AZ early release bill: Rep Gowan- hear HB2521!

AZ SENTENCING REFORM BILL (HB2521) needs HELP!

Good article by Bob Ortega re: 

Sentencing reform (OCT 9: AZ Republic

--------from the AFSC in Tucson-----

ACTION ALERT

Tell Rep. Gowan to Hear HB2521!

Arizona is long overdue in implementing safe and cost-effective sentencing reform.  Despite recommendations by the Auditor General, testimony heard by legislative committees, and the best practices of numerous other states, serious obstacles have been placed in the path of several sentencing reform bills this session.  The House Speaker has assigned them to two committees, plus Rules.  The bills must pass out of their first committee by February 17^th or they are effectively dead.

One bill which has the potential to have huge budget savings as well as positive impacts on public safety, is HB 2521, which would afford non-violent offenders the opportunity to earn credits toward early release faster than is currently the case. 

The bill’s first committee is Military Affairs and Public Safety (MAPS), and the Chair is Rep. David Gowan (District 30).  His district includes parts of Tucson, Green Valley, and Sierra Vista.  If you are a constituent, it is particularly important that you contact him.

Take Action!  Tell Rep. Gowan to give HB2521 a Hearing!

Please call, email, or fax the Chair of the House Military Affairs and Public Safety (MAPS) Committee, David Gowan, and tell him to allow sentencing reform bills a fair hearing in his committee!  dgowan@azleg.gov 

If you are a constituent of any of the other members of MAPS, please also contact them:

Terri Proud District 26, Vice Chair   tproud@azleg.gov

Jeff Dial District 20  jdial@azleg.gov

Ruben Gallego District 16   rgallego@azleg.gov

Albert Hale District 2  ahale@azleg.gov

Jack W. Harper District 4   jharper@azleg.gov

Richard Miranda District 13 rmiranda@azleg.gov

David Burnell Smith District 7   dsmith@azleg.gov

David Stevens District 25  dstevens@azleg.gov

Toll-free phone number to reach any state representative or senator:  1-800-352-8404.  Press #3 for the Senate and #4 for the House. Then just ask the operator to connect you to the office of the person you want to talk to.

Tell Them To Give HB 2521 A Hearing Because:

·         It targets nonviolent offenders.  They would be required to follow the rules and participate in rehabilitative programming in order to be eligible, and the Department of Corrections would still have the final say in whether or not an individual prisoner could be released early to community supervision.

·         Average annual cost for minimum security is $20,000 a year, while average annual cost for community supervision is $3,000 a year.

·         Arizona has the highest incarceration rate of western states.  In 2002 Arizona spent 40 percent more on universities than corrections.  TODAY WE SPEND 40 PERCENT MORE ON PRISONS THAN UNIVERSITIES!

·         Similar reforms have been very successful in other states, saving hundreds of millions of dollars and improving public safety.  Mississippi revised its earned release credits formula for nonviolent offenders and saved $200 million.

**If you can blind copy or cc us, we will have a better idea how effective this initiative is.  If you receive responses, even boiler-plate ones, please forward those to us, if possible.

BACKGROUND:

Currently, regardless of whether the offense is violent or nonviolent, no one can get released earlier than 85% of their sentence, even if they are a model prisoner.  This bill would offer a highly motivating incentive for inmates convicted of a nonviolent offense to stay out of trouble and participate in rehabilitative programs, by giving them a release credit of one day for every three days served instead of one day for every 7 days.

This would not apply to prisoners convicted of serious, violent or aggravated felonies as defined in Sec. 13-706.  They would be required to follow the rules and participate in rehabilitative programming in order to be eligible, and the Department of Corrections would still have the final say in whether or not an individual prisoner could be released early.

The Arizona Auditor General estimates that such a change could result in significant cost savings for taxpayers.  According to the Arizona Department of Corrections the average cost per prisoner for minimal incarceration is $20,000 a year, while community supervision costs less than $3,000 per year.

A similar effort in 2008 in Mississippi—hardly a liberal, soft-on-crime state—resulted in an estimated $200 million savings in corrections costs (though Mississippi adopted a more aggressive change than is proposed here).

Arizona is way behind the curve on this issue.  Over half of US states have taken action in recent years to reduce their prison populations.  And many of these states saw greater reductions in crime rates than Arizona.

Arizona has some of the harshest sentencing laws in the nation, our incarceration rate is the 6th highest, and we are spending over $1 Billion on prisons every year.  The bloated corrections budget was the only state agency that saw an increase last year—of 10%!  Why should Corrections grow while education, healthcare, and social services get slashed? 

Caroline Isaacs,

Program Director,

American Friends Service Committee, Arizona

103 N. Park Ave., Ste 111

Tucson, AZ  85719

520.623.9141

520.623.5901 fax

Visit us on the web at:  Tucson, AZ | American Friends Service Committee

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Read our blog, Cell-Out Arizona

TX may parole elderly early...why not AZ?

The Texas legislature seems to be a little smarter than the AZ legs, these days...

Go figure.

---------------------------

Medical expenses could create elderly parolees

Parole debate points to rising medical costs.

By Renee Lee/

Houston Chronicle

Updated 11:56 p.m., Sunday, May 15, 2011

A growing population of elderly inmates is driving up prison medical care costs to the point that some Texas lawmakers would like to see more of those who are feeble and chronically ill released early.

In the last decade, the number of inmates 55 and older has spiked as much as 8 percent each year, growing to about 12,500, while the general inmate population has remained fairly flat.

In prisons throughout the country, inmates grow old serving longer sentences and enter prison at an older age. Between 1999 and 2008, the number of inmates 55 and older in state and federal prisons increased by 76 percent to 76,400 inmates, according to the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. The general population grew by 18 percent.

With rising medical care costs and dwindling state budgets, policy-makers and prison officials have struggled to keep pace. Elderly inmates in Texas make up 8 percent of the state's prison population, yet they account for more than 30 percent of prison hospitalization costs.

In fiscal year 2010, the state spent more than $545 million on inmate health care. It paid $4,853 per elderly offender for inpatient and outpatient care compared with $795 for inmates under 55, according to the Correctional Managed Health Care Committee.

Legislators this session considered a bill that would have required release of certain elderly and sick inmates to community settings, such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Outside prison, many inmates would qualify for Medicaid, lessening the state's financial burden.

The legislation died after failing to make last week's calendar deadline. But lawmakers grapple with the issue every session. Inmates are constitutionally entitled to receive medical care, so states must balance the quality of care with its cost.

State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he would like to see prison space freed up for more dangerous criminals and the cost savings used for law enforcement.

“We certainly need to continue to be sensitive and smart about who becomes old and invalid and doesn't pose a public danger,” Whitmire said. “In times of fiscal concern, we're spending $1 million or more on inmates who can't get out of bed or are really sick individuals. It's just nuts.”

Research shows that most elderly offenders experience an average of three chronic illnesses while incarcerated. Among the most common are arthritis, hypertension, ulcers, heart attacks, diabetes, hepatitis C and cancer, according to the National Institute of Corrections.

Many prisons are not properly equipped to care for the elderly, said Robert Aday, a professor at Middle Tennessee State University and author of a book on aging prisoners. Some states group them in special needs facilities or in centralized geriatric wings to reduce medical costs, he said.

“The sheer numbers are overwhelming them,” Aday said. “A convergence of trends, including enhanced sentencing, more prisons built, and the graying of American people, it's created this crisis.”

In Texas, more than 1,000 offenders are identified each year as being eligible for medical parole, according to a Legislative Budget Board report. About a third of those are processed and presented to the state parole board, which approves 25 percent of those cases each year. Since 1991, 1,287 offenders have been released under the program — about 64 prisoners per year, the report said.

Arizona Prisoners: "Early Release" 2010.

A lot of people have been looking for information lately about the "early release" of state prisoners - specifically hoping that some will be paroled after serving only 65%, instead of the currently mandated 85%, of their sentence. I'm sorry to say, that doesn't appear to be what the deal is. That would require major sentence reform that the state legislature hasn't been willing to undertake in recent years.

It appears as if during one of the special sessions this past year, however, the legislature passed a bill which gave the Az Department of Corrections' Director, Charles Ryan, considerable leeway to release low-risk prisoners early as a means of easing the pressure on the budget. On October 1, 2010, Ryan issued a memo in response to this which details who might be eligible under what circumstances for what the rest of us tend to call "early release".

Here's the link to that memo, (also known as a Director's Instruction): DI#288. As best I can tell, no one's sentences are getting cut short, but you need to read it for yourself to determine how it applies to the situation you're involved in. It looks to me like the ADC is just cutting a handful of people loose from their parole tail so they go straight into their receiving county's hands for a term of probation, but I could be missing something.

Try using the current ADC Constituent Services Guidebook as a supplement to figure this out - if nothing else, it will direct you to the folks at the ADC central office who can better answer your questions.

Getting sentencing reform legislation next session is going to be hard. If you're the friend of family member of a prisoner, or otherwise interested in organizing with others on the issue of sentence reform and reduction, contact me soon. We have a better shot at it if we work together and draw in other members of our communities being decimated by the practice of mass incarceration and the lack of meaningful "correctional" programming going on during or after one's term of imprisonment. My contact info is in the side column of this page.

Sorry I don't have better news and didn't get this in your hands sooner. If anyone learns different from investigating this further, please contact me. If you write it up for us I'll post it as a guest blog.

Thanks,

Peg