One way to cut down on the number of inmates who end up right back in prison shortly after being released is to make sure that they preserve their ties with their families, especially with spouses and children, while they are serving time. But keeping in touch is often impossible for inmates and their families because of state prison systems that earn huge profits from inmates' phone calls by forcing the family members who receive those collect calls to pay usurious rates. As a result, a family must often choose between talking to a loved one in prison and putting food on the table.
A bill introduced in Congress by Representative Bobby Rush, Democrat of Illinois, would help end this shameful practice by requiring the Federal Communications Commission to set fair rates for interstate phone calls made from prison. The bill will surely face fierce opposition from the telecommunications lobby and from state prison systems that have grown accustomed to gouging the poorest families in the country to subsidize some prison-related activities. But the current arrangement is both counterproductive and morally indefensible.
State prison systems typically use telephone setups that permit only collect calls, made through providers that keep a monopoly on prison telephone service by paying the states a "commission" - essentially a legal kickback. The kickback does not materialize out of thin air. The people who receive the phone calls often pay as much as six times the going rate. Not surprisingly, the costs discourage inmates from keeping in touch with spouses and children who may live hundreds of miles away and find it difficult or impossible to visit.
Federal prisons use a significantly less expensive debit-calling system, which lets inmates use the money accumulated in computer-controlled accounts to place easily monitored calls to a limited group of phone numbers. The Rush bill would require prisons to use both collect-calling and debit-calling systems. It would also prohibit providers from paying kickbacks to prison systems, and would require each prison system to allow more than one phone company to enter the market. In addition, the law would not let prison phone providers refuse to place calls to phone numbers served by rival companies.
Prison systems are likely to argue that the current arrangement is just fine because it helps pay for programs that benefit the inmates. But the high phone rates are actually a hidden tax on people who already pay for the prisons through their taxes. Beyond that, the states should not be in the business of bleeding low-income families - and fraying already fragile family ties - to pay for services that the state itself is obligated to provide.
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Bill raises
penalties for child molesters
The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
01/14/06
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen filed legislation Friday proposing minimum 25-year prison sentences and lifetime electronic monitoring upon release for certain child sex offenders.
House Bill 1059 strengthens the penalties for a number of crimes committed against children 14 or younger, including kidnapping, rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy and aggravated sexual battery.
"We're going to make sure that those individuals who prey on our children go to jail for a long, long time," said Keen (R-St. Simons Island). "The only real protection we can give our children from these people who will prey on them again and again and again is to make sure they are locked up and protected from general society."
Like previous mandatory minimum laws passed by the General Assembly, Keen's is expected to pack prisons. Georgia already has the fifth-largest prison population in the United States.
A Georgia Department of Corrections analysis done in November on an earlier version of Keen's bill said it would require the prison system to add 6,851 prison beds at a cost of more than $932 million over the next decade. The figure could be lower based on changes made to the bill, but the Department of Corrections could not provide updated figures on Friday.
Criminal justice advocates are concerned about several aspects of the bill. Chiefly, they worry that mandatory minimum sentences take away the discretion of prosecutors, judges and defense attorneys to negotiate appropriate punishments on a case-by-case basis.
"Every case has different facts and different scenarios," said Sandy Michaels, lobbyist for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
The bill also doesn't address treatment or rehabilitation for sex offenders, Michaels said.
Keen said prosecutors and defense lawyers would still be able to work out plea deals for lesser crimes if the circumstances don't merit 25-year minimum sentences.
Keen also included a provision in the bill requiring those convicted of the most serious crimes against children to wear a global positioning satellite monitor for the rest of their lives to make it easier for law enforcement officials to track their whereabouts.
The law also prohibits sex offenders from working within 1,000 feet of "an area where minors congregate," including day care centers, schools and churches. Current law dictates only that they not reside near those areas.
Critics of the bill think the provision will make it difficult for sex offenders to find employment — a known factor in reducing the chances of a felon committing new crimes.
The legislation will be assigned to a House committee when lawmakers are back in session Jan. 23.
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Investigation
questions care at jail
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
01/19/06
Jail inmate Harriet Washington was the victim of a confused and clumsy medical response when she died in front of her cellmates, concluded a Gwinnett Sheriff's Department investigation released Wednesday.
Washington, of Norcross, died on Oct. 17. Jailed at the Gwinnett County Detention Center since June for possession of cocaine, Washington suffered from leukemia. She was 43.
The internal affairs investigation clears Sheriff's Department deputies of any culpability, stating they "adhered to existing policy and acted in a manner consistent with the needs of the situation."
The report raises questions, however, about the performance of Prison Health Services, the Tennessee-based company contracted to care for Gwinnett inmates.
Deputies had urged that Washington be taken to the hospital, to no avail, the report states.
"If the medical staff had ordered outside treatment at Gwinnett Medical Center, as sworn staff [deputies] had urged, instead of allowing the inmate to remain in the housing unit, the end result very well may have been the same," the report's conclusion states. "Had the inmate been transferred to the hospital, however, it would have eliminated the doubt surrounding the appropriateness of the treatment provided."
Sheriff Butch Conway declined an interview on the report, but issued a prepared statement:
"I am in the process of determining what my options are regarding Prison Health Services," it read. "When I do, I'll make a decision that is in the best interest of the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department, the inmates and our personnel."
The county has a $4.8 million annual contract with Prison Health Services, which was renewed in September.
Susan Morganstern, a spokeswoman for the company, based in suburban Nashville, said she had not seen the report. "Confidentiality prohibits us from discussing individual cases," she said.
The company's Web site says it serves 214,000 inmates in 310 institutions in 37 states. The company reportedly serves eight facilities in Georgia.
According to the internal affairs report, Washington was briefly taken to the medical unit at least once the day before she died but was returned to her cell a short time later. The report accuses the company of failing to adequately document her care. Records even conflicted on how many times she was taken to the medical unit.
Inmate Cheryl Horstman, who was in the medical unit at the time, told investigators that nurse Brian Woodard and Deputy Benita Smallwood seemed "bothered" by Washington's presence.
At one point, Woodard told Washington, "only one problem per visit," according to Horstman.
In a subsequent debriefing with his superior in the medical unit, Woodard said, "I know I [messed] up" by failing to document Washington's treatment.
Woodard submitted his resignation on Oct. 24 as a result of a separate internal investigation into narcotics missing from the medical unit, the report says without elaboration.
Woodard could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
On Oct. 16, as Washington was trying to move from her wheelchair to a "boat" — a plastic tub that serves as a bed in the detention center — she passed out, the report said.
The nurse and deputy asked her why she had tried to move at all.
"I don't feel right. ... I need to go the hospital, something doesn't feel right," the report quoted Washington as saying.
Horstman said Smallwood then told Washington, "There isn't even a doctor here on weekends. The whole jail is in lockdown, and you can't stay in medical. What do you think this is, the Hyatt?"
In interviews with investigators, Smallwood denied making the comment.
Washington was sent back to her cell but apparently received no assistance from medical personnel until midnight, when she received crackers and Pepto-Bismol during "pill call."
At 2:41 a.m. Oct. 17, the "I" pod deputy pressed the panic button to summon help after Washington screamed in pain and collapsed.
According to the report, a nurse and a medical assistant from the jail intake area — neither of whom was qualified as a first responder — arrived three minutes later but could not get a response from Washington.
Another nurse from the medical unit arrived with an emergency cart, but there was no oxygen tubing on it and several minutes were lost looking for the item, the report says.
An ambulance was summoned at 2:53 a.m. Washington was later pronounced dead at Gwinnett Medical Center.
The report noted that no "progress notes" were kept of her vital signs or treatment, which violated Prison Health Services internal protocols.
Some progress notes were written and submitted later in the day after Washington died, the report says.
Inadequate response by medical personnel was originally alleged in a Nov. 8 letter from Washington's cellmates, Kim Holmes and Carla Dotson. The women said in the letter and a later interview that they had tried repeatedly to get her help for two days before she died.
The inmates said Washington's death haunts them.
"To watch her suffer and die has affected us for life," Dotson said.
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Lockdown bars visits to inmates
By Jeremy Craig
Augusta Chronicle, January 19, 2006
If you've tried to visit a loved one this week at the Richmond County jail at 401 Walton Way, you were out of luck.
All floors were on lockdown as officials searched for contraband items throughout the facility.
No visitors could come to see inmates, and the six-floor jail did not accept items for inmates, either, including on Wednesday, one of the jail's heaviest visitation days.
Sheriff's Capt. Gene Johnson, assistant chief jailor, said authorities were going through the jail to find drugs, weapons, tobacco and other prohibited items.
The lockdown started Monday after an inmate tried to put a sock, which had a shampoo bottle inside tied to a string, down a drain toward a lower floor, the captain said.
A deputy on the fourth floor stopped the container from going lower, he said. Nothing besides the shampoo bottle was found in the sock, but it was apparently used to attempt to pass drugs between floors, he said.
Regular deputies and the sheriff's Crime Suppression Team also looked for a different kind of contraband - the printed word, used to make weapons.
Earlier this month, the jail stopped accepting magazines and books for inmates.
Capt. Johnson said inmates have been fashioning makeshift weapons from rolled up publications.
"We're not going to have inmates hurting other inmates or deputies," he said.
One such weapon seized by the sheriff's office, a baton more than an inch in diameter, was made by rolling a thick magazine and fastening it with adhesive labels from deodorant and shampoo bottles.
Capt. Johnson also said inmates have used magazines to conceal homemade weapons.
The captain said the lockdown was to end this afternoon.
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State prisoners clog county, official says
Augusta Chronicle,
It wasn't clear whether Mr. Donald's comments would defuse the issue of county jails housing a backlog of state prisoners, or even if he would be able to meet the goal. And Mr. Donald conceded that new measures, such as a proposal to toughen penalties on sexual predators, could complicate his plan.
"Our goal is to get as close to zero as we can in the next six months," Mr. Donald said.
Under state law, county jails are supposed to house the accused until they are convicted and sentenced. After sentencing, the state has 15 days to either take custody of the prisoners or begin paying $20 per day to the county.
According to a state audit, the department racked up $14.6 million in bills in the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Counties have argued for years that the payment rate, which hasn't changed since 1996, is too low.
Mr. Donald said his plan consisted mainly of converting recreation rooms into cells, putting eight to 10 beds in each of the rooms.
That would allow the state to relieve the backlog as it moves forward on $45 million in new prison construction proposed by Gov. Sonny Perdue in an effort to alleviate the situation with counties and cover the space needed for the sexual-predators crackdown.
But Sen. Regina Thomas, a Savannah Democrat who has introduced a bill to raise the fees paid to counties, said Mr. Donald's plan wouldn't solve the current problem.
"It's not going to happen tomorrow, and the counties are still suffering," she said.Ms. Thomas also blasted the governor's budget for including increases in the amount the state pays to private prisons to cover inflation. During Mr. Donald's presentation to members of a joint meeting of the House and Senate budget-writing committees, Ms. Thomas pointed out that the private prisons already receive larger payments than county jails even without the increases.
But Mr. Donald said the daily rate paid to county jails was set by the General Assembly, not the Department of Corrections.
"All we do is take the money and pay the community," he said.
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Medical
provider may lose contract
Sheriff mulls
firing firm in wake of inmate's death
The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution,
01/20/06
Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway is trying to decide whether to fire the county jail's medical provider.
The sheriff could decide to opt out of the county's $4.8 million annual contract with Prison Health Services. The company's performance was called into question in a scathing internal report on the 2005 death of a detainee. Harriet Washington, 43, who had been in the jail since June on a cocaine possession charge, died early on Oct. 17. She suffered from leukemia.
The report states that jail deputies and Washington's cellmates urged that she be taken to a hospital, but that their pleas were ignored by employees of the Tennessee- based health provider.
A letter from Washington's cellmates to Conway alleged that multiple requests that Washington be treated were ignored in the two days before her death.
Washington had not seen an outside doctor since July, according to jail records.
"Either party can opt out of the contract" with at least 10 days' notice, Conway said Thursday.
The contract states that any violation of its provisions or stipulations is grounds for termination.
Conway said he believes it would be possible to switch providers with a minimum of disruption, if that's what he decides to do.
The report particularly questions the actions of Brian Woodard, a licensed practical nurse for Prison Health Services who treated Washington over a two-day span that ended with her death.
Woodard could not be reached for comment Thursday.
He has been a licensed practical nurse since at least 1994, according to state professional license information.
Woodard resigned a week after Washington's death as a result of a separate, unrelated internal investigation into narcotics missing from the medical unit, the report says.
Conway said that case also will also factor into his decision on whether to keep Prison Health Services until its contract is up in September.
"I'm looking at the overall quality we're receiving from them," he said. "At this point, I don't have reason to believe it's not an isolated incident involving a bad employee."
Prison Health Services, one of the nation's top three private providers, serves 214,000 inmates in 310 facilities in 37 states, according to the company Web site.
Except for a three-year gap when another firm was in place, PHS has handled Gwinnett's inmate medical needs since 1991.
But the Brentwood, Tenn.-based company has had its share of problems.
A New York Times investigation last year found that substandard care contributed to at least 15 inmate deaths in 11 Florida jails over a 13-year span.
Nationwide, PHS is facing about 1,100 lawsuits, according to published reports.
The company already is named in at least two federal suits filed after Gwinnett inmates died in custody.
The county on Tuesday filed a cross-claim in Frederick Williams' wrongful death civil suit. Williams died after being repeatedly shocked with a Taser during a tussle with deputies. His family sued late last year.
A similar suit was filed by the family of Ray Charles Austin, who also died after repeated Taser shocks while in custody.
In court documents, county attorneys have pointed to Prison Health Services and Taser International. The cross-claim states that if anyone is found responsible for Williams' death, it should be the companies and not the county.
Washington's family is weighing its legal options.
"We are talking to a lawyer right now," said Riverdale resident Brenda McKibben, Washington's sister. "He's advised us not to say anything until we get all the facts."