MIDDLESEX COUNTY PRISON COORDINATING COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER

MCPCC met on Feb. 12, 2003 in West Newton. Mary Ann Donaldson, Beverly Wilkins, Tom Crowther, Bill Bergquist and Marjorie Moerschner were present. Lee Gartenberg, Inmates' Attorney, Middlesex County Sheriff's Department, was our guest speaker.

This newsletter is a bit longer than usual because we wanted to include something about Lee's recent visit to Siberia.

Budget Concerns

Lee spoke first about the state budget, filed by the governor as House Bill 1. This year's version is big on "restructuring", which usually means cuts. Under this bill, people in need will probably have access to far fewer services.

The sheriff's department is included in a separate budget and will probably not be affected until the end of this fiscal year. There will continue to be money to run the prison but programs may suffer. The mental health grant at Billerica was not refunded and the social workers have gone. Dr. Sperber is there part time, and another psychiatrist visits the Cambridge Jail. The deacons, chaplain, and Lee try to fill the gaps.

There are also some vacant slots for case workers at Billerica. The case workers who are there are very good. Cut-backs will affect prisoners especially when they get out, when fewer services may be available to them. The office of community corrections in Lowell are functioning well and Lee hopes they will be refunded. A lack of reintegration services would affect everyone.

One of the governor's proposals would greatly reduce the number of lawyers attached to various State agencies. The rest would be consolidated into a state law firm under the solicitor general. Legal specialists could be lost; the hiring of private law firms at a much greater expense would result.

The Cambridge Jail is very crowded now. Cases are moving very slowly through the courts, which experienced cutbacks in personnel last year- and will probably experience more. The Clerk's Office at Lowell District Court has to close at noon so they can spend the rest of the day just on processing paperwork. There are cutbacks in court reporters and interpreters as well as clerks in many courts, including Superior Court.

Police Training,

Lee is Chair of The Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section Council of The MA Bar Association which has prepared a legislative package for the approval of the MBA, one provision of which would require police to be trained to address mental health issues. Some police departments are already doing this. The Criminal Justice Training Council oversees and sets state-wide standards for police training and has a training apparatus for police departments.

Cuts in police protection seem inevitable.

Prisoners' right to wear religious symbols.

A case has come down from the appeals court which involved a Muslim prisoner in a state facility who wanted to wear a kufi, the skullcap which is worn as a religious symbol. Prison officials had forbidden him to do so for security reasons- he might be hiding something under it. The appeals court's decision established a prisoner's right to wear or display things which are fundamental to his religious practice. There are limitations- rosary beads should be all one color, for example, because gangs sometimes identify their members by certain colors or color combinations of beads. Prisons have to balance the constitutional rights of the incarcerated with security matters.

Judicial conduct.

Most Massachusetts judges are outstanding, in part because they are appointed, not elected, and can be above politics.

Romney has appointed a judicial conduct commission and appointed good people to it.

Innocence Legislation.

Lee brought in a copy of a bill entitled "Legislation relative to compensation for certain erroneous convictions," otherwise known as innocence legislation. This bill was filed by Rep Patricia Jehlen of Somerville as a response to the many convicted persons who've later been found innocent because of DNA or other evidence. Those who qualify would receive compensation not to exceed $400,000, plus some education benefits.

Immigration issues.

Lots of prisoners have immigration issues. Even if they have become citizens, they're deportable if they are convicted of aggravated felony or crimes of moral turpitude.

Convicted immigrants must serve their sentences first, are then taken into custody by the INS and eventually given a hearing. Then they are usually deported. They are not givenl lawyers but may hire one. Lee tries to get men with such problems in touch with appropriate services, though the services don't usually provide lawyers. There are also pamphlets available about immigration law in Spanish and in English.

Child Support.

Men in prison still have to pay child support, and many men owe a lot in back payments. A deal has been worked out with the Dept. of Revenue whereby the amount of child support a man must pay is reduced to $50. a month. When he leaves prison he resumes paying this amount, but if he gets a job, that is not an overwhelming burden. Many men who had been shirking payments are now getting back into the system. State Aid to Dependant Children makes up the difference.

* * * * * * *

Lee was chosen to go to Tomsk in Siberia for a week last October as part of a delegation of 7 MA judges and lawyers sponsored by the Russian American Rule of Law Project, funded by the US Agency for International Development through the Library of Congress. The American Bar Association was also involved. The project partners U.S. states with Russian regions to help Russia

democratize its justice system. The Russian Federation recently changed its criminal code from the old system in which the judge was essentially also the prosecutor, to an adversarial system

like our own, with prosecution and defense arguing the case before a jury. Jury trials have not been used in Russia since czarist days.

Tomsk was a closed city during the cold war because its universities were engaged in nuclear research. Now the people of Tomsk are delighted to have contact with the outside world again,

and the delegation was received with the greatest warmth and hospitality.

Tomsk State University has 2000 law students and their professors are leading them into change. The delegation watched a mock trial in which one student argued for the prosecution and

one for the defense. Lee found this an amazing reversal of the old USSR system of justice.

The delegation was able to visit a prison, an event which was covered by Tomsk TV. Lee was delighted to find some law students from a prison law clinic there working with the prisoners, and he was able to talk to them. They were helping prisoners with criminal and civil legal issues, but were not allowed to do any prisoners' rights advocacy regarding conditions in the prison. Lee would like to see that happen. The conditions in the prison were not great. Particularly troubling is the medical care. There is a lot of drug resistant TB in Russian prisons but a group called the New York Health Institute is in the Tomsk Prison under a grant, trying to deal with this. There are also many prisoners with AIDS, and unfortunately they are not getting treatment because there is no money for it.

Members of the delegation demonstrated litigation, with the polish that comes with experience, before the students who acted as the jury, and who broke into applause at the end. The concept

of performing in front of a jury is new to the students, as is the concept of plea bargaining. The Russian people are also going to have to be willing to serve on juries- this will be a big test of how well the new system will work.

Lee felt that people have confidence in Putin. The economy has improved. Corruption is still a fact of life, but somewhat less so now than under Yeltsin.

Lee was impressed that there was really no crackdown on civil liberties after the theatre incident in Moscow.

Last summer several judges and a lawyer from Tomsk came here- Lee gave them a tour of the Cambridge Jail- and another group will come later this year, so the involvement continues.

Lee found this experience tremendously exciting and worthwhile, and we greatly appreciate hearing about it!

NEXT MEETING: WEDNESDAY MARCH 12 at 7 PM

SECOND CHURCH UCC, 60 HIGHLAND STREET, WEST NEWTON