Families

[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 [email protected]. 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.

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.