NEWSSENTENCING

In a matter of days, the Change.org campaign to have 12 year old Cristian Fernandez tried as a juvenile in Florida has grown from 10,000 to over 160,000. Supporters all over the world have been asking Angela Corey to try Cristian as a juvenile, and above all else, ensure that he is not sent to an adult prison facility. They have been hopeful and confident that Corey will do the right thing. And they might just be right.

Corey has recently stated that Fernandez will not serve life in prison and that he will serve his sentence in a juvenile facility. He will not stand trial, and a plea deal is expected to be worked out soon.

In early March, Cristian was left alone with his two year-old half-brother David, despite having broken David’s leg a year prior. While the two boys were alone, Cristian allegedly pushed his brother against a bookcase, and David sustained a head injury. After their mother returned home, she waited six hours before taking David to the hospital, where he eventually died.

It was bound to happen: a fiscally responsible recommendation that promotes more judicial discretion and less incarceration has been labeled “soft on crime” by the Association of Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys.

The proposed legislation stands to save the state of Indiana over $1 billion in the coming years by encouraging alternatives to incarceration that actually promote rehabilitation and lower recidivism. But in taking plays from a tired and unsuccessful playbook, county prosecutors in the state have voted to oppose the measure.

Proposed changes were first recommended in a state commissioned report from the Pew Center on the States and the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Soon after the report was released, I reported that Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) was supporting the recommended changes, which include more judicial discretion in the least serious of offenses, bolstering incarceration alternatives like mental health and drug treatment centers, and tightening the reins on high risk offenders under community supervision -- all aimed at reducing the prison population, preventing recidivism and saving bundles of taxpayer money.

But rather than objectively evaluating the proposed changes and their benefits to the state, prosecutors have spoken out in opposition, claiming the recommendations would put the people of Indiana at risk -- and using the term we’ve all grown to hate: “soft on crime." They must have missed the part of the report that stated 55 percent of new incarcerations in the state are for nonviolent thefts and low-level drug offenses. Maybe they also overlooked the part showing Indiana’s incarceration rate is about three times higher than other states in the region.

Those of you who've read the posts in my Beyond Incarceration series know that I'm a huge advocate for prison arts initiatives. Art has the power to change lives -- not just of those who are incarcerated, but of those entering prisons from the outside to share their passion for creative expression.

I've experienced this myself, having facilitated a creative writing group in a county jail, and I hope that my stories will inspire readers to get involved, either through volunteering their time with a prison arts organization or by speaking out to ensure that prison arts and education programs get the funding they need to survive. The book I review here is a testament to just how valuable these programs are -- to prisoners and to us all.

Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson come from vastly different backgrounds, and their day-to-day lives share few commonalities. They are an unlikely duo, it seems - folks who wouldn’t typically cross paths. But Spoon and Judith are connected by something that will forever keep them bound: the shared experience of a space that allowed them to be fully human and completely real. And they found this space in the most unlikely of places: San Quentin.

Spoon and Judith first met 25 years ago, when Judith, a shy and at times anxious Jewish woman, was asked to facilitate a poetry class in the prison through California’s now-defunct Arts-in-Corrections program. Spoon, a quiet, solitary African American man who had only recently learned to read beyond a sixth grade level, was one of her students. In By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives, Judith and Spoon weave a heartfelt story of art, friendship, meaning, and hope. Their memoir is not only a beautiful story of human possibility, but also a candid first-hand account of the shortcomings of both our criminal justice and education systems.

Sara Kruzan was sentenced to life without parole when she was just 16, one of more than 250 Californians faced with the prospect of dying behind bars for crimes they committed as minors.

Now 33 – meaning she's spent more than half her life in a prison cell -- Sara was convicted of killing the man who raped her at 13 and forced her into a life of prostitution and drug addiction. Since being sentenced, Sara has become a model prisoner and a case study in the value of rehabilitation, despite spending years fearing she may never see the outside world again.

And she's one of the lucky ones.

After more than 60,000 Change.org members flooded former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inbox with messages demanding she be granted clemency and immediately released, the governor responded, reducing her sentence to 25 years to life – short of the ultimate goal, yes, but a development that restores Sara's opportunity to redeem herself.

And for that she's thankful.

Yes, you read that right. While we’re accustomed to seeing criminal penalties for driving under the influence (DUI) get more severe, particularly under the watchful eye of lobbyist groups like MADD, Texas may be taking a step towards easing up on first-time DUI offenders.

Proposed legislation would allow those accused of drunk driving to opt for what’s called “deferred adjudication.” This means they would be able to serve a period of probation, including treatment, while avoiding jail time— freeing up space in overcrowded jails and overburdened courtrooms.

Deferred adjudication was eliminated in Texas DUI cases back in the 1980s in hopes potential jail time would scare away would-be drunk drivers. But now, even MADD is supporting the change back. Could it be that MADD and Texas lawmakers alike see DUI penalties are often way out of line with the crime at hand? Not hardly. Instead, they say their support is because current laws (and the lack of a deferred option) is causing many of those first-time DUI cases to be pled down to reckless driving or other similar, non-alcohol related charges—something they don’t like.

The proposed legislation (HB 189) comes from Republican legislator Todd Smith and is getting support from a variety of sectors. So, if it has mass appeal and support from MADD, it’s got to have problems right? Well, it’s definitely not perfect. Popular Texas criminal justice blogs like Grits for Breakfast are all weighing in on the bill’s shortcomings and promise of progress.

Indiana is on the brink of making some major progressive changes to their criminal sentencing practices. Governor Mitch Daniels announced his support last week for sweeping reforms that could ultimately save over a billion dollars in the next seven years. Not just fiscally responsible, these changes would also serve to halt the progression of the incarceration monster, a beast that caused Indiana’s inmate population to skyrocket 41 percent from 2000 to 2008.

In a report commissioned by the state, the Pew Center on the States and the Council of State Governments Justice Center revealed that Indiana had the fastest growing prison population in the nation; more than 55 percent of new incarcerations were for drug offenses and nonviolent thefts.

These two organizations made a series of recommendations to stop the prison growth and save the state an estimated $1.2 billion between now and 2017. Though all of these recommendations haven’t been released to the public yet, the governor is pushing lawmakers to get busy on drafting legislation to make them a reality. Some sources say legislators have already begun preparing prison-reform bills they hope to pass in the upcoming legislative session. And they could use your support.

How has Florida responded to the U.S. Supreme Court's May ruling that juvenile life without parole sentences are unconstitutional in non-murder cases? By doing virtually nothing.

Florida has been ground zero for this issue, with  116 of the country's 181 juveniles serving life for non-murder crimes. Only a few of these cases have made it back into court since the high court's ruling, and many of those defendants limped away with sentences that seem identical to life: 92 years, 90 years, 50 years.

And one of the state's most prominent defendants convicted as a juvenile, Kenneth Young, is scheduled to come before the state clemency board next week, and he expects to be sent away empty-handed. I first wrote about Young in 2009, when PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly profiled his case. Young was sent to prison for life without the chance of parole for a crime he committed when he was 14. His crime: he helped a 25-year-old drug dealer, who his mother owed thousands of dollars for crack, commit a series of armed robberies. The dealer paid him for his help: $50 cash, a pair of Air Jordans and a six-pack of Heineken. Hardly someone with no chance to be a productive member of society.

Since Young's conviction, the judge who sentenced him has explained that he didn't know at the time what the sentence meant. "It was not my intent at the time of his sentencing that Mr. Young never be considered for release. So I support Mr. Young’s bid for consideration for clemency,” the judge wrote to the clemency board. Even one of the victim's in the case called Young her "hero" for stopping the dealer from assaulting her during the robbery.

News outlets are reporting that the clemency board -- which includes Crist and three cabinet members -- will deny Young's petition for clemency next week. But there's still time to make our voices heard. Urge the board to grant Kenneth Young clemency today.

There are over two million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails. Most people never think about these men and women. Some of us do, often considering their plights and advocating for a more humane and equitable criminal justice system. But even the most impassioned activists often forget the other lives involved in prisoners' stories -- that the effects of incarceration reach far beyond the razor wire. In fact, some of those most impacted are the children who wait for the return of their imprisoned parent. According to a study by The Sentencing Project, in 2007 more than 1.7 million children in the U.S. had a parent in prison or jail.

Judy Dworin and a team of teaching artists at the Hartford, CT-based Judy Dworin Performance Project, Inc. (JDPP) are utilizing the arts to provide members of this oft-ignored group with a forum for self-expression, trust-building and restored family connection. While providing collaborative arts residencies for women incarcerated at York Correctional Institution (YCI), Dworin began to understand how traumatic the forced separation of parent and child is for all involved.

Wanting to create a space for incarcerated parents and their children to explore their feelings and nurture their relationships, JDPP collaborated with Families in Crisis (FIC) and the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at Central CT State University (IMRP) to lead a pilot project consisting of a series of eight simultaneous workshops in which mothers at YCI and their children in Hartford communicated through dance, song, poetry and visual arts.

Today's the day to give one last push in the effort to form a national criminal justice commission to examine our broken system and recommend reforms.

The lame ducks returned to Washington, D.C., yesterday and the bill that Sen. Jim Webb has been pushing for two years has just a few days to pass. It passed the House this spring, and if it doesn't get called for a vote before the Senate goes home, it will need to reintroduced next year in a less friendly chamber.

You've heard about this bill in this space over recent months, and today criminal justice organizations across the country are calling on supporters to flood the offices of both the Senate minority and majority leaders alike with phone calls and e-mails, urging them to call this bill -- S. 714 -- for a vote.

Please take 60 seconds today to contact Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to ask them to call this bill for a vote. E-mail  them now or call their offices at the numbers below.

Sen. Harry Reid (NV): 202-224-3542

Sen. Mitch McConnell (KY): 202-224-3135

In striking down America’s death penalty in 1972, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously compared capital punishment to being struck by lightning, arguing that death sentences were given to “a capriciously selected random handful.” For Californians, though, a better metaphor might be an earthquake.

The danger of earthquake, after all, is based on one's proximity to the fault line; death sentences likewise are determined by something as capricious and random as location. And the San Andreas, it turns out, is a fault line for more than just earthquakes: it’s also home to America’s surprising new death penalty capital, Los Angeles County.

LA County condemned 13 people to death in 2009. That’s not only more than any other county in the nation, it’s more than any state in the nation – even capital punishment heavyweights like Texas, Florida and Virginia. The problem isn’t limited to LA County either, as SoCal neighbors Orange and Riverside counties also have aggressive death penalty records, leading the ACLU to dub the three California’s “killer counties.” Bible Belt eat your heart out, the Sun Belt’s a scorcher.

Second Class Justice recently published a set of maps, posted below, that dramatically illustrate the geographic disparity in the death penalty and demonstrate that sentencing records like LA County’s are far outside the mainstream. In fact, just a small handful of counties use the death penalty at all – only 10 percent of American counties have issued a single death sentence in the last six years, and they’re almost exclusively from the South and Southern California.