FedCURE News: Federal Parole and Re-entry Legislation
Please support H.R. 3072: The bill To Revive the System of Parole for Federal Prisoners.
Since 1987, there has been no parole in the federal system. Today's official Federal Bureau of Prisons count is: 188,591+ people incarcerated. This legislation (H.R. 3072) is the single most important issue facing federal criminal justice reform in United States today. "Thousands of people in prison are serving life sentences for non-violent offenses without the possibility of parole. The vast majority of these people are also first time offenders." This is an atrocity.
Please support this legislation by contacting each member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee at: http://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx and strongly urge them to support H.R. 3072 - The Federal Parole Bill. If you click on the committee members links, you will go to their e-mail page. You will need to contact each member of the committee, so cut and paste your message into their e-mail message box.
Click here to Contact the Congressperson in your district: http://www.fedcure.org/ContactCongressREP-SEN.shtml
Also, complete mail labels for the U.S House of Representatives, in word.doc format, are available here: http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php.
Since 1987, there has been no parole in the federal system. Today's official Federal Bureau of Prisons count is: 188,591+ people incarcerated. This legislation (H.R. 3072) is the single most important issue facing federal criminal justice reform in United States today. "Thousands of people in prison are serving life sentences for non-violent offenses without the possibility of parole. The vast majority of these people are also first time offenders." This is an atrocity.
Please support this legislation by contacting each member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee at: http://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx and strongly urge them to support H.R. 3072 - The Federal Parole Bill. If you click on the committee members links, you will go to their e-mail page. You will need to contact each member of the committee, so cut and paste your message into their e-mail message box.
Click here to Contact the Congressperson in your district: http://www.fedcure.org/ContactCongressREP-SEN.shtml
Also, complete mail labels for the U.S House of Representatives, in word.doc format, are available here: http://clerk.house.gov/members/index.php.
FedCURE Newsletter - March 2006 is available at:
http://www.fedcure.org/newsletters/FedCURE-Newsletter-March2006.pdf
http://www.fedcure.org/newsletters/FedCURE-Newsletter-March2006.pdf
Spread the WORD!
FedCURE
P.O. Box
15667 Plantation, Florida
33318-5667
USA
Web Site: http://www.fedcure.org/
E-mail: FedCURE@FedCURE.org
E-fax: (408) 549-8935
"Using Technology to Bring About Federal Criminal Justice Reform" tmhttp://www.fedcure.org/ 2002-2006. All rights reserved.
Please Donate and Join Now: http://www.fedcure.org/join.shtml
Subscribe to our free discussion group e-mail: FedCURE-org-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Web Site: http://www.fedcure.org/
E-mail: FedCURE@FedCURE.org
E-fax: (408) 549-8935
"Using Technology to Bring About Federal Criminal Justice Reform" tmhttp://www.fedcure.org/ 2002-2006. All rights reserved.
Please Donate and Join Now: http://www.fedcure.org/join.shtml
Subscribe to our free discussion group e-mail: FedCURE-org-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
posted by FedCURE.org | 3/10/2006 09:11:00 PM
2 Comments:
FedCURE Newsletter:
The FedCURE December 2006 Newsletter is available at: http://www.fedcure.org/newsletters/FedCURE-Newsletter-December2006.pdf.
Best Regards:
FedCURE
P.O. Box 15667
Plantation, Florida 33318-5667
USA
www.FedCURE.org
Open Letter To: Faith-Based Programs in Federal Prisons.
U.S. Constitution, Amendment I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; . . .
We are sure it is no secrete to our FedCURE members, supporters and friends that we are strongly in favor of faith-based programs in prisons. Regardless of how they are funded.
First, let us prefix that this opinion is based on our combined, seventy-five years of federal prison experience--behind the fence. Secondly, in any discussion on this subject it is important to consider that over the last decade and a half Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) budgets have been drastically hacked and slashed in every corner. Even BOP employees have taken hits with the elimination of positions and overtime. There has been no mercy in eliminating funding for inmate services and programs. And for what few programs that do remain there is a one or more year wait list. No funding for the BOP to administer and or to implement inmate programs for example, rendered recent attempts to enact The Literacy, Education, and Rehabilitation Act (LERA) hollow and meaningless. LERA would have allowed inmates to gain early release by completing inmate rehabilitation programs. The Superior Programming Achievement provisions of H.R. 3072 - the proposed Parole Bill, allowing for extra good time credits to gain earlier release, would also suffer if inmates do not have programs to complete to earn extra good time days. The use of extra good time awards is a valuable management tool for the BOP and provides important incentives for inmates to maintain clear conduct and in some cases to become better people.
What is worse, however, is that in 1984 Congress enacted the Comprehensive Crime Control Act. This Act, inter alia, ushered in The Sentencing Reform Act--eliminating parole and establishing the famous sentencing guidelines, which the Supreme Court recently ruled were unconstitutional. Largely unnoticed by many, the Act abandoned the practice of rehabilitation of inmates during their imprisonment. In lieu thereof, Congress adopted a practice of incapacitation. This has been the model since 1984. And it has been a disaster. Recidivism rates have never been higher. However, public opinion has strongly opposed this model and its ill effects and the pendulum is changing back towards a rehabilitation model. For example, H.R. 1704 - The Second Chance Act had bi partisan support in the 109th Congress and would have passed this past week, but not for one lone hold out legislator. Senator Tom Coburn, Republican - Oklahoma.
In our opinion, contra to the ACLU, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other organizations arguments opposing faith-based prison programs, is that the Constitution is not offended in any manner by the governments funding of faith-based programs in the context of a prison setting. The funding of faith-based programs for prisoners does not violate the "establishment" clause. On the contrary, having no faith-based programs in prisons does, in our view, run a foul of the "free exercise thereof" clause. Without the BOP offering faith-based programs inmates do not have the right of choice to participate--the right to "free exercise thereof." This is fundamentally unfair in that just because the prison gates have slammed behind them, inmates do not leave their Constitutional rights outside the gates, e.g., freedom to exercise religion. In our opinion, the BOP has been in violation of the Constitution by not offering faith-based programs to inmates during their incarceration. Having no program from which to chose prohibits the exercise of religion. This new direction towards rehabilitation by the BOP, albeit, via faith-based inmate programs is heartening.
Ninety-eight percent of people in prison will be released. Over 45,000 federal inmates are released each year. Regardless of your faith-based beliefs, statistics prove that the many benefits of faith-based programs, in a prison setting, enormeneously out weigh any other type of inmate programming. Especially no programs at all. Inmate assault rates are drastically reduced. Recidivism rates are drastically reduced. A more kinder, gentler person develops of those inmates whom participate. The bottom line is that the faith-based inmate programs work. And because all inmates have a choice to opt in or out of these programs, the rights of each and every inmate is protected.
On last note. We are big fans of the ACLU's work in the area of prisoner rights. And it is with heavy heart that we express serious concerns over their move to destabilize the Federal Bureau of Prisons efforts to return to inmate rehabilitation by implementing faith-based inmate programs. What is more perplexing is their failure to recognize that the BOP has been violating the Constitution by not offering faith-based programs to inmates during their incarceration.
In conclusion, we fear that the ACLU, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the other organizations who oppose faith-based prison programs are misguided in their efforts. Their argument must fail because in the end the results would be absurd and truly disheartening to the majority of Americans. It is said that a picture says a thousand words. Therefore, and to drive home our point, we close with a picture to illustrate how their story ends. Please imagine, if you will, in the photo below, a court ordering the removal of every cross, paid for with federal funds, on federally owned land!
src="mhtml:mid://00000687/!http://www.fedcure.org/image/VAcemetary.jpg">
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) National Cemetery Administration
maintains 124 national cemeteries in 39 states (and Puerto Rico) as well as 33 soldier’s lots and monument sites.
Headstones and Markers
Sincerely,
FedCURE
P.O. Box 15667
Plantation, Florida 33318-5667
USA
Web Site: http://www.FedCURE.org
E-mail: FedCURE@FedCURE.org
E-fax: (408) 549-8935
"Using Technology to Bring About Federal Criminal Justice Reform" tm
WWW.FEDCURE.ORG 2002-2006. All rights reserved.
Please Donate and Join Now: http://www.fedcure.org/join.shtml
Subscribe to our free discussion group e-mail: FedCURE-org-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
WWW.FEDCURE.ORG. All rights reserved (2006)
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