skills, Tigner-Thompson said.
Once the colleges are instituted, the people at all three locations will be able to receive their high school diplomas or associate's degrees, said Bishop L.J. Guillory, the Ombudsman General to Ombudsman International, Inc., the non-profit organization which is heading the program.
"We decided that what we would do to help curb people from committing future offenses, is that for first-time offenders re-entering the communities, that we would give them an opportunity which many felons are not afforded," Guillory said. "That is No. 1, housing and then education. Many felons are denied federal and state housing, employment and grants for college."
Angelina County's Dr. Merilyn Session is working to get the schools accredited and will be a teacher there once it all comes together, Guillory said.
"We feel with a clean record and a degree in hand, these young people will have a fighting chance to make it," she said in a prepared statement. "Most paramount, we move them from wards of the court to taxpaying, productive citizens."
Each dormitory and college will have strict rules and a daily schedule, Judge Tigner-Thompson said.
"At the time they come out (of jail), we will be there to house, feed and counsel them" at no cost, she said.
In return, each resident must attend scheduled meetings, show improvement and do their fair share of cleaning, cooking and other work, she said.
Funding
The three locations have been supported through various outlets, organization treasurer Anita Farr said.
"The building (in Nacogdoches) was donated by me, the funding we have received thus far has come from the Deep East Texas Council of Governments and local businesses," she said.
In the future, the colleges will be supported through donations, grants and federal Second Chance Act monies, she said.
"In fiscal year 2010, $114 million was appropriated for prisoner re-entry programs in the Department of Justice, including $14 million for re-entry initiatives in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and $100 million for Second Chance Act grant programs," according to the National Re-entry Resource Center, which supports the successful return of prisoners to the community.
Tigner-ThoWhat started as a life mission to help rehabilitate and reintegrate first-time criminal offenders into society has taken off and will soon lead to three accredited colleges and dormitories for men, women and juveniles.
The "Youth Preservation Colleges" will be in Nacogdoches, Center and Henderson and could be ready this year for first-time offenders to move into, but won't likely be opened as colleges yet, said Nacogdoches County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Dorothy Tigner-Thompson
The Nacogdoches facility will be for women, the Henderson facility for juveniles and the Center location for men, she said.
Once the residents complete the program or receive their associate's degree, they can go back to the courts and ask for their records to be expunged so they can re-enter society with no setbacks, she said.
"It's for those women who are getting charged with Misdemeanor C and Misdemeanor B (offenses) to try to deter them from going to prison," Tigner-Thompson said. The programs are also for people with addictions and for first-time felony offenders, depending on the nature of the crime, she said.
The county judges in Nacogdoches, Henderson and Center, Texas are all supportive of the proposed schools, she said.
"This is a cycle, and when you see 90 percent of those people are revolving, then the only way to break that cycle is for someone to get involved and say, 'No, we're going to help you with housing, and we're going to help you with a job,'" Nacogdoches County Judge Joe English said. "Some of those obstacles they're facing on their own, there are now people that are helping them with it."
PLEASE, HELP US WITH OUR EFFORTS CONTACT OMBUDSMAN INTERNATIONAL INC.
BISHOP L.J. GUILLORY, OMBUDSMAN GENERAL (310) 980-0816 OR OMBUDSMANINC@AOL.COM OR http://www.ombudsmaninc.org/
