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From the Los Angeles Times

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Criminal's letters leave San Diego woman in fear

A patient at Patton State Hospital has been sending unwanted correspondence, and administrators say privacy rights and other laws keep them from doing much about it.

By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times

December 6, 2010

Reporting from San Diego

Sent from Patton State Hospital by a patient with a criminal history of violence and psychiatric problems, the letter had an affectionate opening — "Dearest Suzanne" — and ended with a promise "to see you and be reunited as two common people soon."

The woman who received the unwanted letter and a phone call in September from a man she's never met appealed to officials at Patton for help. Instead she was told that the hospital in San Bernardino could not even confirm that the letter writer was a patient there.

Suzanne — who would speak only on condition that her last name not be used in this article — believes that the hospital, part of a state agency, is more concerned with safeguarding the privacy rights of a convicted felon than in protecting, or even warning, a member of the public.

The executive director of the hospital, where the criminal justice system sends felons for treatment, said he is sympathetic but that his hands are tied by federal privacy regulations for hospitals. Also, the hospital is guided by the settlement of a 2006 lawsuit alleging that patients were not being treated properly.

"I don't want my name ending up on a law," said Suzanne, referring to the practice of adding victims' names to laws meant to protect the public, such as the recently passed Chelsea's Law, named for Chelsea King, the San Diego teenager raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender.

According to records in San Diego County Superior Court, the writer of the letter, Brent Edward Knauer, 57, pleaded guilty in 1997 to felony robbery and was given a two-year prison sentence. An additional charge of causing great bodily injury to a person older than 60 was dropped.

Because violence was attached to the conviction, Knauer was evaluated at the end of his prison sentence. He was judged to be a "mentally disordered offender."

Many such offenders are sent to Patton for one-year commitments. Each year a court must decide whether it is safe for the person to be released.

Knauer has received a string of one-year commitments, with San Diego County prosecutors arguing each time that he remains dangerous. The latest hearing was Aug. 6, when Knauer was given another one-year commitment to Patton.

"He is still very much a danger," said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Greenberg.

Suzanne, a professional employee at a large San Diego concern, said she is not easily frightened. And, so far, she has declined to take measures such as moving, changing her phone number or going to court to seek a restraining order.

"I shouldn't have to do this," she said. "I haven't done anything wrong."

As a single woman living alone, she preferred for years not to have her address in the phone directory. Then she switched phone service providers and her name and number inadvertently appeared in the book.

"I just happened to find the new addition [sic] of the San Diego white pages in the Patton State Hospital West Compound Library today," Knauer's first letter to Suzanne said. The letter ends: "I love you!"

When Suzanne first called, hospital employees said they could not tell her what Knauer was convicted of or when he might be released. Nor could they keep him from writing more letters or making collect phone calls, they said.

Without confirming that he is a patient, hospital employees, speaking on a theoretical basis, said that when they receive a complaint like Suzanne's, it is forwarded to caseworkers assigned to the patient. The patient is then advised that sending annoying letters could delay release from custody, she was told.

That gave Suzanne at least a modicum of relief.

Then came the second letter, with the opening "Hello sweetheart" and the closing "see yah later, real soon hopefully?"

And then a collect phone call was made to her house at 10:30 one Sunday night. Suzanne did not accept the call.

After The Times requested an interview with the hospital director to discuss Suzanne's complaint, a hospital spokeswoman phoned her, asked for a copy of the letter and promised to be of greater assistance.

Patton State Hospital has 1,500 patients — most of them committed to the hospital by the judicial system for psychiatric treatment. Among its patients are sex offenders, although such offenders who are judged to be violent are sent to the state hospital in Coalinga.

Patton and three other state mental hospitals were sued by the federal government in 2006 for violating the civil rights of patients and are now implementing court-ordered reforms that emphasize patients' rights and freedoms. Some employees have called the reforms too lax, noting that many patients have disorders that contribute to repeated criminal acts.

Octavio C. Luna, the hospital's executive director, said state lawyers have advised him that Patton, as a hospital, not as a prison, is guided by the 1996 federal law that keeps all hospitals from giving out patients' information without their consent. "We cannot go outside state law," Luna said.

The hospital receives occasional complaints like the one made by Suzanne, Luna said. "We can only accept information," he said. "We can't tell you what we've done.... It's a no-win situation."

If someone makes a complaint to law enforcement, the response is different, but there are still limits, Luna said. He noted that several months ago the FBI was concerned about letters being written by a different patient hinting at possible terrorist activity.

Agents were allowed to interview that the patient, Luna said. But when they asked that the patient's letter-writing and phone-calling privileges be terminated, they were told that it could not be done without a court order, he said.

"If a patient makes a direct threat in a letter, that is also different," Luna said. A law covering threats has a provision that calls for warning the intended victim.

Knauer's letters to Suzanne, while creepy, do not appear to carry an overt threat of violence. Rather, the letters are filled with details about horseback riding and people that Suzanne has never met or heard of.

Knauer cannot be released from the state hospital without a public court hearing, according to prosecutor Greenberg.

Suzanne hopes that someone will warn her if he is released. "I'm living one day at a time," she said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hospital-inmate-20101206,0,4108221,print.story

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High court ruling on Arizona act could shape immigration law

The 2007 Legal Arizona Workers Act cracks down on employers who hire illegal workers, but the Obama administration says it conflicts with the federal government's authority to enforce immigration laws.

By David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau

December 6, 2010

Reporting from Washington

President Obama once favored a "crackdown on employers" who hired illegal immigrants, and as a candidate called for "much tougher enforcement standards" for companies that employed illegal workers.

But this week, Obama's top courtroom lawyer will join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in urging the Supreme Court to strike down an Arizona law that goes after employers who hire illegal workers. The administration also seeks to void a part of the state's law that tells employers they must check the federal government's E-Verify database to make sure their new hires are authorized to work in the United States.

The move sets the stage for a high court ruling on the most disputed issue in immigration law: Can states and cities enforce their own laws against illegal immigrants, or must they wait for federal authorities to act?

The administration found itself in an awkward spot in part because the Legal Arizona Workers Act was signed into law in 2007 by then- Gov. Janet Napolitano. She said it would impose the "business death penalty" on employers caught a second time hiring illegal workers, and blamed "the flow of illegal immigration into our state … [on] the constant demand of some employers for cheap, undocumented labor."

Now, however, Napolitano is Obama's secretary of Homeland Security, which enforces the immigration laws and administers E-Verify, a voluntary electronic program that checks whether new hires are authorized to work in the United States. Federal agencies and federal contractors are required to use the program.

This year, the administration had a fierce internal debate over what to do about laws in Arizona and elsewhere against illegal immigration. In November 2009, the high court asked the Justice Department to weigh in on the Legal Arizona Workers Act and whether it conflicted with federal law.

Several participants in the debate say Napolitano counseled against intervening in the case. She and others emphasized that the administration had tried to send the message that it favored strong enforcement, particularly against employers who were repeat violators.

But in the spring, immigrant rights advocates stepped up the pressure and argued that the administration had to take a stand against a second Arizona law. SB 1070 required police to check the immigration status of people they have lawfully stopped and suspect are in the country illegally. Activists feared it would lead to "racial profiling" and harassment of legal immigrants.

In May, shortly after Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070, the Obama administration made its decision. It sent a brief to the Supreme Court urging the justices to hear the challenge to the Legal Arizona Workers Act on the grounds that it conflicted with the federal government's exclusive authority to enforce immigration laws.

In recent years, most states and many localities have considered laws that restrict or regulate illegal immigrants in areas such as employment, education, housing or law enforcement. Governors and lawmakers, including Napolitano, said they needed to act because the federal government had failed to enforce immigration laws.

Lawyers for the federal government argued these state and local laws should be thrown out because they conflicted with Washington's exclusive control over immigration enforcement.

In July, a federal judge in Phoenix, acting on a suit by the Obama administration, blocked SB 1070 from taking effect. That case is before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

For its part, the Supreme Court has not ruled squarely on the federal-vs.-state clash over immigration since 1976.

"This figures to be a historic case because it has been so long since the court has focused on the intersection between state and federal authority on immigration," said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at New York University law school. If Arizona wins, "it will embolden a lot of states to go further with new immigration laws."

Legislatures in 44 states have pending measures on immigration, according to the National Conferences of State Legislatures. Cities and counties could get into the act as well. The city of Hazleton, Pa., gained national attention in 2006 when it adopted an ordinance to fine employers or landlords who did business with illegal immigrants. A federal judge and a U.S. court of appeals struck down the ordinance, but a win for Arizona in the Supreme Court would probably revive it.

A key legal issue in the Arizona case deals with a provision of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, in which Congress made it illegal for employers to hire "an unauthorized alien." It also added a provision that said the federal law "preempts any state or local law imposing civil or criminal sanctions (other than through licensing and similar laws) upon those who employ … unauthorized aliens."

According to the Chamber of Commerce and the Obama administration, the Arizona Legal Workers Act should be struck down because it imposes sanctions on employers who hire illegal workers. It has a "broad punitive sweep," said Acting Solicitor Gen. Neal Katyal.

The state, however, said the law should be upheld because it was a "licensing" measure. Employers who are convicted twice of knowingly hiring illegal workers can lose their licenses to do business.

"You can write any law as a licensing measure," Chishti said.

A broad coalition of business, labor and civil rights groups sued to block the Arizona Legal Workers Act, but a federal judge in Phoenix and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it. "The power to regulate the employment of unauthorized aliens remains within the states' historic police powers," wrote 9th Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder.

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was the U.S. solicitor general last year when the court asked her office to weigh in on the Arizona law. For that reason, she has stepped aside from the case of Chamber of Commerce vs. Whiting.

That means the challengers, including Katyal, face an uphill fight. They will need the votes of five out of eight justices to knock down the Arizona law.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-immigration-20101206,0,7667845,print.story

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OPINION

Ranking heroism

Many acts of bravery on the battlefield are deserving of the highest military accolades. But parsing heroism is no easy task.

By David Freed

December 6, 2010

Much has been made, and rightfully so, of President Obama's Medal of Honor presentation last month to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living recipient of the nation's highest military decoration since the Vietnam War. But the award also raises questions. One is why so few Medals of Honor have been awarded to those who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, compared with the numbers issued during previous conflicts. Another is how it is decided whether a warrior's risk and sacrifice in battle merit such decorations.

Medals are awarded based on nuanced and often subjective criteria. To receive the Medal of Honor, for example, a recipient must have demonstrated "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty." The Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest decoration that can be bestowed on an American soldier, requires "extraordinary heroism." The Silver Star, the third-highest decoration, mandates "gallantry in action," while the Bronze Star can be granted for demonstrations of "heroic or meritorious achievement."

Certainly, many acts of bravery on the battlefield — Giunta's selflessness in protecting others during a Taliban ambush, for example — are deserving of the highest accolades the military can bestow. But on what basis does one decide what constitutes "conspicuous gallantry" versus "gallantry in action"? What is the difference between "extraordinary heroism" and "heroic achievement"?

U.S. military history has shown that such distinctions are easily influenced by both politics within the chain of command as well as the biases of individual commanders, who can forward or reject recommendations for medals as they see fit. Witness the fact that not a single African American soldier received the Medal of Honor in World War II, even though thousands saw combat.

Giunta himself was uncomfortable receiving his medal, insisting that "every single person" who was with him during the ambush "deserves to wear it." Meanwhile, other heroes are granted decidedly lesser military honors, often with no real explanation as to why.

In that regard, I think of William A. McFarland Jr.

Soon after I began my journalism career — not long after the end of the Vietnam War — I was assigned to cover the military because no other reporter at the newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colo., where I worked expressed interest in the beat. It was in that context that I chanced to meet McFarland, who showed up unannounced one morning in the newsroom. Bureaucrats at the Veterans Administration, he complained, were denying disability payments for the physical and emotional trauma he'd suffered in Vietnam. Could I help him cut through the red tape?

He'd enlisted on his 17th birthday, he told me, to avenge the death of a boyhood friend killed in action. McFarland, a scout dog handler, was on patrol in 1967 when the Viet Cong ambushed his unit. Much as Giunta would do in Afghanistan some 40 years later, McFarland spotted enemy soldiers dragging a wounded fellow American into a cave, rushed their position and saved his buddy — except McFarland did not escape unscathed. A burst from an AK-47 caught him in the leg. Another round hit him in the head. He insisted on showing me the gruesome scars.

It would be hard to argue that McFarland didn't display "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" and that he risked his life "above and beyond the call of duty." Yet instead of receiving a more prestigious decoration, McFarland — whose officers considered him something of a malcontent before he was wounded — received a Bronze Star for valor and his second Purple Heart.

He never complained about it to me. As far as he was concerned, his greatest award was merely having survived Vietnam when so many others had not.

The morphine the doctors gave McFarland for pain as he recovered from his wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center led to a $180-a-day heroin habit that, after being discharged, he began supporting by transporting narcotics. In 1971, on a street in downtown San Francisco, he got into an argument with a drug dealer over payment and ripped out his throat, the way the Army had taught him to do. He then spent three years in prison.

I wrote a story that I like to think helped him get his VA benefits. We became friends of a sort. I lent him gas money, worked to find him a construction job, let him stay on my couch when he had nowhere else to sleep. Tortured by recurrent nightmares of being mortared, and of watching helplessly as a wounded fellow soldier was dragged away by the enemy, McFarland died about a year later after we met, crashing his van on a snowy mountain highway.

Hundreds of thousands of Bronze Stars were issued for service in Vietnam. Not to denigrate any medals or those who earned the right to wear them, but I can't help but wonder how things might have turned out for Bill McFarland if he'd been decorated with a higher award for his heroism. Would the accolades associated with a Silver Star, a Distinguished Service Cross or even the Medal of Honor have made a difference in the ultimate outcome of his life?

No one will ever know. I suspect, however, that he might have felt better about himself had he known that his country realized that his courage and sacrifice in battle, like Sal Giunta's, were anything but ordinary.

David Freed is a screenwriter. His son is a California National Guard infantry lieutenant.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-freed-medal-of-honor-20101206,0,3222768,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Rights Group Says Caning in Malaysia is Torture

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Amnesty International is calling on Malaysia to halt the practice of judicial caning, a punishment the rights group says amounts to torture and violates international law.

In a report to be released on Monday, Amnesty says that the number of offenses subject to caning under Malaysian criminal law has increased to more than 60 in recent years.

“Caning in Malaysia has hit epidemic proportions,” Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director, said in a statement.

Based on interviews with 57 people, including drug users, Burmese refugees and Indonesian migrant workers, the report found that some inmates had been left with permanent scars and physical disabilities after being hit with the meter-long cane used in Malaysian prisons.

“The pain inflicted by caning is so severe that victims often lose consciousness,” states the report.

In what it calls a “rough estimate,” Amnesty claims that as many as 10,000 people are caned each year in Malaysia, many of them foreigners who violate immigration laws. That estimate is based on “statistical sampling” compiled by Amnesty through interviews with prisoners, the report states.

The group did not investigate caning carried out under Shariah, or Islamic law, which only covers Muslims, who make up 60 percent of Malaysia's population.

In neighboring Singapore, where about 30 offenses are punishable by caning, 6,404 men were sentenced to be caned in 2007, according to the U.S. State Department .

The Amnesty report found that the number of people caned under Malaysian criminal law has increased since 2002, when the government made more immigration offenses, like illegal entry, punishable by caning.

A refugee from Myanmar, who was sentenced to three months in prison and two strokes of the cane after being found guilty of entering Malaysia illegally, said he was left bleeding and could not sit down for three weeks after he was caned on the buttocks last year.

In an interview in Kuala Lumpur, the man, who did not want to be identified because of fears for his family's safety in Myanmar, described how he was taken from a detention center to a nearby prison. He waited in a hall with about 70 other men until his name was called.

“We could hear them screaming. When they came out they were very weak,” he said of the prisoners caned before him. “When my name was called, I was very afraid.”

The man, aged 28, said he had to strip off his clothes, and his hands were tied to a bar. He believed he blacked out for a couple of minutes after the second stroke. “I cannot describe how painful it was,” he said.

The man has since been granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

He is awaiting resettlement in another country, and said he had been shocked to discover that Malaysia practiced caning.

“I feel that Malaysia is a democratic country and they have better human rights compared to Burma. In this kind of country, they should not have this kind of punishment,” he said.

A statement issued by the prime minister's office said that the government could not comment on the accuracy of the report because it had not had adequate time to review its findings.

“Caning sentences are carried out in Malaysia, as they are in other countries, in connection with serious offenses, including violent crimes, rape and drug trafficking,” the statement said. “These judicial canings are sentenced, alongside prison terms, at the discretion of the presiding judge.”

Malaysia restricts caning to men aged 18 to 50, although men older than 50 may be caned for sexual offenses. Women are only subject to caning under Shariah.

“We regularly review our criminal justice system practices to ensure that punishments are effective and fit the crime,” the statement said.

The Amnesty report states that prison officers were paid bonuses to carry out caning and that some officers took bribes to intentionally “miss strokes.”

Amnesty argues that doctors involved in the process — who certify prisoners as being eligible for caning and resuscitate them if they lose consciousness — are violating medical ethics.

In calling on the government to abolish the practice, the report states that “caning violates the absolute prohibition against torture and ill-treatment under international law.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/world/asia/07caning.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Police Say 6 Arrests Foiled Attack

ATHENS — Greek police officials said Sunday that they had averted an imminent terrorist attack by arresting six people believed to be linked to domestic terrorist activities, including two suspected members of a group that had claimed responsibility for letter bombs sent to embassies in Athens and foreign leaders last month.

A series of raids on homes in Athens and other Greek cities over the weekend also turned up weapons and explosives that the police believe may have been intended for use in the planned attack. The weapons did not appear to match those used in earlier attacks in Greece, and the target or targets were not clear.

“There were serious indications that a new terrorist attack was being planned, so we moved quickly to arrest these people,” said Thanassis Kokkalakis, a spokesman for the Greek police.

The authorities were on alert as Monday is the second anniversary of the killing of a teenager by a police officer, an episode that provoked nearly two weeks of rioting in the Greek capital.

The police force published on its Web site the names and photographs of all the suspects arrested over the weekend, including Alexandros Mitrousias, 21, and Georgios Karagiannidis, 30, believed to be members of a group calling itself the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire.

The group has claimed responsibility for a wave of letter bombs last month that caused one minor injury and led to international alarm after one package reached the office of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/europe/06greece.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Extreme Makeover: Criminal Court Edition

CLEARWATER, Fla. — When John Ditullio goes on trial on Monday, jurors will not see the large swastika tattooed on his neck. Or the crude insult tattooed on the other side of his neck. Or any of the other markings he has acquired since being jailed on charges related to a double stabbing that wounded a woman and killed a teenager in 2006.

Mr. Ditullio's lawyer successfully argued that the tattoos could be distracting or prejudicial to the jurors, who under the law are supposed to consider only the facts presented to them. The case shows some of the challenges lawyers face when trying to get clients ready for trial — whether that means hitting the consignment shop for decent clothes for an impoverished client or telling wealthy clients to leave the bling at home.

“It's easier to give someone who looks like you a fair shake,” said Bjorn E. Brunvand, Mr. Ditullio's lawyer.

The court approved the judicial equivalent of an extreme makeover, paying $125 a day for the services of a cosmetologist to cover up the tattoos that Mr. Ditullio has gotten since his arrest. This is Mr. Ditullio's second trial for the murder; the first, which also involved the services of a cosmetologist, ended last year in a mistrial. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

“There's no doubt in my mind — without the makeup being used, there's no way a jury could look at John and judge him fairly,” Mr. Brunvand said in an interview in his office here. “It's too frightening when you see him with the tattoos. It's a scary picture.”

Hence the cosmetologist. Chele, the owner of the company performing the work, said the process takes about 45 minutes

The first stage is a reddish layer to obscure the greenish tinge of the ink — “You cover a color with a color,” she explained. Then comes Dermablend, a cosmetic aid that smoothes and obscures and is used to cover scars and pigmentation disorders like vitiligo. A flesh-toned layer is then sprayed on with an air gun, and finally, to avoid the porcelain-doll look that comes from an even-hued coat, a final color touchup intended to, as theatrical makeup artists say, “put blood back in.”

The cosmetologist asked that she not be identified by her full name out of fear of reprisal and lost business. “We mostly do weddings,” she said.

Colleen Quinn-Adams, a private investigator working on the case with Mr. Brunvand, said she had had to call 10 cosmetologists before finding one willing to take on this particular client. “I would either get a long pause, and have to say, ‘Are you still there?' or, ‘I don't think we could handle that job.' ”

While the move to pretty up a man accused of murder might seem bizarre, defense lawyers like Mr. Brunvand say they fight an uphill battle every day in court: though the law requires that juries see every defendant as innocent until proved guilty, they say, jurors are generally more likely to see someone who has been arrested as guilty.

Appearance is a big part of setting the right balance, said Anna M. Durbin, a lawyer in Ardmore, Pa., who has often run to used-clothing stores to find an alternative to the jail jumpsuit for clients without money or family. “You don't have a clean slate if you look like a perpetrator,” she said.

Douglas Keene, a trial consultant in Austin, Tex., noted that making defendants look more like someone who is “kind of like me” does not come into play just in cases involving violence or poverty. “I counseled defendants during the Enron trial to remove $10,000 watches,” he said.

The decision to cover Mr. Ditullio's tattoos could be more of a judgment call, Mr. Keene said. “People are wearing tattoos as a public statement of what's important to them,” he said.

He recalled that Charles Manson carved a swastika on his forehead during his murder trial. “At what point does someone's decision to put a billboard on their forehead become something from which we have to protect them?” he asked.

Mr. Brunvand, who was appointed by the court, said inmates might tattoo themselves for many reasons: some may do so to project a more menacing appearance and to show affiliation with groups that might protect them.

Charlene Bricken, the mother of the young man Mr. Ditullio is accused of killing, Kristofer King, said she was outraged that the defendant would receive a court-approved makeover. “Did somebody tie him down while he was in jail and put these tattoos on him?” she asked angrily.

Ms. Bricken said that she had “no doubt” Mr. Ditullio was guilty — he sent a taunting Christmas card to the family from prison — and that the judge was “bending over backwards for the criminal.”

Mr. Brunvand said the card Mr. Ditullio sent Ms. Bricken was “a terrible thing,” but attributed it to “acting out in frustration” because of feelings that he had been falsely arrested and that “everybody had, in their minds, already convicted him.”

He said he hoped to show that another member of a neo-Nazi group Mr. Ditullio had joined more closely resembled the initial description by the surviving victim of the attack and was the likely perpetrator. That person has left the state.

Mike Halkitis, the division director for the state attorney's office in New Port Richey, where the trial will be held, said that he fought the “absurd” request for a cosmetic cover-up last year, and that taxpayers should not have to pay for it.

While a richer defendant could pay for cosmetics or even tattoo removal, “the indigent defendant isn't entitled to the same defense an affluent defendant can get,” he said. “That's case law.”

Instead, Mr. Halkitis said, the judge could just as easily instruct the jury to ignore the tattoos in their consideration of the case. “We believe the jurors listen to judges' instructions,” he said.

Mr. Halkitis suggested that the judge had ruled to allow the cosmetic assistance with an eye to higher courts in the event that Mr. Ditullio receives the ultimate penalty — “that there can't be a judge that overturns the death penalty on the basis that they should have whited the tattoos.”

For Chele, the cosmetologist, the case has been a lesson in the justice system. “It's not about payment,” she said. “It's about doing what's right to do this — to give this man a chance at a fair trial. We're not just doing this for John. We're doing this for justice, and our country.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/us/06tattoo.html?ref=us

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EDITORIAL

The Crime of Punishment

In 2005, when a federal court took a snapshot of California's prisons, one inmate was dying each week because the state failed to provide adequate health care. Adequate does not mean state-of-the-art, or even tolerable. It means care meeting “the minimal civilized measure of life's necessities,” in the Supreme Court's words, so inmates do not die from rampant staph infections or commit suicide at nearly twice the national average.

These and other horrors have been documented in California's prisons for two decades, and last week they were before the Supreme Court in Schwarzenegger v. Plata. It is the most important case in years about prison conditions. The justices should uphold the lower court's remedy for addressing the horrors.

Four years ago, when the number of inmates in California reached more than 160,000, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a “state of emergency.” The state's prisons, he said, are places “of extreme peril.”

Last year, under a federal law focusing on prison conditions, the lower court found that overcrowding was the “primary cause” of gruesome inadequacies in medical and mental health care. The court concluded that the only relief under the law “capable of remedying these constitutional deficiencies” is a “prison release order.”

Today, there are almost twice as many inmates in California's 33 prisons as they were designed for. The court ordered the state to reduce that population by around 30 percent. While still leaving it overcrowded, that would free up space, staff and other vital resources for long overdue medical and mental health clinics.

The case will most likely be resolved by a vote of 5 to 4, with Justice Anthony Kennedy's vote decisive. At the oral argument, he said that “at some point,” the court must say “overcrowding is the principal cause, as experts have testified, and it's now time for a remedy.” After 20 years of litigation and 70 court orders, that point has come.

At the intense, sometimes testy argument, Justice Samuel Alito revealed the law-and-order thinking behind the California system. “If 40,000 prisoners are going to be released,” he said overstating the likely number, “you really believe that if you were to come back here two years after that you would be able to say they haven't contributed to an increase in crime?” To Justice Alito, apparently, it was out of the realm of possibility that, rather than increasing crime, the state could actually decrease it by reducing the number of prison inmates.

Among experts, as a forthcoming issue of the journal Criminology & Public Policy relates, there is a growing belief that less prison and more and better policing will reduce crime. There is almost unanimous condemnation of California-style mass incarceration, which has led to no reduction in serious crime and has turned many inmates into habitual criminals.

America's prison system is now studied largely because of its failure — the result of an expensive approach to criminal justice shaped by fear-driven ideology. California's prisons embody this overwhelming failure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/opinion/06mon1.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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Soft spot in aircraft security

Unscreened cargo, like that loaded in the belly of planes, can be exploited by terrorists

BY MARY WISNIEWSKI

Chicago Sun Times

December 6, 2010

While grandparents traveling for the holidays are getting airport patdowns, there's another security threat hiding in airplane storage compartments -- unscreened cargo.

Along with the cargo that goes in and out of the country on UPS or FedEx planes, cargo is also carried in the bellies of passenger jets. It's a way for airlines to make extra money.

It's also potentially a way to blow up planes. As October's Yemen bomb plot showed, terrorists don't have to personally get onto planes to try to wreak havoc. One of the two bombs disguised as printer ink cartridges and addressed to Chicago synagogues made it aboard passenger planes in the Middle East before being detected. One bomb was wired for remote detonation via cell phone.

"This is a huge concern," said Mary F. Schiavo, aviation attorney and former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation. "The attackers don't have to die with the plane, which leaves for the terrorists a much bigger group of co-conspirators."

The Transportation Security Administration says that as of August of this year, all cargo on passenger aircraft originating in the U.S. is screened. Methods include sniffer dogs, X-ray machines and hand checks.

But just two-thirds of cargo on inbound international passenger air carriers is screened. The TSA wants to boost that to 100 percent by 2013. Cargo planes are subject to unannounced inspections and other security protocols -- the TSA doesn't say what percentage of cargo is checked.

Shipping is also a potential target. Most containers coming into ports aren't inspected, said Thomas Mockaitis, a DePaul University history professor who teaches government-funded seminars on counter-terrorism. "If we're doing 10 percent or more, I'd be surprised," Mockaitis said.

"Terrorists are methodical and they're patient," said Philip Farina, CEO of Farina and Associates, whose services include security and risk management.

"They're going to work the weak links. . . . If it's stronger on the passenger side and weaker on the cargo side, they're going to take a look at that weak side and exploit that."

In response to the Yemen plot, the Department of Homeland Security ordered a halt to all air cargo coming from Yemen and Somalia. DHS also directed industry carriers to start adding additional security measures for international flights inbound to the United States. Toner and ink cartridges over 16 ounces are banned in both carry-on and checked bags on passenger planes, and on some inbound air cargo shipments.

TSA Administrator John Pistole said the agency is working with the industry to develop new technologies for air cargo screening.

But screening every piece of cargo coming in and out of the country on boats and planes would drive shipping companies out of business, analysts warn.

As with passengers, screening cargo requires a balancing act between what could increase safety and what's practical. Cavity searches of airline passengers might deter terrorists -- but would also guarantee that many people would never fly again.

Similarly, there has to be a way to allow cargo to be shipped that would balance fears of terrorism against destroying trade, Mockaitis said.

"If you want to live in an open society, there's a certain level of risk you're going to have to accept," Mockaitis said.

For heightened security, governments need to watch not only passengers but people who have access to storage facilities and aircraft, to prevent the possibility of someone smuggling something onto a plane. He thinks O'Hare does "a very good job of making sure everyone's badged and certified."

U.S. officials need to continue to work with other countries and their police and customs departments to establish strong relationships and share intelligence, said Farina. Good intelligence is what led to the detection of the Yemen plot.

The Yemen crisis also highlighted the need to have heightened standards for anything that comes from certain countries in the Middle East, said DePaul University Transportation Professor Joseph Schwieterman. "It's going to take far more vigilance than we've had in the past," he said.

Nothing is fool-proof -- the world of trade is very complex and interconnected, and terrorists are extremely creative, said Mockaitis.

"You can get the best hockey goalie in the world, but you'll never find a goalie that's never been scored on," he said. "You have to make it very hard."

Mockaitis said travelers should take some encouragement from the fact that recent plots against American air travel have been stopped. He said when people say they'll stop flying because they're afraid of terrorists, they should remember it's statistically much more dangerous to drive a car.

"You don't want to become hostage to your own fears," he said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/transportation/2946978,CST-NWS-ride1206.article

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From Google News

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Senate bill targets body scan image misuse

NEW YORK — Senator Charles Schumer is seeking to make it illegal for anyone to distribute or record the revealing images produced by full-body scanners at airports.

The New York Democrat introduced a bill yesterday that would set penalties of up to a year in prison and fines up to $100,000, or both.

“Anyone who would try to use these images for purposes other than security should be severely punished,'' Schumer said.

The machines can peer through people's clothing, but the Transportation Security Administration said the images cannot be stored, transmitted, or printed and are deleted after being reviewed. The images are blurred to mask the identity of the person.

Passengers can opt instead for a new pat-down search that includes the crotch and chest.

But privacy advocates said current safeguards fail to ensure that the images produced by the machines cannot be misused by TSA employees or other workers. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center contend that the machines are too invasive.

Asked what he thought about use of the scanners, Schumer said he didn't oppose them. “You need to balance security and privacy,'' he said.

Federal laws prohibit employees of agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service to release private information to anyone not entitled to receive it. No such law applies to TSA scanner images. Although the TSA says its scanners are not equipped to save images, it was recently reported that 35,000 images from a scanner at a Florida courthouse were saved and 100 were posted online.

Schumer's proposed law would make it unlawful to record or distribute an image of any full-body scan taken at an airport, even using personal cameras or hand-held devices.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/12/06/senate_bill_targets_body_scan_image_misuse/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Top+political+stories

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Explosive-laden Calif. home to be destroyed

Associated Press

December 6, 2010

ESCONDIDO, Calif. (AP) — Neighbors gasped when authorities showed them photos of the inside of the Southern California ranch-style home: Crates of grenades, mason jars of white, explosive powder and jugs of volatile chemicals that are normally the domain of suicide bombers.

Prosecutors say Serbian-born George Jakubec quietly packed the home with the largest amount of homemade explosives ever found in one location in the U.S. and was running a virtual bomb-making factory in his suburban neighborhood. How the alleged bank robber obtained the chemicals and what he planned to do with them remain mysteries.

Now authorities face the risky task of getting rid of the explosives. The property is so dangerous and volatile that that they have no choice but to burn the home to the ground this week in a highly controlled operation involving dozens of firefighters, scientists and hazardous material and pollution experts.

Authorities went into the home after Jakubec was arrested, but encountered a maze of floor-to-ceiling junk and explosives that included 13 unfinished shrapnel grenades.

Bomb experts pulled out about nine pounds of explosive material and detonated it, but they soon realized it was too dangerous to continue given the quantity of hazardous substances. A bomb-disposing robot was ruled out because of the obstacle of all the junk Jakubec hoarded.

That left only one option — burn the home down.

San Marcos Fire Chief Todd Newman acknowledges it is no small feat: Authorities have never dealt with destroying such a large quantity of dangerous material in the middle of a populated area, bordered by a busy eight-lane freeway.

"This is a truly unknown situation," said Neal Langerman, the top scientist at the safety consulting firm, Advanced Chemical Safety in San Diego. "They've got a very good inventory of what's in there. Do I anticipate something going wrong? No. But even in a controlled burn, things occasionally go wrong."

He said the burning of the house would provide "an amazing textbook study" for bomb technicians in the future.

San Diego County authorities plan to burn the home Wednesday but need near perfect weather, with no rain, no fog, and only light winds blowing toward the east, away from the city. They have warned residents in the danger zone that they will be given less than 24 hours notice to evacuate their homes for a day, and that nearby Interstate 15, connecting the area to San Diego, will be closed.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency, and hospitals will be on standby in case there is a rash of people getting sick, Newman said.

Some 40 experts on bombs and hazardous material from across the country and at least eight national laboratories are working on the preparations.

They have analyzed wind patterns to ensure the smoke will not float over homes beyond the scores that will be evacuated. They have studied how fast the chemicals can become neutralized under heat expected to reach 1800 degrees and estimate that could happen within 30 minutes, which means most of the toxins will not even escape the burning home, Newman said.

The county has installed 18 sensors that will measure the amount of chemicals in the smoke and send the data every two minutes to computers monitored by the fire and hazardous material departments.

Experts also have mapped how far the plume will travel and predict it will not go beyond Interstate 15. They calculate that if there is an explosion, it would probably throw the debris only about 60 feet.

"It certainly would not be a detonation that would level a neighborhood," Newman said.

Crews are clearing brush, wood fences and other debris that could cause the blaze to spread beyond the property in a region hit by wildfires in recent years. They also are building a 16-foot-high fire-resistant wall with a metal frame between the property and the nearest home, which will be coated with a fire-resistant gel.

Firefighters, who will remain 300 feet away, are placing hose lines in the front and back yards and will have a remote-controlled hose aimed at the nearest neighbor's home. Ambulances also will be parked nearby.

The Sheriff's Bomb Squad will ignite the fire remotely with a sequenced series of incendiary devices, Newman said.

Air pollution control experts have installed a portable weather station on a nearby fire station that will tell them immediately when the weather shifts, while authorities observe the burn from helicopters overhead.

Afterward, officials will monitor the air and groundwater for toxins. Hazardous material crews will be brought in to remove the top layer of dirt on the half-acre property, possibly digging down as much as 6 inches.

"It'll be a tedious process that will probably take a long time," Newman said.

It also will be expensive, he said, although no one knows yet how much the price tag could run or who will pay for it. They could not be reached for comment.

Prosecutors said the chemicals in the house include hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), erythritol tetranitrate (ETN), and pentaerythitol tetranitrate (PETN), which was used in the 2001 airliner shoe-bombing attempt. The home has been declared a public nuisance and therefore the county does not have to reimburse the owners, who were renting the house to Jakubec.

Authorities also found a grenade mold, a bag with pieces of metal, a jar with ball bearings, three wireless doorbells with remotes, molds of human faces, handguns and a blue Escondido police shirt, among other items, according to court records.

Jakubec is in federal custody after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to making destructive devices and robbing three local banks.

The federal grand jury alleges that Jakubec made nine detonators and 13 grenade hulls containing high explosives. They were discovered in the home after a gardener was injured in November in a blast that occurred when he stepped on chemical residue in the backyard, authorities said. Mario Garcia, 49, suffered eye, chest and arm injuries.

Little is known about Jakubec, a 54-year-old unemployed software consultant. His lawyer could not be reached for comment. His estranged wife has told the San Diego Union-Tribune that he became increasingly unstable since losing his job several years ago.

Neighbors say the couple did not draw attention.

Since the incident, Patti Harrison has stared at the home on the knoll in front of her own and wondered what went through Jakubec's mind.

"When I saw those pictures at the meeting with authorities I thought 'oh my goodness, that's just crazy,'" she said.

Harrison and her husband bought their home in 1974, when it was surrounded by avocado groves. She is grateful that they have home insurance. For the evacuation, she plans to close the windows and pack her family's important records and treasured items.

"I've decided because God protected us all this time when we did not know what was there, that he will do the same now," she said.

She said she is praying for the best: "I would like all the homes to be here when they're done."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iz-NoJ-t4_P-of2SabmaoRq0tD-w?docId=fd581bf34cf841e5a767fddc4a11993e

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Tree lighting honors missing Michigan boys

Morenci bonds as search moves into 2nd week

MORENCI, Mich. — They came in flannel shirts, hunting jackets, ski caps, and blankets, some 400 to 500 of them from Morenci and surrounding towns near the Michigan-Ohio border where Lenawee and Fulton counties meet.

There really was little doubt they'd come. This is what small-town America does best: Pull together and comfort neighbors in a time of tragedy, whether it be a heartbreaking disappearance of three spunky young boys or some other sad event.

So what was disguised as a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Wakefield Park last night could be much more aptly described as a loving holiday tribute to 9-year-old Andrew Skelton and his brothers, Alex Skelton, 7, and Tanner Skelton, 5, who have been missing since Thanksgiving.

Authorities have said they are presumed dead, although the Rev. Donna Galloway and others here said they are not giving up hope.

"We have been visited by darkness here and we don't understand it," Pastor Galloway told the crowd moments before the decorative lights were turned on as the onlookers shivered in the freezing cold.

The lights had been put up shortly before Thanksgiving by a group of about 30 people, including the boys.

Ms. Galloway, pastor of Morenci United Methodist Church, which the Skeltons attend, told people not to dwell on the tragedy. They should realize, through it and God's love, they have become more united as a community, she said.

"Tonight as we light up the town, be assured that Alex, Andrew, and Tanner see the light. And be assured they're coming home," she told people, many of whom were carrying flashlights as a symbol of light during hard times.

But as people stood there doing their best to ignore the falling temperature, a light dusting of snowflakes turned into a decent little squall.

The timing of that wasn't lost on a tearful Michelle Pilbeam, a good friend of Tanya Skelton, the boys' mother. Her estranged husband, John Skelton, is being held in the Lucas County jail in Toledo on three child-abduction charges. He is fighting extradition to Lenawee County.

Ms. Pilbeam said she has been with Ms. Skelton almost every day since the boys disappeared, and the tragedy has been every bit as hard on the mom as people can imagine.

They've spent a lot of time not only speculating about what might have happened, but also re-living pleasant memories. Such as camping. And goofing around with the Pilbeams' two youngest children, Sarah, 11, and Joel, 7. Their father, Mark Pilbeam, said the Skelton boys loved to fish.

"She has the love and support of a lot of people," Ms. Pilbeam said of Ms. Skelton. "She's doing the best she can do with the situation."

But the snow. Ah, the boys loved snow. And Christmas.

Ms. Pilbeam said those extra, well-timed snowflakes gave her a warm feeling during a sad event.

Not just tree-lighting

Pastor Galloway made no secret it was more than just another tree-lighting ceremony as the hoards of people arrived, many holding the hands of their young children. The pastor told the crowd the event was "for the children of the community and to let them know they are loved."

She said she has no answers, other than to accept God's love and recognize how the tragedy has brought people together.

"People don't realize as we come together like this that God is with us. God is faithful. God is love," she said.

Then, after she and the onlookers sang "O Come, All Ye Faithful," Pastor Galloway delivered a prayer in which she asked God to give wisdom and strength to law enforcement — and to implore anyone with information to speak up.

Elliot Grondin, a sales representative for Yellow Roadway Corp., said he and his wife, Christy Grondin, a substitute teacher, don't know the Skeltons but were inspired to support them.

They came from Clayton, Mich., after discussing the meaning of Christmas at the dinner table with their daughters, Erika, 9, and Kaitlyn, 7, both students at Lincoln Elementary School in Hudson, Mich. The two parents told their girls how Jesus inspired people to come together in a time of need, Mr. Grondin said.

The girls accompanied them to the event.

"We came out because we hope somebody would come out if it was our children someday," his wife said.

She said her younger daughter was confused why someone might hurt a child.

Crystal Tucker, a Morenci native who lives in Adrian, is the mother of a 5-year-old girl and a 2-year-old girl. Neither attended, but their mother said it was important for her to support her hometown.

"Pretty much everyone's reeling from the impact of it," Ms. Tucker said of the boys' disappearance.

Thinking of the boys

One elderly woman, Beverly Fortney, who also lives in Adrian after spending most of her life in Morenci, said she's yearned to help in some way but is physically unable to assist with the search. She said she felt compelled to give something back to her hometown with her presence, too, after dealing with a few setbacks in her life.

"In your heart, you want to be joyful this time of year, but you can't," she said.

Pastor Galloway, who moved to Morenci in July from Alpena, Mich., later told reporters people need to enjoy the Christmas season.

"Celebrate, celebrate!" she said. "Be together, be a family. You think the boys wouldn't want that?"

The pastor said she remembered being amused by the eagerness of the boys on Nov. 21, when they were among 30 people hanging up lights at the park. They were determined to get up on the roof of the park's shelter so they could hang lights shaped like icicles.

"They're just boys. That's what all boys like to do," she said.

They also were among about 30 who put decorative lights up at the church. The boys were so excited about Christmas, they came with a group to her parsonage that night to see how the lights on its 70-foot outdoor tree looked in the dark, Ms. Galloway said.

"There are good people in the world," Ms. Galloway told reporters. "We live next door to them, we live across the street from them. The world will be better because of the choices we make."

http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20101206/NEWS16/101209798

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