Compiled by Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants-New York Chapter,
CURE-NY, PO Box 102, Katonah, NY 10536

updated June 5, 2006

    While the U.S. and New York State prison systems are better than some others around the world, and
     while some good progress has been made, we have a long way to go, because our systems are:    
   
    Excessively Punitive            

• The U.S. incarceration rate is the highest in the world, is higher  than at any previous time and is much higher than that of many advanced nations.
  
  
   Incarcerations per 100,000 population are:                       

  U.S.	724		Canada	116
  Russia	564		Germany	97
  South Africa	344		France	88
  Israel	209		Sweden	81
  England/Wales	145		Japan	60

                                                                                       The Sentencing Project, 2005
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   "15 to Life," by Anthony Papa

• There are now 6.9 million Americans incarcerated or on probation or parole, an increase of more than 275 percent since 1980.
   
• In 1980, 886 drug offenders were sent to state prison, 11% of the total commitments for the year. In 2005 the number of drug offenders sent to state prison was 5,835, 35.7% of the total.  In 2005 the number of violent offenders going to prison was 4,755, 29.1% of the total.  The Correctional Association of New York,  www.correctionalassociation.org/
   
• Between 1998 and 2000, 54% of NYS prison suicides occurred in SHUs (widely used 'Special Housing Units,' with maximum isolation and minimum human contact) or 14 times the rate in the (larger) general inmate population.  "Suicides High in Pison'Box'," Poughkeepsie Journal, December 16, 2001
   

Excessively Costly
 

• The annual costs for the New York State Department of Correctional Services rose from $450 million in 1982-83 to about $2.6 billion today.  The Correctional Association of New York,  www.correctionalassociation.org/
   
• It cost the state over $1.5 billion to build prisons to house drug offenders. The annual operating expense just for confining drug offenders comes to about $460 million per year.
   

• It costs about $32,000 to maintain a prisoner in a New York State prison for a year. By comparison, the cost of most outpatient drug treatment is about $2,700 to 4,500 per person per year. The cost of residential drug treatment is $17,000 to $21,000 per person per year.  The Correctional Association of New York,  www.correctionalassociation.org/
   

 Unjust and Racially Biased

• Studies have show that whites make up the vast majority of people who consume or sell drugs.  Yet, over 90% of the people in New York State Prisons for a drug offense are African-American or Latino.
  The Correctional Association of New York,  www.correctionalassociation.org/

Unhealthy
                ref.:  Kates, Cheryl, The Prison Environment, and Its Effect on Society, (2006)
 

• The HIV/AIDS rate is six times higher in state and federal prisons than it is in the general population
      Kantor, Elizabeth, MD (Feb. 2003). HIV transmission and prevention in prisons. HIV Insite. University of California, San Francisco.
   
• In 1998, between 98,000-148,000 soon to be released inmates were infected with HIV/AIDS
     Meeting of the expert panel on communicable disease. Health of the soon to be released inmate (1998). NCCHC, Chicago, Illinois.

   

• In 1999, active tuberculosis was detected in 12,000 U.S. inmates
  which, amounts to a rate that is fifty times that of non-incarcerated individuals
       Kates, Cheryl, The Prison Environment, and Its Effect on Society, (2006)
   
• The infection rate of hepatitis C in U.S.prisons is 9-10 times that in the general population
       Hughes T. and Wilson D.J. (2002). Inmates returning to the community after serving time in prison. Characteristics of release.
      Bureau of Justice Statistics Reentry Trends in the US..
   
• In 1999, up to 1.25 million inmates were released with hepatitis C
     Margolis, H. (2001). NCID, CD. Prevention and control of viral hepatitis in the community. Center for Disease Control Consultants Meeting.

  .

• These large concentrations of infectious diseases in our prisons are a growing menace to:
                                          inmates
                                          correctional staff
                                          entire communities

   
Missed Opportunities
 

• A Rand Corp. study found that drug treatment reduces serious crime 15 times more than mandatory minimums and 10 times more than conventional sentences.
  J.P. Caulkins, C.P. Rydell, W. Schwabe, And J. Chiesa, "Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences: Throwing Away The Key Or The Taxpayer's Money?" Rand study MR827-DPRC, 1997
   

• Another Rand Corp. study concludes that drug treatment is seven times more effective in cutting cocaine demand than local enforcement.
  C. Peter Rydell & Susan S. Everingham, "Controlling Cocaine: Supply Versus Demand Program," A Joint Study By The Rand Corp., The Us Army And The Office Of National Drug Control Strategy.
   

• Studies have shown that alternatives to incarceration programs are more effective in reducing recidivism. However, many local officials complain that the timing and level of state funding often varies from year to year, lending instability to these programs, whereas prisons have steadily continued to command larger and larger budgets.
  Scott Christianson, A Balancing Justice in New York State A Citizens' Fact Book in Criminal Justice, The League of Women Voters of New York State1999 p. 29
   

• A majority of NY State prisoners do not have a high school diploma.
  Joseph Califano, "Behind Bars: Substance Abuse And America's Prison Population," The National Center On Addiction & Substance Abuse At Columbia University, January 1998.
   

• An estimated 40% of NY State prisoners cannot read.
  Alton R. Waldon, Jr., "Unhealthy Choice," N.Y. State Senate Report, April 1996
   

• Quality education programs have consistently reduced recidivism by 16 to 60%.
  "The Impact of Correctional Education On Recidivism 1988-1994," Office Of Correctional Education, U.S. Dept. Of Education. Heidi L. Lawyer And Thomas D. Dertinger, "Back To School Or Back To Jail," ABA Criminal Justice, Winter 1993, P. 21
   

• The more education offenders receive, the lower their recidivism rates are.
  Mary Ellen Batiuk, "The State Of Post-Secondary Education In Ohio," Journal Of Correctional Education, Vol. 48, Issue 2, June 1997, Pp. 70-72.
   

• However, although evidence that inmates who receive educational training are less likely to return to prison, more than half of all state prison systems have reduced educational and vocational training since 1989.
  Joseph Califano, "Behind Bars: Substance Abuse And America's Prison Population," The National Center On Addiction & Substance Abuse At Columbia University, January 1998.
   
• All post-secondary education funding was terminated in 1995.

Family Disruption
 

•  In the U.S., more than six million children have parents under correctional supervision, either in prison, jail, on probation or parole, including two million children of parents in prison.
  The Correctional Association of New York,  www.correctionalassociation.org/
   
• Approximately 75% of the women prisoners in NY report that they are mothers. More than 11,000 children have a mother incarcerated in a New York jail or prison.  The Correctional Association of New York,  www.correctionalassociation.org/
   
• Fewer than half of imprisoned mothers (46%) and fathers (43%) report a personal visit with their children since going to state prison.  The Correctional Association of New York,  www.correctionalassociation.org/
   
• Juveniles tried as adults are more likely to be rearrested, and their new offenses are more likely to be felonies as compared with children who are tried as juveniles.
  The Correctional Association of New York, www.correctionalassociation.org/                             
   

2. FAITH COMMUNITIES CALL FOR JUSTICE

A moment of truth is at hand for criminal justice in New York State. Society has created a legal system that heaps injustice on the most vulnerable segments of our population; the poor, the powerless, the marginalized, and racial minorities. As people of faith, part of one human family, we are called to speak the truth in love, to point out the failings of the present criminal justice system, to identify injustice, and to envision a system of justice that is consistent with the central tenets of our faith, for everyone.

We bear witness to six elements of justice:

• First, criminal acts have consequences, including incarceration if needed.

• Second, we acknowledge the God-given capacity for redemption which lives in all human beings.

• Third, our focus must be on rehabilitation, not punishment or revenge.

• Fourth, we must help offenders work toward repentance and taking responsibility for their crimes.

• Fifth, we must act with compassion, forgiving and fostering healing - without confusing forgiveness with acceptance of the crime.

• Sixth, is fairness. The rule of law must be applied equally to all regardless of race, class, gender, citizenship, or income level.

Measured by these elements of justice, which are grounded in the basic tenets of our faith, the criminal justice system in New York State is in moral crisis. As people of faith, we believe the following principles must be adopted for the criminal justice system.

The system must:

1. Protect citizens from crime.

2. Apply the rule of law fairly, without regard to race, gender, citizenship, class, or income level.

3. Provide victims of crime with a meaningful role and an effective way to address their need for healing and to forgive.

4. Make rehabilitation, not punishment, the highest priority. Provide programs which facilitate accepting responsibility, repentance and redemption--all critical steps necessary to learning to live as a constructive member of a community.

5. Provide the incarcerated with the education and job skills they need to become productive members of society when they leave prison so they will not return to crime.

6. Provide substance abuse and mental health treatment to those who need it and for whom it would be more effective than incarceration.

7. Grant judges the latitude to tailor sentences to the circumstances of each crime rather than legislate unreasonably long or mandatory sentences.

8. Release incarcerated individuals who have demonstrated that they accept personal responsibility for their crimes and are ready to rejoin society.

9. Provide those who are released from prison with the support programs they need to make a successful transition from imprisonment to society. Ex-offenders must no longer be abandoned to the streets without shelter, skills, contacts, or resources.

As people and communities of faith, we can no longer accept the failures of the current system.

We hereby dedicate ourselves to the following tasks:

1. To apply the central tenets of our faith—the capacity for repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, transformation, redemption, and compassion—to those who are employed by and incarcerated within the criminal justice system.

2. To examine and expose the injustices of our criminal justice system.

3. To speak the truth in our places of worship regarding the failures of our criminal justice system.

4. To work for the creation of a criminal justice system that addresses the needs of the victims of crime.

5. To support the rehabilitation of incarcerated men and women and diligently assist them in successfully returning to society.

6. To actively oppose the racism and economic injustices in our society which lead to the incarceration of disproportionate numbers of people of color and the poor.

7. To urge our political leaders, others in positions of power, our congregations, and all people of good will to heed our call for the creation of a fair and impartial criminal justice system.

The Faith communities Call for Justice was developed by persons from the Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Methodist, Muslim, NY Theological Seminary, Presbyterian, and Quaker communities. To find the Steering Committee members, click Steering Committee

Individuals and communities of all faiths are urged to endorse this “Call”.
                  

To endorse “The Call,” contact Prison Communities International, 12 Huntville Rd, Katonah, NY, 10536, (914) 232 7566, pci19@optonline.net

3. In Response to the Litany of Problems Cited in the “Chilling Facts,”
and the Measured Indictment in “The Call,”
 The Justice Charter Requires a Better Balance

                              

BY EIGHTEEN POSITIVE STEPS
TOWARDS FAIR AND RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

Step 1. Set New Directions

Fair Justice:                                                           

Step 2. Judicial Discretion.
Step 3. Competent Defense
Step 4. Fair Sentencing.
Step 5. Retroactivity.
Step 6. Racial Justice.
Step 7. The Death Penalty.
Step 8. The Sick and Elderly.
Step 9. Special Housing Units (SHU’s).
Step 10. The Mentally Ill.
Step 11. Staff Misconduct

Prevention and Alternatives to Incarceration

Step 12. Community-Based Solutions.
Step 13. Alcohol and Drug Treatment.

Restorative In-Prison Programs

Step 14. Education.
Step 15. Prisoner Work.
Step 16. Family Preservation

Restorative Re-Integration Programs

Step 17. Parole Justice.
Step 18. Transitional Reintegration.

Step 1. Set New Directions.

1. Shift priorities towards greater fairness and human restoration rather than simply retribution.

 
2. Shift more emphasis to alternatives to incarceration, quality addiction treatment,  education, and job training,

3. Expand transitional reintegration services, affordable housing and healthcare.

Step 2. Judicial Discretion.

Restore judicial authority.    

Let judges decide: prison or drug treatment.

• With New York’s mandatory prison sentences, depending only on the weight of controlled substance carried, judges have little or no discretion in sentencing. Circumstances of the crime, and the relative role of the offender in the crime or in the criminal hierarchy cannot be considered by our judges.

  Mandatory sentencing schemes do not abolish discretion; they remove it from the judge’s hands and place it in the prosecutor’s office. Too often, whoever sets the charge—the district attorney—often determines the outcome of the case. In America’s adversarial criminal justice system, these laws distort the American criminal justice system.

  The drug laws have handcuffed judges, filled our prisons with minor drug offenders, and denied sufficient alternatives to offenders who need help.

   

• Judges' Quotes: Many different NYS judges are quoted as saying these laws have been:
  • "an atrocity; stupid and irrational and barbarous;"
    
  • "an inappropriate and outrageous sentence;"
    
  • "very unfair;"
    
  • "I am handcuffed;"
    
  • "I am required to impose a sentence you do not deserve;"
    
  • "unconscionable and barbaric;"
    
  • "revulsion felt;"
    
  • "disproportionate and excessive;"
    
  • "offend the constitutional proscription against cruel and unusual punishment;"

Step 3. Competent Defense.

Establish standards for public defense services provided in localities throughout the state, and thus facilitate a monitoring of those services.

•     Most NYS counties fail to provide adequate resources for the defense of the indigent. Ignored for too long, our system has propelled accused poorer citizens to wrongful conviction and incarceration.

Step 4. Fair Sentencing.

Reduce excessive sentence lengths for low-level,  non-violent drug offenders.

•      Minor Offenders. Nearly 55% of the drug offenders in NYS prisons today were convicted of selling or possessing only small drug amounts—under the 3 lowest felony categories.  Many minor dealers are drug abusers who sell to support their own habits.
  
  The drug laws’ weight provision provides an incentive to police and prosecutors to concentrate on minor dealers and users who are on the street with drugs in their possession, rather than on the drug trade’s major profiteers.
  
  Non-violent. According to official statistics, drug law offenders are overwhelmingly non-violent. Nearly 80% of drug offenders in prison have never been convicted of a violent felony.
   

    Savings: At $32,000 per year of incarceration, each one-year reduction in sentence length yields savings of $32 million for each 1000 future prisoners so affected.

 

Step 5. Retroactivity..

Make sentencing reform retroactive so that all current drug law offenders can petition the trial courts for review of their sentences.

• When injustice has reigned, and thousands of persons and their families are severely affected, a judicial review of each of those past errors must be done.

   

• Savings: Currently there are over 14,000 prisoners in New York State prisons on drug charges. Then, if only a fraction - say, 3500 old sentences of current prisoners were reduced by only one year, a one-time state savings of $112 million would be obtainable.

Step 6. Racial Justice.

Help to eliminate shameful racial injustices .

• NYS Drug Laws. Although studies show that the majority of drug users and sellers are white, over 90% of drug offenders in NY State prisons are African-American and Latino.

  This stark racial discrepancy occurs because our drug laws drive law enforcement to concentrate on poor communities of color where most drug transactions take place on the street and minor dealers and users are more easily arrested. Police generally ignore middle and upper-class areas where the majority of people buy and use drugs behind closed doors.

   

• Felony Disenfranchisement particularly hits African Americans since the criminal justice system itself suffers from racial injustice.
  • In six states that deny the vote to ex-offenders, one in four black men is permanently disenfranchised.

  • 1.4 million African American men are disenfranchised, a rate seven times the national average.

  • 48 states and the District of Columbia prohibit inmates from voting while incarcerated for a felony offense.

  •  In New York State, ex-offenders who have been released from prison are still disenfranchised as long as they remain on parole.
    
     

• Draining Power and Resources. New York has transferred thousands of minorities from its inner cities to remote prisons. Along with them go the government funding and electoral influence that are based on district populations. Minority neighborhoods see their resources and political influence diminish.

Step 7. The Death Penalty,

Seek an end to executions.

• A Failed System. 118 persons were exonerated and saved from death row since 1972, usually by non-system intervention.  

  Innocent people have been executed. A 1987 study published by the Stanford Law Review found at least 350 persons were mistakenly convicted of potentially capital crimes between 1900 and 1985. Of these innocent people, 130 were sentenced to death and 23 were executed.

  photo by Alan Pogue
   

• The death penalty is racist. People of color are more likely to be sentenced to death than whites, for the same crimes.

                             
   

• World View. Every democracy except the U.S.A. has abolished the death penalty or reserve it for treason. The U.S. joins China, Congo, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Egypt and some former Soviet Union countries that can execute large numbers of its citizens.

   

• The Turning Tide. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now have no death penalty. In addition, the New York and Kansas death penalty statutes were declared unconstitutional in 2004.

Step 8. The Sick and Elderly.

1. Make pay rates for correctional health care workers comparable to community levels.

2. Establish an independent oversight committee to assure quality health care in NYS prisons.

3. Provide compassionate (and economical) earlier supervised release for the elderly and seriously physically ill.       

• About 10,000 NYS inmates are infected with hepatitis C

  More than 6,000 NYS inmates are HIV-infected.

        In NYS, during the years of 1976-86, the increase in tuberculosis was six-fold.
                  (Kantor, 2003).

         Each year, about 29,000 prisoners return to NYS communities
   

• The health of prisoners is vital to the general public. Crowded prisons could become dangerous incubators of  communicable diseases, such as hepatitis and tuberculosis. AIDS may also be spread in prison from drug use or sexual activity. The general public is then exposed upon the prisoners' release.
   
• Unlike hospitals and clinics in the community, prison hospitals are not overseen and regulated by the New York State Department of Health. Essentially, prison health care workers are accountable only to prison authorities.
   
• It is difficult to recruit and retain qualified physicians, nurses and pharmacists for prison work. As a result, there are severe staff shortages in many prison clinics. 
                                           
• The cost of incarcerating elderly and infirm prisoners rises to about $60,000 per year, primarily because of high medical costs. Their recidivism rate is extremely low. They can be monitored at greatly reduced cost in community settings.

   

• Savings. Unnecessary incarceration costs can be saved in this compassionate geriatric early release procedure, amounting to many millions of dollars per year.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              photo by Alan Pogue                        

Step 9. Special Housing Units (SHUs).

Consistent with the views of the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International:

1. Prisoners should not be confined in SHUs unless they have engaged in highly dangerous or violent behavior, or otherwise pose a serious security risk.

2. The mentally ill and emotionally disturbed need treatment, not isolation, and should not be held in SHUs.
               provide mental-health assessment of inmates
                          prior to isolated confinement

1. Increase the use of specialized mental health courts to provide community treatment instead of incarceration where appropriate.

2. Increase psychological and psychiatric services in prisons to promote mental healing where possible. See also Step 9: Special Housing Units.

3. Provide adequate discharge plans for the ill being released.

• On any given day, there are close to 7,500 people with mental illness in New York State prisons and jails.
   
• People with mental illness, who have committed minor offenses, and desperately need treatment  have too often been simply incarcerated. While incarcerated, they are victimized, learn prison institution behaviors, lose contact with their families and community mental health treatment providers, and lose their housing, income and insurance.
   
• Good discharge planning, for the mentally ill, may require a referral to community treatment, insurance, or housing, and the support they need to remain in treatment, maintain their psychiatric stability and stay out of trouble.

Step 11. Staff Misconduct

1. Strengthen the process of Inmate Grievance Resolution Committees to fairly investigate and resolve inmate grievances.

• Staff misconduct – taking the form of physical abuse, sexual abuse, derisive and/or racial comments, harassment for filing grievances against officers, and falsification of charges – is reported in some NYS facilities.
   

• Valid claims of misconduct made by convicted felons are easy to refute and difficult to prove. Unless the incident is recorded on camera, it will be an inmate’s word against an officer’s. And when a particular inmate is known to file grievances, he may be subject to harassment by other officers.
   

• The process of preventing, substantiating, and responding effectively to staff misconduct remains a serious and complex problem that merits constant management attention and reform.
  
   

Step 12. Community-Based Solutions.

Expand restorative-justice ways of handling juvenile crimes:

1. Community Conferences.
   
2. Victim impact panels.
   
3. Mentoring.
   
4. Victim services.
    

• With attention to:
  • repair of injuries, relationships, and other damage.
    
  • the underlying causes of the offense (e.g., addictions, lack of employment skills, lack of moral or ethical base, and others).
  •  

• Key assumptions:
  • All parties should be included: the offender, the community, and the victims if they wish.
    
  • Accountability is based upon accepting responsibility and repairing the harm done.
    
  • Restoration, or making things right, replaces the imposition of punishment for its own sake as the highest priority of the system. Healing and rehabilitation would become more common.
    
  • Restitution, reparations, community service or other alternatives; incarceration only when necessary.

Step 13. Alcohol and Drug Treatment.

1. Insure that every sizable prison has quality staff in a certified substance abuse treatment program.

2. Expand alternatives to incarceration, - particularly high quality alcohol and drug treatment.

3. Complement with improved job training, and education programs.

Step 14. Correctional Education.

1. Increase the investment and payback from prisoner education.

2. Upgrade academic and vocational courses and facilities.

• About 55% of the prisoners in New York State prisons do not have a 
    high school diploma or GED.
   

•  An overwhelming body of research in the past decade demonstrates that
   all education of prisoners, - literacy, basic education, GED, vocational
   training, and post-GED vocational education, are highly cost-effective methods of reducing crime and restoring offenders as contributing members of the community.
  
                  photo by Alan Pogue
   

•  Compared to a Texas system-wide recidivism rate of 43%, The rate for those earning an Associates degree was 27% and for those earning a Baccalaureate degree the rate was 7.8%.

  State TAP grants for indigent prisoners seeking post GED education were eliminated in 1995 at the same time that Federal Pell grants for prisoners were eliminated.

   

• Savings: Reductions in recidivism for those taking correctional education, have largely been in the range of 15 to 45 percentage points, as compared with the recidivsm rates of comparable inmates who did not avail themselves of educational opportunities. Tens of millions of dollars in net annual savings result.

  For savings from a combination of education and treatment, see the CASA estimate in Step 13: Alcohol and Drug Treatment.

Step 15. Prisoner Work.

1. Promote the future employability of ex-offenders in jobs providing them a livable wage.

2. Expand on-the-job skill-building. Complement with vocational, life-skills, and academic education.

 3. Provide a wage for in-prison work, that allows deductions
for incarceration, restitution, family support, and savings for the time of release.
                                                                               
 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        “I Made This”  photo by Alan Pogue

• Living Wage employability reduces crime and cost, and increases national productivity.
   
• Evidence. A 1996 report from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, concerning a study of 7000 offenders, 8-12 years after release, produced two statistically significant conclusions. Inmates who worked in prison industries were 24 % less likely to recidivate throughout the observation period, while those who participated in either vocational or apprenticeship training were 33 % less likely to recidivate throughout the observation period

Step 16. Family Preservation.

1.  Families must be enabled to survive and to protect their children.
   Locate prisoners in prisons as close to home and family as possible.
    
2. Increase community-based supervision nearer to home, with work release and education release.
    
3. Achieve reforms of excessive sentencing and delayed parole, which needlessly hurt families.
    
4. Stop exorbitant inmate telephone charges. Stop huge telephone company kickbacks returned to DOCS at inmates’ family expense.  
    

• Family contacts are vital to recidivism reductions.
   

• Family isolation contributes to family disintegration.
   

•  Disruption of families by incarceration greatly increases the probability of children getting into trouble with the law.

• Too many families have been torn asunder, and too many people’s lives have been ruined by the unreasonably long sentences under NYS drug laws and   parole board practice that does not adequately recognize rehabilitation.
  
   

Step 17. Parole Justice.

     1. Return towards former parole-release rates; both morally justified and very cost-saving.

2. Restore Parole Board discretion for discharges from parole after years of parolee's successful reenty

Step 18. Transitional Reintegration.

1. To reduce recidivism, and hence cost, offenders should be offered additional incentives to prepare for release from prison, and community-based support for re-integrating into the community.

2. Barriers to vocational licenses and employment should be reduced.

3. Mentors can help greatly in the first six months.
 

• Merit Time, the possibility of earlier release in recognition of outstanding efforts at rehabilitation and service to others, remains a major incentive for prisoners to undertake and complete rehabilitation projects.
  
  We believe that most offenders are recoverable and should be encouraged, by merit time, to work for rehabilitation. Merit Time should be available to inmates serving both determinate and indeterminate sentences, and to both non-violent offenders and some one-time, once-violent offenders.

  Savings with Merit Time.  In NY State, we release about 20,000 prisoners back into society each year, of whom about half are labeled as “violent offenders.”  If only one-third of these once “violent offenders” earned such merit time, and if that reduced each sentence by only one year, then at $32,000 per year, the savings from that alone would be about $105 million per year.

   

• WORK RELEASE. Transition to a normal work-life is often difficult. A controlled transition, additional job training and state savings occur when model prisoners are assigned to lower-cost, community-based facilities on work release. A gradual, well-controlled re-entry, using work release, can reduce recidivism for both non-violent and some one-time, once-violent offenders.

   

• POST RELEASE PROGRAMS.

  The successful transitions of prisoners to become productive members of society can be greatly aided by post-release, community-based reintegration programs. Mentoring during the first six months can be life saving.

  Savings with Post Release Programs. Statistics from a 10 year study of 400 (often long-term) inmates that came into the community-based, Peter Young Housing, Industry, Treatment (PYHIT) Program, showed that it was 90% successful in keeping them from ever going back to prison. The average success rate of comparable inmates that did not participate in that program was only 30% to 40%.
  
   

• EMPLOYMENT BARRIERS

       No employment of license should be denied  because of a prior conviction of a criminal  offense unless:
         1) there is a direct relationship between that criminal offense and the license or employment sought; or
         2) the issuance of the license or granting  of employment would involve an unreasonable  risk  to property or
              safety

Conclusions.

• The "Chilling Facts About Our present System" open our eyes to the alarming injustices, racial bias, waste, and ineffectiveness of parts of our criminal justice system.
   
• The "Faith Communities Call for Justice" provides the moral base for concerted action to build a better criminal justice system embodying "the System Must" elements of justice therein proscribed.
   

• The "Eighteen Steps" provide clear and specific directions towards fairer and more restorative justice.

Step 1. Set New Directions.

Fair Justice:

Step 2. Judicial Discretion.
Step 3. Competent Defense
Step 4. Fair Sentencing.
Step 5. Retroactivity.
Step 6. Racial Justice.
Step 7. The Death Penalty.
Step 8. The Sick and Elderly.
Step 9. Special Housing Units (SHU’s).
Step 10. The Mentally Ill.
Step 11. Staff Misconduct.

Prevention and Alternatives to Incarceration

Step 12. Community-Based Solutions.
Step 13. Alcohol and Drug Treatment.

Restorative In-Prison Programs

Step 14. Education.
Step 15. Prisoner Work.
Step 16. Family Preservation

Restorative Re-Integration Programs

Step 17. Parole Justice.
Step 18. Transitional Reintegration.

All organizations promoting justice are urged to endorse the above Justice Charter. Send your statement of endorsement, along with the name of your organization and the name and email address of a contact, to Justice Charter at CURE-NY

Make this Justice Charter the platform for your campaign

for criminal justice reform in New York State.

 
Help to move our state away from excessive and expensive
over-reliance on punitive policies,
and towards a fairer and more restorative
criminal justice system.

References.

1. "New York Judges Speak Against the Rockefeller Drug Laws," Correctional Association of New York, December 2001.
2. New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, 40 N. Main St., Albany, NY 12203-1481, (518) 453 6797.
3. Reconciliation Network-Don’t Kill In My Name, 3 Manor Hill Dr., Fairport, NY 14450-2519.
4. "Suicides High in Prison ‘Box’," Poughkeepsie Journal, December 16, 2001.
5. "New York State Community Justice Initiative," NYS Council on Children and Families, (518) 473 9638.
6. "Drug Law Reform: How Dramatic the Impact," June 4, 2001, Legal Action Center, New York, NY.
7. "Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population," The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, (CASA) January 1998.
8. Annette Johnson, "Post Secondary Education and Reductions in Recidivism," Balancing Justice Task Force on Correctional Education, Balancing Justice In New York State Project, Kim Pathways, May 2001.
9. Saylor, William G., and Gaes, Gerald G., "PREP: Training Inmates through Work Participation, and Vocational and Apprenticeship Instruction," U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons, September 24, 1996.
10. Prison Families of New York, Inc., with family support groups in many cities, (518) 453 6659.
11. Families of Prisoners Support Project, American Friends Service Committee, Syracuse, NY, (315) 475 4822.
12. "Trends in State Parole, 1990-2000," Bur. Justice Statistics, Special Report, NCJ 184735.
13. Peter Young Housing, Industry, Treatment (PYHIT) Program, Albany (518) 465 8034.
14. Cephas Transitional Services, Rochester (585) 546 7472, Buffalo (716) 856 6131.
15. Barr, Heather, "Prisons and Jails: Hospitals of Last Resort," The Correctional Association of New York and The Urban Justice Center, 1999.
16. "Health Care in New York State Prisons;" A report of findings and recommendations by the Prison Visiting Committee of the Correctional Association of New York.

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