The Kansas House Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that requires Kansans who seek public assistance to undergo drug testing.

The New Mexico House voted 67-3 Saturday to approve a bill that makes using or possessing methamphetamine in a home where minors are present child abuse.

A new analysis by The Sentencing Project highlights the growth in the number of incarcerated parents and their children since 1991.  Incarcerated Parents and Their Children: Trends, 1991-2007 reviews data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and documents the growing impact of incarceration on children and families.
 
As of 2007, 1.7 million children had a parent in prison, an 82% increase from the figure of 936,000 in 1991. The racial/ethnic variation among this group is quite broad: 1 in 15 African-American children has a parent in prison, as does 1 in 42 Latino children and 1 in 111 white children. 
 
Due to the distance from home in which many parents are incarcerated - 62% of parents in state prisons are more than 100 miles from home - visits from children are declining over time.  In 2004, more than half of parents in state prisons and nearly half in federal prisons had never had a visit from their children.
 
To address the issues presented by these developments, The Sentencing Project recommends policy responses that include:

• Supporting parent-child relationships through programs such as that of the Bedford Hills, NY women's prison in which newborn babies can live with their mothers for a period of time.
• Revise legislation that impedes the prospects for successful reentry and uniting parents with children, such as the ban on receipt of welfare and food stamps for persons with drug convictions.
• Reconsider lengthy sentencing policies that are overly punitive and contribute to greater separation between parents and children.

The full report, Incarcerated Parents and Their Children, is available here.

Susan LeFevre was a Michigan teenager when she was arrested in 1974 for selling relatively small amounts of heroin to an undercover officer.

The purpose of this training is to identify and develop best practices in working with substance using clients affected by domestic violence, using a harm reduction model. Victims of domestic violence encounter numerous barriers to accessing appropriate and comprehensive social, legal, medical and other supportive services. A particular focus of the training will address legal and/or immigration issues pertinent to substance users whose lives are impacted by domestic violence. Also to be discussed are the effects substance use has on the dynamics of power and control for persons involved in a relationship where physical/sexual/emotional abuse are occurring.

Phillip S. Smith, Writer/Editor

[Courtesy of New York Campaign for Telephone Justice]

1) REPORTBACK on Walton v. NYSDOCS discussion from meeting
2) GTL: New contact info for Spanish-speaking customer service supervisor
3) MEETINGS: Scheduled changes in NYCTJ meetings
4) GET INVOLVED: Upcoming Advocacy Days in Albany to Repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws and Speak out for Women Prisoners
*********************
1. REPORTBACK on Walton v. NYSDOCS discussion from meeting

Rachel Meeropol, CCR Staff Attorney on Walton v. NYSDOCS reported on the recent dismissal of the cases constitutional claims by Judge Ceresia of the NY State Supreme Court. She mentioned that she will be appealing Judge Ceresia’s decision to the Appellate Division in the next month and will likely make oral arguments before the Appellate Division in the early summer, and will hear a decision from them by the end of the summer. If the Appellate Division overturns Judge Ceresia’s decision, Walton v. NYSDOCS will proceed to discovery and trial. If the Appellate Division affirms Judge Ceresia’s decision, Ms. Meeropol will appeal to the NY State Court of Appeals – the state’s highest court – and, if this is the case, we will not receive a final decision until this time next year.

All of this said, we spent some time at our meeting discussing how family members can help to increase the likelihood of the case succeeding. The last time Ms. Meeropol argued before the Court of Appeals (last January), the Justices immediately asked her, “how does Gov. Spitzer’s decision to eliminate the contract’s commission and reduce the rates affect this case?” She told them that it does not impact the case, because, while Gov. Spitzer’s decision to eliminate the kickback and reduce the rates (and the later passage of the Family Connections bill) has a positive impact on families moving forward, it does not provide relief for the prior unlawful taxing of prison families from the contract.

During the meeting, then, we agreed that we need to mobilize families over the next year to continue pressing the issue that justice has not completely been served in regards to the NY prison telephone system. Families and advocates still need their money back! Some ideas we discussed are rallying outside the courthouse at upcoming arguments in Walton v. NYSDOCS, packing the courtroom at upcoming arguments in Walton v. NYSDOCS, conducting a surveying and publishing a report on how much money NY State stole from prison families over the years, and writing OP-EDs to our local newspapers. Please stay tuned for upcoming opportunities to engage in all of these activities. We need to make as much noise over the next year as possible if we want to win this potential class action lawsuit!

2. GTL: New contact info for Spanish-speaking customer service supervisor

For those who have family members or are advocates for family members who speak Spanish, please take note that Denisce DeLeon is the Spanish language customer service representative at Global Tel*Link. She can be reached at denisce.deleon@gtl.net. I have not yet received her direct phone line, but please feel free to contact her via email for her phone number so that you may share it with Spanish-speaking families who have grave customer service problems with Global Tel*Link.

3. MEETINGS: Scheduled changes in NYCTJ meetings

At our meeting last week, we discussed whether or not monthly meetings are still useful for families, advocates and allies. It seems that, since we have won much of our demands, monthly meetings are not as necessary as they once were; however, people expressed interest in continuing meetings when there are significant developments in the prison telephone system and the remaining lawsuit. As such, we decided that our NEXT meeting will be at the end of March 2008, so that we can discuss the NEW prison telephone contract which will go into effect April 1, 2008. While we do not have any information yet about what changes will result from the new contract, the new contract will have to comply with the Family Connections bill, passed last summer, and we hope it will include many of families’ demands that we brought before the Department of Correctional Services last year.

The mere presence of illegal drugs in a home is not sufficient to allow prosecution under a state law that says children are endangered when exposed to them, the Utah Supreme Court ruled last Frida

Ronnie Naulls never saw it coming.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Federal crack cocaine penalties overstate the harmfulness of the drug, apply mostly to low-level offenders, and hit minorities hardest, concludes the U.S. Sentencing Commission in a new report to Congress, "Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy," released today, May 15. Based on these findings, the Commission maintains it's consistently held position that current crack cocaine penalties significantly undermine the congressional objectives of the Sentencing Reform Act, including fairness, uniformity and proportionality. The solution? Congress should act, says the report.

Mary Price, vice president and general counsel of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), a national, nonpartisan sentencing reform organization, says, "The prisoners, children and families torn apart by these unjustifiably harsh penalties are watching closely and will welcome crack sentencing reforms that restore some justice to crack penalties. Only Congress can change our harsh mandatory minimum crack laws. Lawmakers should not squander the important opportunity presented by the most recent set of findings and recommendations by the Sentencing Commission. The time is ripe for reform, especially given the bipartisan support for crack sentencing reform that has emerged in recent years."

In its report, the Commission again unanimously and strongly urged Congress to act promptly on the following recommendations:

(1) Increase the five-year and ten-year mandatory minimum threshold quantities for crack cocaine offenses to focus the penalties more closely on serious and major traffickers,

(2) Repeal the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack cocaine and

(3) Reject addressing the 100-to-1 disparity by decreasing the five-year and ten-year mandatory minimum threshold quantities for powder cocaine offenses, citing no evidence to justify such an increase in quantity-based penalties for powder cocaine offenses.

In addition, the Commission seeks authority to incorporate any future changes to the mandatory minimums for crack into the federal sentencing guidelines.

FAMM strongly supports these recommendations and looks forward to working with members of Congress to implement these reasonable and long-overdue reforms to crack cocaine sentencing. Visit www.ussc.gov to read the report.

[Courtesy of WOLA]

Washington, DC April 7-- In the last 15 days, fighting between the Colombian military and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the activities of new illegal armed groups vying for control of drug routes is reportedly generating the internal displacement of an estimated 7,000 people. The Colombian Department of Nariño is experiencing one of the worst protection and humanitarian assistance crisis since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe began his second term in office. The U.S. financed aerial herbicide spray program (fumigations) compounds and exacerbates the myriad of hardships that Afro-Colombian communities are already facing: racism, disadvantaged access to state programs, food insecurity due to the internal armed conflict, internal displacement and vulnerability to human rights violations by the armed groups.

Atkinson Memorial Church, Unitarian Universalist, will host the Oregon premiere of Perversion of Justice, by filmmaker Melissa Mummert that documents one woman’s story of redemption behind bars. Through the story of Hamedah Hasan, Perversion of Justice examines the legal system that calls for excessive prison time for crimes of association.

[Courtesy of Center for Constitutional Rights]

Hello,

Sorry for the delay in further updating you about April 1 changes to the prison telephone contract and our efforts to reach out to families statewide. We FINALLY got word from DOCS about what families should expect on April 1, 2007 (please see below). Because it took so long to get answers from the Governor and DOCS, our postcards have not yet arrived at the office! We will be getting the postcards tomorrow to use for outreach in NYC. If you contacted me earlier this wee wanting some sent to you, we will still send to you in hopes that you will distribute in your community as early as possible. In the meantime, if you are planning to reach out in your community THIS WEEKEND and are able to print the attached flyer (English & Spanish text included), please do so! It has all of the information that is mentioned in the postcard.

[Courtesy of Lauren Melodia, Center for Constitutional Rights]

Hello,

April 1, 2007 is fast approaching, and we need to keep the public pressure strong and also better educate families and their loved ones inside about what changes to expect and how to get involved in the NYCTJ. I’m writing today to let you know what plans we made on the monthly NYCTJ Family Member Conference call last night. Please let me know if you are interested in participating in our planned outreach and actions in NYC the weekend of April 1, 2007 or if you’d like to plan your own event/outreach in your area. We will send you materials, if you make a commitment to SPREAD THE WORD.