Author Topic: Corrections and Prison  (Read 53414 times)

Crafty_Dog

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Corrections and Prison
« on: January 02, 2010, 04:58:20 PM »
There have been many entries on the LEO thread, but it occurs to me to give "Corrections and Prison" its own thread.

We kick things off with this:

http://www.freedomslighthouse.com/2009/11/florida-deputy-caught-in-inmates-choke.html

Crafty_Dog

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"He had his Art" (c DBI)
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2010, 07:22:48 PM »
Copyrighted.  Share only by posting this URL elsewhere please. 

He Had His Art
written by Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny
(c DBInc)

Several years back, a man I had fought at a "Dog Brothers Gathering" went out behind his school and blew his brains out.  He was involved in intense law enforcement work and I was told that his marriage was ending.  He left two daughters and a separated wife.

He was a part of the extended Inosanto Tribe as well the Dog Brothers tribe and so I mentioned it to Guro Inosanto.  He was surprised, and instantly exclaimed "How could he have done that?  He had his Art!"

As I tried explaining how perhaps there had been gremlins planted or unleashed by his work, and that perhaps he had cracked as his family was breaking up, Guro seemed to not even care what the reasons were-- he had his Art and why had he not turned to it?

I certainly had no answer in his case, but began to reflect upon the Art and its larger role in life.

At its core level, martial arts is about Love, the belief that you (and those you wish to protect) are worthy of defending from the Aggression of others.

So what is Aggression for?

In DBMA we often look at things through a lens of evolutionary biology-psychology and speak of the three reasons for Aggression: Territory, Hierarchy, and Reproduction.  There is much value in this perspective-- but we do not experience our lives in terms of evolution.

We experience our lives as individuals living the time we have.  As men, this usually means we are The Protector.  The Protector faces a great dichotomy-- he must be ready to connect with his Darkness in order to neutralize or defeat the Darkness of others-- and at the same time be conscious of his own Shadow tricking him into being the Problem instead of the Solution.  The greater this dichotomy, the profounder the transformation that results from balancing its halves successfully.

Thus, as a natural person living with our Intelligence and our Animal Natures in service of our Heart, (I refer here to the three corners of the triangle of the DBMA emblem: "Mind, Heart & Balls") we come to "the three H's of Bando: Hurting, Healing, and Harmonizing".

Typically we come to the Art seeking to learn how to Hurt.  In the process of learning to do so, we too are hurt, and thus develop the need to Heal ourselves.  With this beginning experience of our own mortality, with empathy we learn to see others as no different from us.  From there, an Awareness is available which takes us through a portal to different way of seeing things.  It is to realize that the darkness we recognize in others, named by Carl Jung  "the Shadow", is also within us, and those with whom we conflict the most have a Shadow most like our own --a truly annoying and
challenging thought this is!  Yet, by so doing we bring consciousness to our solutions to Aggression.  As Jung said in the words opening the first video in our first series, "The idea is not to imagine figures of light, but to
make the darkness conscious."

The Art becomes seen not as a matter of doing Aggression well, but of dealing well with it-which may or may not be a matter of doing it "better" than The Other.  In other words, we become increasingly able to engage with others in a Harmonious way, and become increasingly inaccessible to hostile intentions, provocations or neurosis on the part of others.

And the more grounded we are in this space, the clearer and more effective we should be in our will to act when circumstances require-and as surely as no one beats everyone, equally sure it is that there can be times and places beyond one's ability to harmonize.  If the flying fickle finger of Fate puts you on Flight 93, it is time to say "Lets Roll."

Those who dedicate their lives to protecting others (soldiers, policemen, prison guards, etc) deal with those with whom efforts at harmonization may well be suicidal.  These Protectors face the dichotomy in particularly acute form.  I remember a conversation with my good friend and hero, Dogzilla - a federal prison guard.  We were speaking as we often do, of his life at work. He runs the kitchen (a truly weapon intense environment) and is on the cell extraction team-particularly high adrenal jobs both.  "How do you do it, day after day, keeping alert surrounded by bad men with nothing better to do for the next 20 years than to study you for weakness and opportunity to exploit it?  How do you go into a cell to extract a criminally insane man in a psychotic killing state and drag him out without becoming that?"  I asked him.

"That's not the hardest part" he answered.  "The hardest part is getting in my truck at the end of the day and not going off on all the jerks on the road and going home to my wife and little girl and walking in the door in a state of love."

"So how do you do it?"

"I have my Art.  (Those words again!)  I go out back and train.  I train to be able to move through a room full of men looking to take me down and kill or make me pregnant and get out the door at the far side of the room and make it home to my family.  I enter into the space where I am capable of whatever it takes.  When I am done tuning up my body, when I am done discharging all the fear and all the unexpressed anger, and I know that I have trained with what Don Juan called 'impeccability', then my workout is done and I am ready for both my job and for my family."

G M

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2010, 06:33:18 AM »

Prisons: Correctional Officers - Correctional Officer Stress

Correctional officer stress

A number of studies have documented that C.O.s experience higher levels of stress than most other occupational groups (Laskey, Gordon, and Strebalus; Lindquist and Whitehead; Honnold and Stinchcomb; and Wright). There are numerous stressors in the C.O.s' work environment. They live by a macho code that requires them to be rugged individualists who can be counted upon to do their duty regardless of circumstances. Both management and C.O.s expect that every officer will perform the functions of their assignment independently, and seek assistance only when it is absolutely necessary, as in the case of physical assault, escape, or riot. This macho code combined with the unpredictability of working with inmates, role ambiguity, and demographic changes in the work force create high C.O. stress levels.

In addition, C.O.s frequently complain of structural stressors associated with the traditional autocratic style of correctional management: feelings of being trapped in the job; low salaries; inadequate training; absence of standardized policies, procedures, and rules; lack of communication with managers; and little participation in decision-making (Philliber). The failure of managers to support line staff has been emphasized by Lombardo and Brodsky. There are also gender differences in stress perception. Zimmer and Jurik have found that female C.O.s report higher levels of stress than male C.O.s because of employee sexual harassment, limited supervisory support, and a lack of programs designed to integrate them into the male prison.

The consequences of stress include: powerful feelings of alienation, powerlessness, estrangement, and helplessness; physical symptoms such as high blood pressure, migraine headaches, and ulcers (Cornelius); twice the national divorce rate average; and high rates of suicide, alcoholism, and heart attacks. Cheek reports that C.O.s have an average life span of fifty-nine years compared to a national average of seventy-five years. The organizational consequences of stress include high employee turnover, reduced job productivity, high rates of absenteeism and sick leave use, and inflated health-care costs and disability payments (Patterson). Some C.O.s also respond to stress by engaging in corruption or inmate brutality.

Correctional managers have responded to these consequences by seeking to recruit and retain individuals who have the psychological resources to handle the stress of institutional life. Application selection methods rely on psychological testing, background checks, and rigorous interviews. Those applicants who are hired are required to complete a probationary period that is, on average, ten months in length and includes 232 hours of entry-level training (Camp and Camp, p. 146) before they can be assigned a permanent job within the correctional facility. This probationary period begins with standardized training in a correctional training academy whose instructors are qualified to provide oral instruction, written examination, and practical hands-on application of techniques. Training curriculums are designed to provide trainees with the knowledge necessary to become a human services–oriented professional who can assist inmates as they meet the challenges of incarceration and preparation for return to the community. The typical corrections curriculum includes instruction in such diverse areas as: the professional image; interpersonal communications; assertive techniques; development of observation skills; prison subcultures; classification of inmates; legal aspects of corrections; inmate disciplinary procedures; fire prevention; security awareness; stress awareness and management; control of aggressive inmate behavior; cultural sensitivity; emergency preparedness; HIV; report writing; suicidal inmates; mentally disturbed inmates and special behavior problems; principles of control; basic defensive tactics; standard first aid; use of the baton; firearms training; drug awareness; search procedures; use of inmate restraints; transportation of inmate procedures; and weapon cleaning and maintenance. Increasingly, academy curriculums include ethical behavior, cultural sensitivity, and awareness of diversity courses designed to help C.O.s adjust to a work environment that has become increasingly multicultured. State correctional systems now require C.O.s to annually participate in, on average, forty-two hours of in-service training designed to help them maintain high levels of professional efficiency and ethical behavior (Camp and Camp, p. 147).

In addition, correctional managers are increasingly adapting a participatory management style that emphasizes employee empowerment through shared decision-making and input solicitation, unit management, and formal mentoring programs (Cushman and Sechrest; Freeman). This management style is associated with higher levels of employee morale and job satisfaction than is the traditional autocratic management style (Duffee, 1989). As management and training philosophies become more sophisticated C.O.s will be better prepared to manage the stresses inherent in their critical role as human service professionals in an increasingly complex work environment.



Read more: Prisons: Correctional Officers - Correctional Officer Stress http://law.jrank.org/pages/1791/Prisons-Correctional-Officers-Correctional-officer-stress.html#ixzz0becHxcNc

Jonobos

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #3 on: January 04, 2010, 09:59:35 AM »
Police: Rockview inmate assaults corrections officers
From CDT staff reports
A corrections officer was assaulted by an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview who then injured two other officers when they came to his aid, state police at Rockview said.

At about 7:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, police said a 50-year-old inmate became involved in a dispute with a corrections officer. When the officer turned, the inmate struck the officer in the face with his fist.

While the officer was dazed, the inmate struck him in the face again, and he fell to the ground as other officers rushed to his assistance, police said. Two other corrections officers attempted to restrain the inmate, and during the struggle one suffered an injury to his eye and the other suffered a shoulder injury.

The first officer who was struck suffered a fractured nose, police said.



Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/1706771.html#ixzz0bfSWAET2
When life gives you lemons make lemonade
When life gives you hemlock, do NOT make hemlockade!

maija

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #4 on: January 08, 2010, 06:51:33 AM »
Just read you piece Guro Crafty.
Really awesome  8-)
I hope you don't mind that I share it with friends, with copyright and URL of course :-D
It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.
Miyamoto Musashi.

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2010, 11:47:27 AM »
Maija:

Tail wags for the kind words and of course you may share the URL.


Scurvy Dog

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2010, 04:37:02 PM »
My wife just bought me the excellent DVD Practical Unarmed Combat Volume 1 from this site. (Tail wags to Pretty Kitty on the fast delivery!)

After watching that DVD, I began looking more into the subject of real self defense with regard to the mental aspects and the criminal mind and found a book entitled “Meditations on Violence – A Comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence”.

The author of this book, Sgt. Rory Miller, has an extensive background in corrections and also trains his agency’s Corrections Tactical Team. I highly recommend the book which is full of real stories from his time in corrections and how it relates to violence and what we all perceive martial arts to be. Very eye opening indeed! 

I give much respect to the guys and gals in corrections because they have a very difficult and dangerous job. The benefit to us of course is learning from their experience and truly understanding the criminal mind and how they and we approach violence. This book also explores his art and how he adjusted his art to be of benefit to him in the real world.

Anyway, just thought I’d share for those interested in the subject!  :-D


Cheers!
Tim

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2010, 06:38:07 PM »
Glad you liked SouthNarc's PUC DVD.  We think its pretty sharp too-- it is why we offer it  :lol:

Scurvy Dog

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2010, 05:51:16 PM »
Any idea on the follow up material? Nice cameo by the way Guru... you looked very "mean"!  :-D

G M

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2010, 10:34:08 PM »
The Forgotten Cop



What would the average citizen say if it were proposed that Police Officers be assigned to a neighborhood which was inhabited by no one but criminals and those Officers would be unarmed, patrol on foot and be heavily out numbered? I wager that the overwhelming public response would be that the Officers would have to be crazy to accept such an assignment. However as you read this, such a scenario is being played out in all areas of the country.

We are Correctional Officers. Not Guards (who are people that watch school crossings). We work at minimum, medium, and maximum security Correctional Facilities. We are empowered by the State to enforce its Penal Laws, rules, and regulations of the Department of Correctional Services. In short we are Policemen. Our beat is totally inhabited by convicted felons who, by definition, are people who tend to break laws, rules, and regulations. We are out numbered by as many as 50 to 1 at various times of our work day and contrary to popular belief, we work without a side arm. In short, our necks are on the line every minute of every day.

A Correctional Facility is a very misunderstood environment. The average person has very little knowledge of its workings. Society sends it's criminals to Correctional Facilities and as time passes, each criminals crime fades from our memory until the collective prison population becomes hordes of bad people being warehoused away from decent society in a place where they can cause no further harm. There is also the notion that prison inmates cease to be a problem when they are incarcerated.

Correctional Facilities are full of violence perpetrated by the prison population against the prison population and facility staff. Felonies are committed daily but are rarely reported. They are called "unusual incidents" and rarely result in criminal prosecution. Discipline is handled internally and, as a rule, the public is rarely informed of these crimes. In the course of maintaining order in these facilities, many Officers have endured the humiliation of having urine and feces thrown at them. Uncounted Correctional Officers have been kicked, bitten, stabbed and slashed with home made weapons, taken hostage, murdered and even raped in the line of duty, all while being legally mandated to maintain their Professional Composure and refraining from any retaliation which could be the basis for dismissal from service.

In addition to these obvious dangers, Correctional Officers face hidden dangers in the form of AIDS, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis B and C. Courts are now imposing longer sentences and the prison population is increasing far beyond the systems designated capacity. As the public demands more police on the street, governments everywhere are cutting police in prison where violence reigns supreme, jeopardizing all those working behind prison walls.

Although you will never see us on "911" or "Top Cops" we are Law Enforcement Professionals. We are the "FORGOTTEN COP," hidden from public view, doing a dangerous beat, hoping someday to receive the respect and approval from the public who "WE SILENTLY SERVE."



Written by Donald E. Premo, Jr.
New York State Corrections Officer

maija

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2010, 08:47:46 AM »
I follow Rory Millers blog - http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/
I really enjoy his thoughts and observations.
It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.
Miyamoto Musashi.

Scurvy Dog

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2010, 11:05:01 PM »
I follow Rory Millers blog - http://chirontraining.blogspot.com/
I really enjoy his thoughts and observations.

Thank you Maija! I will enjoy reading this myself.
 :-D

Jonobos

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #12 on: January 12, 2010, 08:09:39 AM »
The Forgotten Cop

Thought provoking in many ways, thanks GM.
When life gives you lemons make lemonade
When life gives you hemlock, do NOT make hemlockade!

G M

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2010, 06:56:46 AM »

Crafty_Dog

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maija

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #15 on: May 14, 2010, 06:48:37 AM »
Rory Miller - as mentioned above ( http://chirontraining.com/Site/Home.html ) was in town for the weekend, and part of the seminar was talking about predatory behavior and the different types of violence that occur in society. It was interesting to see a video of some of what he was describing - he is an ex corrections officer.
If you haven't read his book yet - 'Meditations on Violence' - I really recommend it.
It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.
Miyamoto Musashi.

G M

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #16 on: September 14, 2010, 06:14:49 AM »
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbozFoD7ai7PU9HXytFTL2TZ_oqQD9I785C80

Attack on SC prison guard renews phone-jam debate

By MEG KINNARD (AP) – 17 hours ago

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina authorities who have helped push for permission to block cell phone signals inside prisons say an officer in charge of keeping out contraband was nearly killed at his home — in an attack planned with a smuggled phone.

Corrections Department Capt. Robert Johnson was getting ready to go to work at Lee Correctional Institution about 50 miles east of Columbia one day last March. Around 5:30 a.m., a man broke down the front door of Johnson's mobile home, shooting the 15-year prison veteran six times in the chest and stomach.

sgtmac_46

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #17 on: September 16, 2010, 10:26:16 AM »
I give props to corrections officers, it's a job I wouldn't want.  I like the ability to get in a patrol car and drive away after dealing with dirtbags.  To be locked up with hundreds of them for an entire shift every day is something that would seem claustrophobic on a number of different levels.  It's a difficult job those guys do.

Dog Howie

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #18 on: September 30, 2010, 05:26:54 AM »
I give props to corrections officers... To be locked up with hundreds of them for an entire shift every day is something that would seem claustrophobic on a nbumber of different levels.  It's a difficult job....
To my thinking corrections officers who work in a high security environment must make up a very interesting sub-culture because of what they must have to do to psychologically survive. I imagine that they must have to work  "always on semi-adrenalized, always watching their backs". High burn out rate? Also if managing theist violent it must take a well trained disciplined mind to not allow the (assumed) ambient violence to infect their thinking outside of work.

I mean LEOs effectively go from call to call and address a variety of situations. But correctional guys have have full shifts of the stuff.

Yeah... Agreed... TOUGH, thankless job.

Crafty_Dog

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Why won't he call? Cell phones in prison
« Reply #19 on: December 03, 2010, 09:55:48 AM »


latimes.com

Charles Manson had a cellphone? California prisons fight inmate cellphone proliferation

Contraband cellphones are burgeoning among prisoners, giving them the ability to arrange crimes on the outside. Even Charles Manson was caught with one. But it's not illegal for state prisoners to possess the devices.
By Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times

5:41 PM PST, December 2, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento


Contraband cellphones are becoming so prevalent in California prisons that guards can't keep them out of the hands of the most notorious and violent inmates: Even Charles Manson, orchestrator of one of the most notorious killing rampages in U.S. history, was caught with an LG flip phone under his prison mattress.

Manson made calls and sent text messages to people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia before officers discovered the phone, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections.

Asked whether Manson had used the device to direct anyone to commit a crime or to leave a threatening message, Thornton said, "I don't know, but it's troubling that he had a cellphone since he's a person who got other people to murder on his behalf."

Although officials say inmates use smuggled cellphones for all manner of criminal activity, including running drug rings from behind bars, intimidating witnesses and planning escapes, it is not a crime to possess one in a California prison.

In August, President Obama signed a bill banning cellphones from federal prisons and making it a crime, punishable by up to a year in jail, to smuggle one in. That law does not apply to state institutions.

The proliferation of cellphones in California prisons has been exponential in recent years, authorities say. Guards found 1,400 in 2007, when the department began to keep records of confiscations. The number jumped to 6,995 in 2009 and stands at 8,675 so far this year.

The phones show up in minimum security work camps as well as in the most heavily guarded administrative segregation units — whose residents include gang leaders confined to their cells around the clock except for brief stints when they're allowed to pace around metal cages in the prison yards.

Prisoners and supplies coming into those units are searched, but inmates sometimes hide devices in their body cavities, officials said.

There have also been state-documented cases of guards bringing phones into prisons. An inspector general's report last year noted that the phones fetch up to $1,000 each and highlighted the case of a corrections officer who made $150,000 in a single year by supplying the devices to inmates. He was fired, the report said. Criminal charges were not an option.

Examples of inmates using phones to run criminal enterprises are not hard to find. In August, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, now the governor-elect, trumpeted the arrest of 34 Nuestra Familia gang members in Visalia who had been following orders from incarcerated leaders.

Last month, two escapees from Folsom prison were recaptured after they disappeared from a minimum-security work detail. They used a contraband cellphone to arrange for a friend pick to them up, said warden Rick Hill.

Inmates also use the phones to contact each other. "We know they are communicating building to building to thwart our efforts to recover contraband," Hill said.

Prison administrators across the country have been asking for the authority to jam cellphone signals on prison grounds, but the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the nation's airwaves, has refused.

The politically powerful telecommunications industry lobby has argued that jamming is not precise enough, and legitimate customers trying to use their phones near prisons could also be denied service.

The industry is pushing a more expensive solution called "managed access," which would allow only calls from approved phones to transmit through towers near prisons. Calls from numbers not on the approved list would not go through.

Next year California officials will test such a system, similar to one begun in August near a Mississippi prison. Authorities in that state said the program blocked more than 216,000 unauthorized phone calls and text messages in the first month.

The system didn't cost taxpayers anything, said Mississippi prison spokeswoman Suzanne Singletary.

It was paid for by Global Tel Link, a national company that charges inmates to make calls from many state prisons, including those in Mississippi and California. Who will pay for California's pilot program has not been determined.

Prisoner-rights advocates argue that cellphones let prisoners avoid high fees for making collect calls from prison pay phones — the only allowed method of phone communication, with all calls monitored — and help them maintain crucial bonds with family and friends while they serve time.

But family contact can cut two ways, prison officials say. In September, an inmate at Avenal State Prison in Central California had been calling his 75-year-old mother to get her to collect drug debts owed by customers on the street. After guards found the phone, police raided the woman's La Puente home and found more than $24,000 cash, said Doug Snell, a corrections department spokesman.

The woman was arrested and charged with unauthorized communication with an inmate. A trial is pending.

In September, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have imposed a $5,000 fine on anyone caught giving a phone to a prisoner. In his veto message, Schwarzenegger complained that the bill did not make it a serious crime for a prisoner to possess a phone and did not include the threat of jail time for the smuggler.

"Signing this measure would mean that smuggling a can of beer into a prison carries with it a greater punishment than delivering a cellphone to the leader of a criminal street gang," Schwarzenegger wrote.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D- Pacoima), who sponsored the bill, SB 525, said he was caught between a governor who wants to put smugglers in prison and a Senate Public Safety Committee policy against adding new felonies to the state penal code for fear of exacerbating California's prison overcrowding.

Early this year, a panel of three federal judges ordered the state to reduce its prison population by some 46,000 inmates to alleviate the cramped conditions. Schwarzenegger appealed the decision; the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case Tuesday.

"The fact that Charles Manson had a cellphone in prison is just further proof that the situation is out of control," a frustrated Padilla said last week. "I'm not giving up. Until we have a law on the books with real consequences, this will continue to be a danger."

State Sen. Mark Leno (D- San Francisco), who is chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee and responsible for enforcing the policy against creating new felonies, said he's not opposed to creating a felony charge to deter people from smuggling phones into prison. But he warned that courts have ruled that the prison inmate population can't be increased, so some who are currently locked up in state facilities would have to be kept in county jails.

For now, the only recourse prison officials have when they find an inmate with a phone is to charge him or her with a violation of department policy.

Prison officials would not release the identities of any of the people Manson contacted. But the entertainment news show Inside Edition broadcast recordings of a voice, identified as Manson's, on March 23, 2009. Four days later, guards found a phone during a search of Manson's cell.

One of the clips features Manson's raspy, high-pitched voice singing, "I've seen the world spinning on fire, I've danced and sang in the devil's choir."

Manson, 76, who is technically eligible for parole but will almost certainly die in prison for ordering the ritualistic murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in 1969, had 30 days added to his sentence after his phone was discovered.

"He was counseled and reprimanded, too," Thornton said.

jack.dolan@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

 


Mider1985

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #20 on: December 04, 2010, 11:51:46 AM »
Maybe im wrong but i think that people who are guilty for sure and are not rehibilitated of serious crime like rape, murder, and child molestation should have more serious penalties like the death penalties not life in prison its a waiste of money im not saying we just kill them after like 10 days im saying that maybe they should have a predetermined time to see if they have the possibility of rehibilation and then more time to finally rehibilitate, If they are rehibiliated and are let free and then are convicted again of a serious crime AGAIN they should be killed for sure FAST.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2010, 11:58:41 AM by Mider1985 »

Crafty_Dog

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Cell phones
« Reply #21 on: March 24, 2011, 04:54:47 AM »
California prisons confiscated more than 10,000 cellphones last year. This year, officials at Corcoran State Prison found a cellphone with a camera in possession of convicted serial killer Charles Manson. It was the second phone found on Manson in two years.

In 1996, four men gang-raped a 15-year-old girl. They were convicted. But in 2008, the ringleader called the victim from his prison cell.

"To our horror," Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said at a press conference March 22, "there was nothing we could do about that."

In dysfunctional California, it is not illegal to smuggle a cellphone into a state prison.

State Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, introduced a bill to make smuggling cellphones to inmates a misdemeanor -- and it passed last year. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it because it wasn't tough enough.

"Tell me how that makes sense," Ryan Sherman of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association asked. "At least then, it was a misdemeanor."

This year, Padilla introduced SB26 to make smuggling a cellphone a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $5,000 fine per phone. The bill passed through the Senate Public Safety Committee on March 22. But Padilla had to remove a provision to add two to five years to the sentence of an inmate caught planning a crime with a smuggled phone.

You can thank the committee chairwoman, Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, for watering down the bill. As the Los Angeles Times reported, she didn't care about the list of crimes -- including murder, kidnapping and witness intimidation -- directed by inmates via cell. She doesn't want to add to prison overcrowding.

To fight the problem, the corrections department launched "Operation Disconnect," which included unannounced inspections of prison staff. One such search at Avenal State Prison turned up 13 cellphones.

Avenal Public Information Officer E.J. Borla believes most phones find their way into the medium-security prison through visitors who find creative ways to smuggle contraband. Even if he's right, one rotten prison guard can do a lot of damage. In 2009, the state fired an officer who made $150,000 smuggling phones to convicts. Because he broke no law, he wasn't prosecuted.

The department has begun testing new phone signal-jamming technology, according to spokesman Paul Verke.

Why not search all the guards before they go to work? Here the prison guards' union is of little help. Officers are paid "walk time" while they suit up in steel-toed boots, utility belts and other gear. Going through a metal detector would cut into "walk time."

In that prison staff have the most to fear from well-connected convicts, couldn't the union give on it?

"Give on working for free?" union spokesman Sherman replies. After the furloughs, his people have given enough.

Gov. Jerry Brown just cut a deal with the union, which supported his candidacy. According to the Department of Personnel Administration, "walk time" didn't come up.
http://townhall.com/columnists/debrajsaunders/2011/03/24/why_sacramento_cant_get_cellphones_out_of_prison/page/full/


Crafty_Dog

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Overcrowding in CA prisons
« Reply #23 on: August 31, 2011, 06:24:52 AM »

Crafty_Dog

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Pravda on the Beach calls to our GM for a response
« Reply #24 on: October 30, 2011, 10:37:50 AM »
I hazard the guess that our GM will not approve of the tone here :lol:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jail-force-20111030,0,1292189.story

G M

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Re: Pravda on the Beach calls to our GM for a response
« Reply #25 on: October 30, 2011, 10:50:43 AM »
I hazard the guess that our GM will not approve of the tone here :lol:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jail-force-20111030,0,1292189.story

Oh no, I'm sure LA's jail are full of wonderful, if a bit impish inmates and any violence that takes place is always the fault of the horrible deputies.

I wish the ACLU and similar groups would form non-profit companies that would provide contract detention/correctional facilities for counties and states. Then they could have real world examples of how to run such places. Funny how they haven't done this yet.

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #26 on: November 06, 2011, 05:37:54 PM »
Impish.

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Re: Corrections and Prison
« Reply #28 on: November 22, 2011, 08:56:25 AM »
That must be very disconcerting!

Sounds like she should have a gun and training with it.

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Re: Seven Horrifying Things
« Reply #30 on: November 27, 2013, 12:16:43 PM »
http://www.cracked.com/article_20775_7-horrifying-things-you-didnt-want-to-know-about-prison.html

(You know those prison stabbing scenes in Breaking Bad? That was years of violence shoved into a montage, but it looked just about right.)

My thoughts exactly.


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Inmate admits fatal prison attack was "all about the body count"
« Reply #32 on: December 17, 2013, 03:55:43 PM »

 
Inmate admits fatal prison attack was "all about the body count"
 
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
Posted:   12/12/2013 11:05:49 AM MST25 comments | Updated:   5 days ago

 





FILE -- Mary Katherine Ricard, right, with her daughter, Katie Smith (Photo provided by Katie Smith)
 

Related Stories
 
Dec 11:
 •Inmate who stabbed 2 prison officers, killing one, cited jealousy
 Jan 16:
 •Inmate faces first-degree murder charge in death of Ordway sergeant
 Dec 21:
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 Sep 27:
 •Sergeant killed at Colorado prison considered training inmates "God's work"
 Sep 26:
 •Inmate called "person of interest" in murder sexually harassed guards
 •Man serving life for rape of 14-year-old believed to be attacker in prison kitchen homicide
 Sep 25:
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ORDWAY — A prison inmate accused of killing one correctional officer and seriously wounding a second said he had planned to kill a third in order to boost his body count to "at least three."
 
"I'll be honest with you. It was all about the body count," Miguel Alonso Contreras-Perez said in an interview videotaped on Sept. 25, 2012 and played in court at his preliminary hearing Thursday.
 
Sgt. Lori Gann, who barely survived the attack, often became so upset during Thursday's session that she had to step out of the courtroom weeping.
 
Perez had admitted that his third intended victim was another correctional officer he believed was having a sexual relationship with Gann.
 


FILE -- Tim Ricard, right, husband of slain correction officer Mary Ricard, receives flags in her honor from Harrry Campbell, left, a member of the Department of Corrections honor guard during a memorial service Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 at Crowley County High School in Ordway, Colorado. The service was attended by many law enforcement officials and DOC personnel. (Chris McLean, Pueblo Chieftain via Associated Press)
 
Perez is charged with killing Sgt. Mary Ricard and attempting to kill Gann with a kitchen butcher knife at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility on Sept. 24, 2012. He is an Army deserter who was sentenced in 2004 to 35 years to life in prison after he raped a 14-year-old girl he kidnapped in Colorado Springs.
 
According to Perez, the attacks on the correctional officers were spurred by a jealous rage. He was upset because he believed Gann was having a sexual relationship with another inmate and a staff member.
 
Perez frequently contradicted himself. Despite many insinuations and claims on a letter that he had sexual encounters with Gann, Perez gave a much different accounting in a videotaped interview the day after the attacks.
 
Perez often leaned over and shared a chuckle with his attorney while a series of videotapes and audio recordings of him speaking with investigators about the attacks were played in court Thursday.
 
Just a few feet away, a correctional officer who interrupted the assaults, Sgt. Lisa Orozco, sobbed during the hearing.
 
Perez readily acknowledged to investigators that Gann did speak about sexually related topics but his only physical encounters with Gann were two occasions when they had been together in a cooler and he intentionally brushed up against her buttocks and breast in a way that seemed accidental.

Perez said one time he had a chance to kiss her in the cooler but lost his nerve.
 
District Attorney Rod Fouracre played footage from several security cameras in the prison that captured Perez as he prepared his attacks. At one point he puts an extra large shirt on that he has brought into the kitchen on a food cart. The video shows Ricard bringing Perez into a locked storage area.

They walk behind rows of food carts where Perez allegedly stabbed Ricard in the neck. Only their heads can be seen as the attack occurs. Perez declined several times in interviews with investigators to say what Ricard's last words had been, saying it would make him look bad. He later writes a letter stating she told him she has kids and grandkids.
 
Fouracre entered into evidence several letters Perez' wrote to friends and prosecutors boasting about the murders. One letter written shortly after the murders and before he learned that Gann survived boasted about killing two "pigs."
 
"I'm a soldier and killing is what I was trained to do," he wrote in another letter to a prosecutor in which he said solitary confinement at Colorado State Penitentiary is a "joke." He gets a free TV. "I enjoy the solitude." He wrote he was proud to be a "cop killer," while in another letter complained everyone was making such a big deal about killing Ricard.
 
"It was only one little itty bitty person," he wrote in a letter. He wrote that he did Ricard a favor because she is a Christian lady and is now in heaven.
 
In a letter to the Crowley County District Attorney's office, he predicted he would "get off" just like the "Chuck E Cheese" killer Nathan Dunlap, referring to Gov. John Hickenlooper's recent decision to grant Dunlap a "temporary reprieve."

He wrote that "it's my party" and he could kill whenever and whomever he wished. One letter taunted prosecutors, saying jurors at his trial would be his "puppets."
 
Also Thursday morning, the court heard a series of video interviews conducted by Terry Reeves, an investigator for the Inspector General's Office. Just hours after the attacks, he asked Perez why he stabbed the officers.
 
"I don't want to tell," Perez said, speaking low and pausing. "I don't want someone to look at me and say, 'That's a ... monster.' The issues I have they can't fix. The issues I have God won't fix them. If no one is going to fix them, why should I talk about it?"
 
Perez said he attacked Gann for revenge.

"I wanted her ... alive, and I wanted her ... dead. But I couldn't have both."
 
As for Ricard, he said: "This one, it was ... umm, I would describe my act as evil and wicked."
 
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kmitchelldp
 



Read more: Inmate admits fatal prison attack was "all about the body count" - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24710614/inmate-laughs-while-describing-fatal-attack-colorado-prison


G M

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Re: The World retains its ability to surprise 2.0
« Reply #34 on: March 08, 2015, 04:30:03 AM »
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/04/rikers-inmates-stop-inmate-from-raping-jail-guard_n_6803408.html

And,

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/child-rapist-ex-cop-killed-cellmate-prison-continually-talking-raping-9-yo-girl/

Some criminals still have a sense of right and wrong. It may not match society's rules, but sex offenders, especially those that victimize children are at the bottom of the criminal caste system and often the targets of violence.

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POTH: Texas and DoJ faceing off over PREA
« Reply #36 on: May 23, 2015, 05:07:34 PM »
In what appeared to be a reversal of his predecessor’s position, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas wrote to Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch last week to assure her that his state intended to abide by national standards to prevent, detect and respond to prison rape “wherever feasible.”

But the Justice Department said late Thursday that it had rejected his assurance. Texas, which has a high rate of reported sexual abuse against inmates, is expected to be financially penalized for a second straight year for failing to follow the procedures that the federal government has established to document progress in eliminating prison rape.

Nine states certified full compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act’s standards on May 15, the deadline for governors to make their second progress reports to the Department of Justice. That brought to 11 the number of states that have fully adopted the standards — considered “best practices” for eliminating the sexual victimization of inmates — a dozen years after Congress unanimously passed the law known as PREA.

In his letter to Ms. Lynch, Mr. Abbott of Texas said he could not certify complete compliance. But he adopted a more conciliatory approach than had his predecessor, Gov. Rick Perry, who in 2014 declined to respond to Washington’s first deadline and denounced the national rape standards as a “counterproductive and unnecessarily cumbersome and costly regulatory mess.”

Mr. Abbott, who took office in January, was under some pressure in the week before the deadline, during which an article in The New York Times highlighted the sexual abuse problem in Texas’ prisons, an editorial in The Dallas Morning News urged the governor to “enact the federal reforms now,” and protesters in Austin called on him to take action against prison rape.

“I can assure you that we will fully implement D.O.J.’s PREA standards wherever feasible,” he wrote to the attorney general.

He noted that a quarter of Texas state jails and prisons had passed specialized PREA audits and that the rest were either in the middle of an audit or scheduled for one.

He also said Texas was seeking to comply with the rule that youths be separated “by sight and sound” from adult prisoners, a requirement that Mr. Perry had called an infringement on his state’s right to consider 17 the age of criminal responsibility. Mr. Abbott, in contrast, said that the 49 17-year-olds in Texas’ adult prisons have been segregated.

Mr. Abbott did not, however, provide the required written assurance that Texas would spend at least 5 percent of certain federal grants to achieve full compliance with the anti-rape standards.

“The letter we received from Texas makes no such representation and, therefore, it cannot be considered to be an assurance under PREA,” said Dena W. Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department.
Continue reading the main story
Document: A Letter From Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas

It is unclear why Mr. Abbott did not comply with Washington’s precise instructions on how to respond, but his press secretary, Amelia Chassé, said his letter explained “our plans to improve our compliance in the future.”

Last year, the state lost over $800,000 in prison-related federal grant money as a penalty. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said the loss had no effect on its operations, which inmate advocates interpreted as a statement that the PREA penalties were little more than symbolic.

Lambda Legal, a national group that is representing a Texas inmate named Passion Star in a lawsuit against state corrections officials, said in a statement that it was “profoundly disappointed.”

“Governor Abbott cannot coast by paying lip service to PREA,” Jael Humphrey, Ms. Star’s lawyer, said, “while Passion Star and other incarcerated people remain at risk of continued sexual violence.”

Most governors who were unable to certify compliance did not write letters. They simply signed forms, provided by the Justice Department, that gave “assurance” they were devoting federal grant money to work toward full compliance. Inmate advocates, who have been concerned about the slow pace of change, worry that many of those assurances could be meaningless since detailed progress reports were not required.

“It’s terrific, welcome news that one-fifth of states say they’re fully complying,” said Jamie Fellner, who was a member of the Prison Rape Elimination Commission, which drafted the antirape standards and disbanded in 2009. “But the assurance process is profoundly flawed, and it should not in any way reassure the public that states are moving expeditiously to ending prison rape.”

The nine states that certified full compliance with the rape standards are: Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. New Hampshire and New Jersey achieved the certification last year.

Last year, Texas was one of six “renegade states,” as inmate advocates called them. Two of them, Florida and Indiana, opted into the national effort to eliminate prison rape this year, submitting accepted assurances.

It is unclear what the three others, Arizona, Idaho and Utah, did. The Justice Department’s list of certifications and assurances is not complete.

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