It's public defender intern season. Here's a report from Alaska, from Justin of Baylor Law School:
Aside from the legal community, Alaska is a great place to intern because of the numerous opportunities for outdoor activity here... It’s not unusual to see a moose or two on your way to work, and sometimes they even come right up to the office.
A number of tributes to long-time Wichita County public defender John Curry, who died last week aged 47:
From the Times Record News - City mourning loss of Curry
From KFDK (with video) - John Curry Obituary and Memorial Service Planned for Former Public Defender
(those who know me personally will know how this big man's death touches me personally)
Light a candle for the colleagues in Ciudad Juarez. From the Washington Post:
Defense Attorneys In Lawless Juarez Besieged on All Sides - 'This Is Nothing Like Before. I Don't Even Take Narco Cases. Not Anymore.'
The Mexican criminal defense attorney Salvador Urbina... no longer sleeps in the city where he practices law. It is far too dangerous. He now spends his nights across the border in a bland suburb of El Paso and commutes to the deadliest city in Mexico each morning. After he began receiving death threats, Urbina got his family out...
From the Houston Chronicle:
Idaho ends contract with GEO-run Texas prison
The Idaho Department of Correction has terminated its contract with private prison company The GEO Group and will move the roughly 305 Idaho inmates currently housed at a GEO-run facility in Texas to a private prison in Oklahoma...
Probing article on the Idaho archipelago, from Andrea Jackson of the Twin Falls Times-News -
Families feel loss as out-of-state prison population grows
- and the same article picked up by the Houston Chronicle:
Idaho's out-of-state prison population grows
Pam Drashner visited her husband every weekend in prison, until she was turned away one day because he wasn't there. He had been quietly transferred from Boise to a private prison in Sayre, Okla. She never saw him again.
In July, she went to the Post Office to pick up his ashes, mailed home in a box. He died of a traumatic brain injury in Oklahoma, allegedly assaulted by another inmate. David Drashner was one of hundreds of male inmates Idaho authorities have sent to private prisons in other states. About 10 percent of Idaho's inmates are now out-of-state...
Debate in the Tyler Morning Telegraph:
Wingnut wishes physical harm on family of criminal defense lawyer.
Criminal defense lawyer's 14-year-old daughter responds.
Winner: 14-year-old.
Update: thanks to Scott, Grits for Breakfast guru and Tyler townie, this item made it all the way to Fark!
From The Defense Perspective:
Race Is Not The Problem
The main problem, of course, lies with the lawyer's work ethic... not the race of the accused. When lawyers simply want to turn the case for their paltry fee the system suffers. As long as defense lawyers continue to use financial disincentives... as an excuse for cutting corners the most needy in our justice system fail to get the quality representation they deserve...
From the Houston Chronicle:
55 Idaho inmates sidetracked during move from Texas prison
Fifty-five Idaho inmates who were moved out of a troubled Texas prison on Thursday have been forced by a contract delay to make a temporary stop before going to their final destination... More than 500 Idaho prisoners are in Texas and Oklahoma due to overcrowding at home. The prisoners being moved are bound for the Val Verde Correctional Facility in Del Rio, Texas, after more than a year at the Dickens County Correctional Center in Spur, Texas, where one Idaho inmate killed himself in March.
Because a Texas county official has yet to approve the contract to house Idaho prisoners at Val Verde, they have first been sent 100 miles away... There, they will sleep in groups of up to 10 men on makeshift cots in day rooms until resolution of the contract allows them to complete the final 250-mile leg of their journey to Val Verde...
Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke said he learned only last week that a Texas county judge wanted a lawyer to look at the contract one last time. "It was something we did not anticipate," Reinke said. "GEO is paying the transport costs..."
This is just the latest uprooting of Idaho inmates since they were first shipped out of state in 2005. Since then, they have bounced from prison to prison in Minnesota and Texas amid allegations of abusive treatment...
Despite the stopover, GEO has a hefty incentive to make sure the move to Val Verde goes smoothly, Reinke said. The company hopes to win contracts with Idaho to build a large new prison here to help accommodate the state's 7,400 inmates. "They're really monitoring this closely, and doing a good job at this point," Reinke said. "It's not a lot different than triple bunking..."
Great: when you get to the intersection of prison politics and institutional indifference, the two start hot-bunking.
From the Terrell Tribune:
Just a year old, Kaufman County PD's office serves as a model for others around state
A year ago when Andrew Jordan was appointed as Kaufman County's first public defender, he had no staff, no desk and a daunting charge from commissioners... “I really thought when I agreed to accept the position that somewhere there was ‘The Idiot's Guide to Creating a Public Defender's Office,' ” Jordan said. “That book doesn't exist so, to that extent, it was overwhelming trying to start from scratch...”
Via I Was The State.
From the Houston Chronicle:
Inmate's mother to speak against private Texas prisons
The mother of an Idaho inmate who killed himself in a private Texas prison on March 4 plans to urge Texas lawmakers to stop accepting out-of-state prisoners at their for-profit lockups. Shirley Noble said she expects to speak Friday to the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee. She filed a $500,000 negligence claim against Idaho in August in Scot Noble Payne's death...
Grits says:
Friday's Texas Senate hearing on private prison oversight and the Geo Group just got more interesting...
By e-mail from Grits for Breakfast, your Texas-based source for Idaho corrections news:
"Mysterious illness" afflicting inmates at private Del Rio prison that Idaho corrections director called a "pleasant surprise"
So let's get this straight: Just a week ago the Director of the Idaho Department of Corrections visited the Geo Group private prison facility in Del Rio and pronounced it a "pleasant surprise" compared to what he'd expected. Now, we learn from the San Antonio Express News medical writer Don Finley ("Fatal Del Rio illness baffles authorities," Aug. 10) that even while he was there, officials already knew about: "A mysterious illness at a Del Rio detention center that has killed two inmates and hospitalized two others..."
Very big expatriate - Idahoan thanks to Scott Henson of Grits for Breakfast for his watchdog work in general, and for his concern for some benighted Idahoans languishing in Texas private prisons:
The blog Texas Prison Bidness has updates on what's happening with Idaho prisoners who were pulled out of the Geo Group facility in Dickens County after a suicide prompted an investigation of poor conditions:It's a shame when a blogger in Austin cares more about the welfare of some Idahoans than the governor in Boise, but as Scott noted last week:
I guess corrections officials in Idaho figured, "out of sight, out of mind." I often think that's how a lot of folks feel about people in prison, generally...
Bonus link goes to this news item: Prison firms give cash to pols to spur Idaho privatization
Update 07/15/07: fellow Idahoan The Mountain Goat is raising the alarm back home: The Growing Idaho Inmate Scandal
From the Seattle P-I:
Suicide shows squalid conditions in privately run Texas prison
After months alone in his cell, Scot Noble Payne finished 20 pages of letters, describing to loved ones the decrepit conditions of the prison where he was serving time for molesting a child. Then Payne used a razor blade to slice two 3-inch gashes in his throat...
Payne's suicide on March 4 came seven months after he was sent to the squalid privately run Texas prison by Idaho authorities trying to ease inmate overcrowding in their own state. His death exposed what had been Idaho's standard practice for dealing with inmates sent to out-of-state prisons: Out of sight, out of mind...
Link via Randy Stapilus' Ridenbaugh Press:
Idaho behind bars
Some years back, when Idaho started getting into the business of outsourcing prisoner control to private contractors, we predicted that investigative scandal stories would be on their way, the only question being how long that would take. Took a little longer than we thought...
Best. Lawyer. Interview. Ever. From CBC's As It Happens:
LOUD DONKEY Duration: 00:06:34
Texas oilman John Cantrell was fed up with his neighbour's braying, pooping donkey. So he took his beef with Gregory Shamoun to court. But he didn't expect to have his objections overmuled.
Mr. Shamoun, a lawyer, decided there was only one way to deal with the situation. So yesterday, he hauled his ass into the courtroom, and let Buddy speak for himself.
We reached Mr. Shamoun in Dallas, Texas.
(Click on "Listen to Part 1 of As It Happens," then fast-forward to 18:45)
From Texas' African-American News and Issues:
Black Need Private Attorneys, Not "Public Pretenders"
We as a Black people are consumer drunks when it comes to wanting the best of the best...
However, (w)hen we are nailed by law enforcement and need criminal defense attorneys, we opt to go "cheap" and trust our lives with public "pretenders" (defenders).
Public pretenders are nothing more than "yes" men and women whose devotion lies with the prosecutor, state, court and judge, not with you as a defendant...
Will one or two of my hard-working p.d. colleagues, African-American or otherwise, please respond to this guy? I might, but in my current mood I'm afraid that all I'd do would be to flame him, and I try so hard to stay civil.
The good news is that no more Idahoans will be going to the Black Hole of Newton County. From the Idaho Statesman:
Idaho inmates will leave Texas prison and some Idaho jails
Idaho inmates housed at a private Texas prison that has been criticized for prisoner abuse will be moved elsewhere because the prison canceled its contract with Idaho. And more Idaho prisoners will be headed out of state soon.
It's unclear where the 419 Idaho prisoners currently housed at the Newton County Correctional Center will be sent, but the private prison in Newton, Texas, notified the Idaho Department of Correction that it needs to move the prisoners to make room for Texas inmates, department spokeswoman Melinda O'Malley Keckler said Tuesday. Keckler said the decision had nothing to do with recent reports that Newton prison employees abused Idaho prisoners...
Well, okay, if you say so...
(For Josie Daniel, whose brother, inmate Eddie Daniel, has reported abuse at the Newton prison, the news of the move is a relief. Josie Daniel said her brother has been threatened by prison staff for speaking out and was recently placed in solitary confinement. "I'm happy because I know they're going to be out of that horrendous facility," she said.)
... but you might want to check with your own director to get your stories straight. For whatever reason IDOC's not sending Idaho inmates to Newton County any more, you're still shipping them far from home and family to serve their time. From the Houston Chronicle (and other news outlets):
Idaho will move 100 more prisoners out of state
Beset by overcrowded prisons, Idaho will transfer 100 more inmates out of the state, bringing the total prisoners who will have been sent elsewhere to about 550. Idaho also plans to send 419 prisoners now in a private Texas prison to an undisclosed facility after allegations of prisoner maltreatment emerged there and because that state's prison officials said they wanted the space for Texas inmates.
Though Texas prison officials have asked for the space in Newton County for their own prisoners, (Idaho Department of Correction Director Tom) Beauclair said Tuesday an important reason for the move is he's become dissatisfied with the situation there, including the prison's trouble hiring qualified staff. "The problem with Texas was, we have a culture clash going on," Beauclair said. "That's why we're looking at moving."
An Austin criminal defense lawyer and blogger, Jeff Wilson, has died, rest him, a week after being struck by a drunk driver. He was 32.
From the Austin American-Statesman:
Young defense lawyer among those struck by suspected drunken driver
Jeff Wilson once wrote in his blog that his "strong realization that life is finite"... drives him to pack into life a lot of the things he loves... Late Wednesday, the 32-year-old music lover and up-and-coming Austin criminal defense lawyer was in critical condition in a coma... (H)e was among a crowd hit by a suspected drunken driver two days earlier outside the Backyard, a concert venue... Wilson was leaving a Black Crowes concert ... with his wife and some friends when a Mitsubishi Eclipse crashed into the crowd...
Link via Austinist: Austin Lawyer in Coma Following Accident at Black Crowes Concert
The 32 year-old lawyer was a rising star in the criminal defense field and Austin... Wilson is a huge lover of music and the outdoors and had recently been sharing his thoughts on life and the world through his blog.
The driver blew over a .14 BAC. Get well soon, and may justice be done.
Update: blogger Steanso has seen Jeff Wilson in the hospital. Keep a good thought.
Via the blog of an Idaho prosecutor, Thoughts on Justice, from KIFI:
Idaho Prisoners Stage Protest at Texas Corrections Facility
85 Idaho inmates housed in a Texas jail are on lockdown after a non-violent protest Saturday morning. The inmates refused to return to their cells inside the building after completing recreation time outdoors at the Newton County Correction Center...
Via e-mail from a former co-worker of mine, from the Idaho Statesman:
Idaho inmates escape from private Texas prison
Two Idaho inmates escaped Monday evening from a privately run prison in Texas, taking advantage of a disturbance in another part of the minimum- and medium-security facility to scale a perimeter fence...
The prisoners were among 419 inmates who were sent to the Newton County Correctional Facility in Newton, Texas, earlier this year...
From the Dallas Morning News: 1 prisoner caught, 1 at large after escape
The pair's escape is just the latest in a string of incidents involving Idaho inmates at the prison run by Geo Group Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla. Idaho officials have traveled repeatedly to the former county jail in Newton to scrutinize the operation.
On April 7, six Idaho inmates complained of abuse, and one supervisor was fired while another guard was demoted after an investigation. On May 30, another inmate was doused with pepper spray. And last weekend, 85 Idaho inmates staged a strike, demanding butter for rolls, more TV channels and cheaper prices at the prison commissary.
Idaho corrections officials who have been to the Texas facility said it doesn't have the amenities of prisons in Idaho. It meets Idaho requirements, but "it's a very different cultural atmosphere than Idaho," said Jones, adding that disgruntled inmates unhappy with the move to Texas are one cause of the incidents...
The same damned facility: that privatizing prisons policy is working out really well for Idaho. How do you like this "money-saving" for-profit gulag archipelago now?
And the escapee out of Twin Falls County? He was my client. Suerte, Orlando.
Update: a local angle from the Beaumont, Texas Enterprise, Manhunt scours Newton County woods
Update: via Sean at Objective=Justice, the ACLU of Idaho is speaking out
"Inmate frustration and anger is constantly rising," ACLU Executive Director Jack Van Valkenburgh quotes just one of the stack of letters on his desk from irrate Idaho inmates now living at the Newton County Correctional Facility in Texas. "And the majority of the population expresses their anger, disappointment and frustration at the setting they find themselves forced to live in."
Go, Jack Van V.!
Excellent suggestions from Grits for Breakfast on how to reduce county jail overcrowding (and not just because one of the suggestions is, "Create more public defenders offices").
Now, if we could just get his posts read by the sort of judge who suspends 180 days jail on an invalid drivers license ticket, then imposes the whole amount when the poor schlub fails to pay the $78.50 fine.
