MIDDLESEX COUNTY PRISON COORDINATING COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER

MCPCC met on April 14, 2004 in West Newton. Those present were Mary Ann Donaldson, Beverly Wilkins, Tom Crowther, Elizabeth Woodbridge, Bill Bergquist, Dorothy Weitzman and Marjorie Moerschner. Our special guest was Lee Gartenburg, Middlesex County inmates' attorney.

Lee spoke first about recent changes in the Dept of Corrections. He is pleased at the appointment of Cathy Dennehy as the new commissioner. This was not a political appointment - she has risen through the ranks and is well qualified. She has a more progressive attitude than we have seen in the DOC, and will change things if possible, not an easy task.

The DOC has now contracted with the U. of MA to provide health care for state prisons. This is better than using an out-of-state organization. Billerica and all county facilities will continue to provide their own health care.

The commission headed by Scott Harshbarger to study MA Corrections has not yet issued its report. Lee is hoping for recommendations that will change the structure and culture of the system. Change has to come from the top down, and it will happen slowly. The DOC provides regulations which all correction systems, including county systems must follow, but does not run the county systems- the sheriffs do that. The DOC does, however, set the tone.

Lee is not sure where the Romney administration will come out on criminal justice Issues. There are some good signs- Lt Gov. Healy seems interested in reintegration and the new Secretary of Public Safety, who has been an academic, a street cop and a police chief, understands the issues- but the budget doesn't provide the money to enable good things to happen. Severe tax cuts have left the justice system in rather dire straits. The courts are seriously understaffed, The Lowell District Court is overwhelmed and Roxbury District Court doesn't even have anyone to answer the phone. Lee is worried about further cuts.

State Sen. Cynthia Creem proposed some time ago that qualified inmates who have served 2/3 of their mandatory sentence in prison be allowed to serve the remaining sentence outside, under probation. Right now they must serve the mandatory minimum in prison. This would save the state a great deal of money- one estimate is $30 million a year- it would make sense especially for drug offenders, and would cut down on recidivism. This legislation hasn't gone anywhere and Senator Creem recently held a news conference to draw attention to it. The MA Taxpayers Association is among those who view this legislation favorably.

Mandatory sentences have a minimum and a maximum length and judges must prescribe sentences within those guidelines . The mandatory minimum for selling drugs in a school zone, for example (not necessarily to a school child and no matter how small an amount) is two years. This falls hardest on inner city offenders, mostly minorities, because the entire inner city is usually a school zone. Prisons are not allowed to put inmates serving a sentence for this offense into a work release program, though they would benefit from the work experience.

Parole rates are up, which is good news. The buzzword now is reintegration, which starts with planning for release while the offender is still in prison. After care includes supervision and programs. A community reintegration center is in the works under a grant. There is already a state-funded office of community corrections in Cambridge and another one in Lowell and they are

being increasingly used for those on parole and probation. Reintegration is the most cost-effective way to prevent recidivism.

At Billerica, Lynda Justice, recognized statewide for her expertise, directs the prison's education programs. These include adult basic education, special education, computer classes and ESL. She will be running another MCPCC-sponsored writing contest soon. In addition she and her staff administer the MCAS tests and the tests given new inmates to determine their basic reading and math skills. She is understaffed and very busy, but always enthusiastic about her work.

Tom noted a study showing that every $1 spent on education in prison saves $2 spent on recidivism.

The new Billerica facility is well under way. It's pod-style, the latest thing in prison design, and consists of a number of self-contained pods each of which have cells around a central unit housing the officer in charge. This is particularly good for men in special programs like drug rehab and violence intervention. The old building will not be torn down. It will be used for

offices and will probably also provide beds for the overflow from the Cambridge Jail. The logistics of running a new and very differently structured facility will require a great deal of planning and that is already going on.

The Parole Board, of which Maureen Walsh is now the chairman has, with Lee's legal assistance and after public hearings, amended the regulations allow some inmates with certain types of mandatory sentences to receive earlier parole. Lee also trained the Parole Board staff in how to calculate the amended regulations to achieve the earliest release dates.

Lee described state regulations, especially those relating to disciplinary procedures.

There are 3 types of state regulations:

1. laws passed by the state legislature

2, case law made by the courts

3. regulations made by executive agencies with

appointed, not elected, heads.

The DOC and the Parole Board are under the Secretary of Public Safety, a cabinet post appointed by the governor. The agencies have the power to make regulations, to hold public hearings on them and to publish the final drafts in the Code of MA Regulations, at which point they take effect. Agency regulations rank the lowest of the three types, and may be overruled by the legislature or declared unconstitutional by the courts.

DOC regulations (Title 103) are divided into those which apply to state inmates and state facilities and those which apply to county inmates and facilities like Billerica. These include regulations pertaining to disciplinary action and "special management" that is, inmates in segregation, protective custody, etc.

The sheriffs' departments responsible for each county must comply with state regulations for counties. The DOC inspects to make sure that regulations are being followed, but each county may handle disciplinary and other matters somewhat differently.

DOC regulations must comply with statutory and constitutional law, but in the last 20 or 30 years courts have been increasingly unwilling to intervene or define what correction officials can or cannot do.

At Billerica, minor infractions may be handled informally, as agreed upon between the inmate and the correction officer. In this case the infraction does not go on the inmate's record. Informal discipline usually means assignment to a work detail or restriction of a privilege for a short time. Inmates are not locked in their cells without a formal hearing. On the county level, an attorney is not present at a hearing. If the inmate appeals the hearing's decision, Lee will provide a lawyer.

If a hearing is decided upon, the hearing must be held within 72 weekday hours, unless the inmate is given notice of a continuance of 48 hours. Present at the hearing are the inmate, a disciplinary officer who runs the hearing and who has been trained for this function, and any witnesses there may be. There are usually 8 or 9 hearings a week and 1 or 2 appeals. Lee feels he system works pretty well.

Usually inmates being disciplined are sent to a unit on the 3rd tier where isolation and segregation inmates are kept. The "hole", several dark cells on a lower level of the prison, is not often used these days and only if the 3rd tier unit is very overcrowded or for very serious offenses.

Disciplinary isolation is for those found guilty of a disciplinary report. Segregation is a classification status, for those who have had problems being in the general population- for starting fights for example- and usually has more privileges. Isolation is for a shorter time. In a House of Correction the maximum time by statute is 10 days for one infraction. If a prisoner in found guilty of an offense involving several different infractions, by law the most he can get is 30 days. This is unusual, but 10 or 20-day detentions are not uncommon.

Prison officials have almost complete discretion when it comes to classification. (Deciding where an inmate should be in the prison.) The classification system should work toward reintegration, but has to be mindful of safety in prison.

Billerica, Plymouth, Suffolk, Worcester and Hamden Counties have inmates' attorneys, though optimally all counties should have them. Billerica was the first as the result of a class action suit and was something of a model for other counties.

Each inmate has to be given a condensed version of the regulations when he is admitted. It's included in the orientation packet which tells him what services and programs are available to him. Complete copies of the regulations and the MA Code are available in the prison library.

Lee spends a day with correction officers-in-training explaining prisoners' rights.

Every inmate has a caseworker. The information given by the inmate to his caseworker is confidential.

More and more inmates are coming in with mental health problems. There is really no other place for them to go, but prisons aren't set up to treat these problems.

Dorothy noted that the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition will have a symposium in September on just this problem.

Programs trying to help substance abusers must expect a high failure rate and must be willing to take people back even after relapses. Some programs seem to have a wonderful success rate

simply because they accept only low-risk candidates.

Lee brought us up to date on Tomsk, and on Russia's attempts to improve the courts. Although Putin is now more firmly in charge than ever and there are new restrictions, especially on the

media, the courts seem to be growing more liberal and are beginning to be perceived as fair and impartial. Judicial exchanges between the US and Russia continue, Russia has set up an arbitrage court, as business becomes more important there.

Many thanks to Lee! His yearly visits are always highlights.

Business Meeting.

Visiting someone in prison is always a traumatic experience for family members. MCPCC would like to find ways to make such visits a little easier, and Beverly will write to the Sheriff to

ask what, if anything, can be done.

She noted a program in a Virginia prison called RISE. It's an all day program run by the prisoners which includes Houses of Healing and Yoga.

A new program at Norfolk called Growing Together is looking for men's groups to visit and engage the inmates in conversation. It's intended to lead up to a Houses of Healing program.

The camp at Moose River, Maine, for children of prisoners has closed for financial reasons, but Clovis Turner is still placing children in regular camps. Cost: $400 a week per child.

NEXT MEETING: MAY 12, 2004 at 7PM

SECOND CHURCH IN NEWTON 60 HIGHLAND STREET, WEST NEWTON