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From the Los Angeles Times

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Gov. Jerry Brown toughens sanctions for cellphones in prison

The new rule will remove up to 90 days of good-behavior credit for inmates caught with devices. The governor also signed a measure eliminating fingerprinting for food stamp recipients.

by Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

October 7, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento -- California prison inmates caught with cellphones will face more time behind bars, and those smuggling the devices in from outside could also be locked up, under a measure signed Thursday by Gov. Jerry Brown.

He also required health insurers to cover maternity services, mandated that state regulations be made more business-friendly and eliminated fingerprinting of food stamp recipients.

The cellphone measure, one of more than 30 bills Brown approved, follows a proliferation of mobile devices found with state prisoners. About 10,700 of the phones were confiscated in state prisons last year; offenders included mass murderer Charles Manson.

The new law will take away up to 90 days of good-behavior credits from convicts caught with the devices. Visitors and prison employees found trying to smuggle them into prison face misdemeanor charges with penalties of up to six months in jail and fines of $5,000 for each one confiscated.

"When criminals in prison get possession of a cellphone, it subverts the very purpose of incarceration," Brown said. "They use these phones to organize gang activity, intimidate witnesses and commit crimes. Today's action will help to break up an expanding criminal network and protect law-abiding Californians."

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who introduced the proposal, SB 26, predicted the new law would be "a significant deterrent for people thinking about smuggling phones in."

Brown also signed an executive order Thursday mobilizing prison officials to try to stop the inflow of phones. He called for more searches to collect phones already in prisoners' hands and for acceleration of a plan to jam unauthorized phone calls.

The governor also ordered corrections officials to examine the possible use of metal detectors to screen those entering the lockups.

Several of Brown's actions Thursday were intended to increase participation in programs to feed the poorest residents.

Brown did away with the requirement that food stamp recipients be fingerprinted after questions were raised about the cost of the practice and its effectiveness in preventing fraud. Starting Jan. 1, the Statewide Finger Imaging System will end for the 3.8 million Californians participating in the federally funded food stamp program, called CalFresh.

Only about half of eligible Californians receive CalFresh benefits, according to Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (D-Sylmar), the author of AB 6.

Brown agrees with the determination of most other states that "fingerprints are not a necessary component of this program," said spokesman Evan Westrup. "Our state lags far behind the rest of the country in utilizing federal food assistance funding, and this common-sense bill will help ensure California families don't go hungry."

The change is opposed by most Republican state legislators, including Sen. Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo. "To me, it's the height of irresponsibility to eliminate protections against fraud when we are laying off teachers and running record budget deficits," Blakeslee said in an interview.

The state spends about $15 million a year on the fingerprinting system. Department of Social Services officials estimate that it has avoided $60 million in fraudulent welfare payments, based on an extrapolation of a study done by Los Angeles County.

Others cited a report by the state auditor questioning the accuracy of the savings claims and the validity of applying a county study to a statewide program. Fuentes said California has other anti-fraud measures in place.

Counties will be allowed to use Social Security Administration records to identify and enroll senior citizens who are eligible for CalFresh benefits under another newly signed law, AB 69 by Assemblyman James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose).

New mothers will benefit from some of the legislation Brown signed Thursday. Employers are required to maintain and pay for health coverage while women are on maternity leave, under SB 299 by Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa). And every individual and group health insurance policy must include maternity services starting July 1, 2012, under SB 222 by Evans and AB 210 by Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina).

"I want the next generation of Californians to get the best possible start in life," the governor said in a statement.

Brown also agreed to require state agencies, when revising regulations, to do so in ways that are least burdensome and most cost-effective for businesses.

SB 617 by Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) was hailed by California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg, who said it "sends an important message to job creators that California is taking steps to improve our regulatory climate."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brown-legislation-20111007,0,220948,print.story

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MEXICO: News of another U.S. gun-tracking program stirs criticism

Commentators from across the political spectrum expressed criticism after The Times revealed this week that a Fast and Furious-style gun program under President George W. Bush allowed guns to "walk" across the border into Mexico during 2006 and 2007.

Both undercover programs were intended to track guns bought in the United States until they reached top cartel suspects, but instead many weapons were lost.

The leading left-leaning newspaper La Jornada went so far as to ask in an editorial Wednesday whether the U.S. is an "ally or enemy," and a columnist in a right-leaning paper accused the Americans of violating Mexico's sovereignty (link in Spanish).

The Times reported from Washington on Monday that the Bush administration managed a program similar to Fast and Furious in 2006-07. Mexican President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.

In that program, dubbed Wide Receiver, weapons were allowed into Mexico, just as later occurred in Operation Fast and Furious in 2009 and 2010, The Times reported. About 2,000 weapons were "walked" in Mexico and later showed up at scores of crime scenes, Mexican officials have said.

The controversy surrounding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has largely turned into a political struggle between Republicans and Democrats in Washington, but in Mexico it has played out amid declarations that U.S. policies and drug consumption are worsening the country's bloody drug war.

"In sum, the gringo government has been sending weapons to Mexico in a premeditated and systematic manner, knowing that their destinations were Mexican criminal organizations," wrote columnist Manuel J. Jauregui in the daily Reforma newspaper.

La Jornada's editorial page argued with exasperation that news of the earlier operation was cause enough to call for the immediate suspension of the so-called Merida Initiative, the U.S. aid package that provides $1.4 billion to help Mexico counter drug cartels.

The Wide Receiver operation is also spurring reaction in Mexico's Congress. In a meeting of the Senate's public safety committee, where the topic of a response arose this week, one senator said (link in Spanish): "We can no longer tolerate what is occurring. There must be condemnation from the state."

Drug-related violence began to take off in 2007 after the launch of Calderon's military-led campaign against drug cartels.

Since then, at least 40,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war, and thousands more have disappeared.

In an interview with Times correspondents, Mexican Atty. Gen. Marisela Morales has previously said that her office was kept in the dark about Fast and Furious and that allowing weapons into Mexico would constitute "an attack on the safety of Mexicans."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/10/mexico-wide-receiver-reaction-guns-weapons-left-right.html

Justice for Cory Maples

The Supreme Court hears the case of the convicted murderer from Alabama who missed a deadline for an appeal because a notice sent to his two lawyers was sent back marked 'return to sender.'

October 7, 2011

When even conservative Supreme Court justices express sympathy for a death row inmate, it's a good bet that a miscarriage of justice has occurred. That's the case with Cory Maples, a convicted murderer from Alabama, who missed a deadline for an appeal because a notice sent to his two lawyers was sent back marked "return to sender." At oral arguments this week, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. asked the lawyer for the state of Alabama: "Mr. Maples has lost his right to appeal through no fault of his own through a series of very unusual and unfortunate circumstances.... Why push this technical argument?"

Maples had been convicted of shooting two friends to death after a night of drinking. After his conviction, he unsuccessfully filed a petition for relief, claiming that his trial lawyer had failed to investigate or offer evidence about his mental health history, his intoxication at the time of his crime and his alcohol and drug history. Maples' new lawyers in New York — and a local counsel — were sent a notice informing them that Maples had 42 days to file a further appeal. None responded (the New York lawyers had left their firm). The state refused to give Maples another chance to file an appeal.

Maples' story is a particularly egregious example of injustice by a state, and perhaps he will finally find relief. But vast numbers of questionable decisions involving convicted murderers never make it to the Supreme Court. That is because the court's primary objective in selecting cases for review is not the redress of individual grievances but the shaping of the law in general. (The justices do typically get involved when an execution is imminent, but that is no consolation for inmates who are kept on death row, ineligible for lighter punishment, because of official errors.)

It is unreasonable to expect the Supreme Court to address every injustice experienced by death row inmates. The surer way to eliminate those errors is to abolish capital punishment. Although the conventional wisdom is that repeal is politically unpopular, New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007 and Illinois followed suit this year. California should join them. According to a new Field Poll, although 68% of Californians want the death penalty to remain on the books, 48% say they would prefer that someone convicted of first-degree murder be sentenced to life without parole, compared with 40% who would choose execution.

The overriding reason for abolishing capital punishment is that it is morally offensive. Other civilized nations long ago recognized that taking a human life, even that of a convicted murderer, is barbaric. But it also has been established that the administration of capital punishment, like the criminal justice system in general, is marred by mistakes. Even when they don't lead to the execution of the innocent, these errors can consign prisoners to death row who don't belong there. It's always welcome when the Supreme Court rectifies one of those errors, but the best remedy is abolition.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-death-20111007,0,2262878,print.story

Mandating E-Verify would be a mistake

Rep. Lamar Smith's Legal Workforce Act would expand the use of E-Verify, an untrustworthy program designed to weed out illegal immigrants from the workforce.

October 7, 2011

Here we go again. Every year for the last five, immigration hawks in Congress have sought to require all businesses to use an error-plagued federal system known as E-Verify to ensure that all new hires are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants.

This year's proposal, known as the Legal Workforce Act, deserves special attention because it's being disingenuously advertised as a jobs plan. Its author, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), says that expanding E-Verify nationally will exorcise illegal immigrants from the workforce and create new opportunities for unemployed Americans.

That's nice in theory, but there is little evidence to suggest that out-of-work Americans will rush in to pick onions, slaughter cattle, mow lawns or wash dishes if undocumented immigrants are driven away. Consider recent events in Georgia, where lawmakers enacted harsh laws targeting illegal immigrants and requiring employers to use E-Verify. As predicted, undocumented immigrants fled the fields. Few legal workers, however, stepped in to perform backbreaking work for little more than the minimum wage. Now farmers say they face labor shortages and rotting crops. Similar complaints have been heard in Alabama and other states that have adopted laws intended to drive out illegal workers.

What's more, there is real doubt as to whether E-Verify can accurately weed out undocumented immigrants. A 2010 report conducted for the government by the research group Westat found that E-Verify failed to detect illegal workers 54% of the time. The reason is simple. The system can't detect identity fraud. The program checks workers' names against databases kept by the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, but if an undocumented immigrant presents valid documents that belong to another person, he or she may not be flagged as unauthorized. In addition, Westat estimates that just under 1% of all legal applicants would be tagged as unauthorized. Though the system allows applicants eight days to prove their legal status, more than half would not be able to do so in time.

In fact, Smith's bill wouldn't provide American businesses with a legal workforce. It would merely drive millions of undocumented workers further underground, where unscrupulous employers can more easily exploit them. A study by the Public Policy Institute of California found that that is exactly what happened in Arizona. And it wouldn't make life easier for employers. It could actually cost small-business owners nearly $2.7 billion to implement, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Requiring employers to hire legal workers is the right thing to do. But demanding that businesses rely on an untrustworthy program to do so is not.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-everify-20111007,0,42752,print.story

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From Google News

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Delaware

A new course in crime fight

Wilmington to study Rhode Island's success

An unconventional policing strategy that has squelched violent drug markets in Providence, R.I., and other cities could help Wilmington lower its violent crime rate, city officials acknowledged Thursday.

Mayor James Baker and Police Chief Michael Szczerba said a three-day series in The News Journal this week prompted them to want to learn more about how Providence police used the so-called High Point strategy.

Their statement reverses Szczerba's initial resistance to the strategy because it involves giving a handful of nonviolent drug dealers a second chance to avoid prosecution. Szczerba said last week he had "no interest whatsoever" in trying the strategy.

"I am not enamored with the prospect of coddling criminals who break the law and terrorize neighborhoods," Szczerba said in the emailed statement Thursday, "but I am also not so entrenched in my position that I am opposed to looking closer at this combined model of law enforcement and the application of social services.

"I will approach our exploration of what is happening in Providence and other cities with an open mind," he said.

During the past decade, Wilmington has seen its violent-crime rate climb to the third-highest in the nation in 2009 and 2010 among cities its size. The city has set modern-day homicide records in three of the past five years.

Providence's crime rate has been gradually dropping during the past decade.

Officials said Szczerba had called Providence's Acting Police Chief Hugh Clements on Thursday but had not yet spoken to him.

Councilwoman Loretta Walsh, who heads the public safety committee, said she wished the city would have been as quick to consider plans the council has presented for dealing with crime, including a 24-hour community policing plan.

"We presented this to them like five different times," Walsh said.

During Thursday's city council meeting several council members thanked city police officers for the work they are doing in the community, adding there have been positive changes. And while saying there were problems in the city, several complained about The News Journal's portrayal of Wilmington.

"Everything can benefit from some improvement in government, in safety in getting involved in our Wilmington," Councilman Michael A. Brown Sr. said. "What kind of pricked my heart a little bit were some of the articles recently in The News Journal that really painted a dismal picture of our Wilmington stating the violence in the city is out of control."

Brown added more of the community needs to get involved to help alleviate these problems.

Decision cheered

Community activists welcomed the mayor's decision to try something that could repair relations with the community.

"Oh wow. That's beautiful," said Brother Lamotte X, who heads the Wilmington Peacekeepers, an anti-violence community group that travels around the city advocating an end to violence. "It also looks like this program will help the community to be able to form a relationship with the police officers from the top to the ground so that we can squash these problems in the community."

This relationship is something that is needed in Wilmington's communities, especially the black community, Lamotte X said. "It's good for all communities, but particularly in our community, where all hell is breaking loose."

The Peacekeepers spent part of Thursday night marching along the site of the city's two latest homicides at 17th and Thatcher streets and 25th and Thatcher streets.

Lamotte X said he felt The News Journal's articles and community's comments finally reached the ears of city leaders.

"They pricked their conscious," Lamotte X said. "People have been complaining for a long time."

Baker said last week he was not interested in discussing alternative policing strategies. He said he didn't think a new policing strategy could overcome the larger social problems of poverty, racism, unemployment and broken families he contends are at the root of crime.

On Thursday, however, Baker acknowledged Wilmington may have something to learn from practices in Providence.

"I want to know what's going on in Providence, and after discussing with the chief, we both agree that it's exactly what we have been advocating for: a model of law enforcement and social services, and so we need to be looking at it."

Szczerba also appeared more open to alternatives.

"The Wilmington Police Department is continually adapting to the ever-changing patterns of crime and the ever-changing approaches used by criminals to violate the law," Szczerba said Thursday.

How it works

The strategy got its start in High Point, N.C., where police had grown frustrated with an open-air drug market in the West End neighborhood. At least one of the city's dozen murders a year happened in West End.

The strategy is based on the work of David Kennedy, now director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control and professor of criminal justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He worked with Boston police in the 1990s to reduce gang violence.

The strategy starts with the traditional police work of surveillance and undercover drug buys to identify all the players in a drug market. Top-level and violent dealers are arrested and prosecuted.

Nonviolent low-level dealers are called in to a meeting with police, prosecutors, community members and social service agencies. They're shown video and other evidence of their dealing.

The dealers are told that if they're caught selling drugs again, they'll be prosecuted based on the case police have built against them. "Banking" that case allows police to make a credible prosecution threat, Kennedy said.

Community members also tell the dealers to stop because they're destroying their neighborhood and families. Social workers promise to help them get straight.

Success

Police in High Point and Providence and researchers who have studied the strategy say the drug market dries up almost immediately. People who live in those communities say it makes a "night and day" difference in their lives.

"On a scale of zero to 10, it used to be a zero, and now it's a 10. That's how good it is," said Rolando Matos, who lives in Providence's once-notorious Chad Brown neighborhood, where police used the strategy in 2008.

Jim Summey has seen the dramatic effect on High Point's West End and the four other neighborhoods where police have used the strategy. He was pastor of a West End church and is now executive director of High Point Community Against Violence. Summey dismissed the idea a community can't make progress in reducing crime until all its social problems are resolved.

"You can tell your mayor he's right about all those social problems, but you won't change them in the next five years," Summey said. "But if you do this program, six months from now, you'll lower the crime rate on your streets."

Summey said cutting the crime rate didn't solve the city's social ills. But it has allowed community groups, churches and social service agencies to work more safely in those neighborhoods, he said.

Summey said the strategy "starts knocking down this huge problem of racism" by repairing the decades-old rift between a mostly white police force and a mostly minority community.

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20111007/NEWS01/110070325/A-new-course-crime-fight

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Connecticut

Mayor: Major Crime Declining In City

MIDDLETOWN — — Major crime in the city was down 23 percent in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the first quarter of 2010, officials said Thursday.

From January to March this year, aggravated assaults and larcenies were down significantly and the number of burglaries also fell, said Mayor Sebastian Giuliano.

The total crime index fell 23 percent and there were decreases in several categories. The crime index is the total reported murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, larcenies, motor vehicle thefts and arsons. Data are compiled by the state police.

There were no murders in the reporting period in 2010 and 2011, and one rape in each of those time periods.

Giuliano said the city's community policing efforts were a major part of the crime reduction.

"Our police force has embraced community policing and standards," Giuliano said in a news release. "We have increased our force, done an outstanding job with training and promoting and our citizens are now seeing the benefits."

Acting Police Chief Patrick McMahon said the department's officers have been a more visible part of the community over the last several years, which has helped residents become comfortable with the department.

"When the community gets involved, crimes get solved or crimes get deterred," McMahon said Thursday.

He said officers are involved in community meetings and neighborhood watch groups, and the visibility is having a positive impact. He said night patrols have also been increased to deter crime.

"We're trying to be more visible at night, doing things like putting the cruiser lights on so they're more visible in the neighborhoods," McMahon said.

In the first quarter of 2010, there were nine robberies, 10 aggravated assaults, 29 burglaries, 172 larcenies, eight motor vehicle thefts and one arson. In the first quarter of 2011, there were eight robberies, three aggravated assaults, 25 burglaries, 130 larcenies, nine motor vehicle thefts and no arsons.

Democrats on Thursday challenged the mayor's interpretation of the data and said it is incomplete.

"This is a very narrow measurement that looks at only one-quarter of data," Democratic spokeswoman Ellen Hart wrote in a news release.

McMahon said the data is the most recent data available from the state.

http://articles.courant.com/2011-10-06/community/hc-middletown-crime-down-1007-20111006_1_motor-vehicle-thefts-larcenies-crime-index

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From the Department of Justice

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Department of Justice Awards More Than $243 Million to Hire New Officers Grants to Cincinnati and 237 Additional Agencies Aimed at Creating and Saving Law Enforcement Jobs

WASHINGTON –Attorney General Eric Holder today joined Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and Director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS) Bernard Melekian to announce more than $15 million in grant awards to agencies in Ohio through the 2011 COPS Hiring Program. In total, more than $243 million in grants will be awarded nationwide to 238 law enforcement agencies and municipalities to hire new officers and deputies.

The COPS Hiring Program is a competitive grant program that provides funding directly to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies to hire police officers dedicated to addressing specific crime and disorder challenges confronting communities. The grants provide 100 percent funding for the entry-level salaries and benefits of newly-hired, or rehired, full-time officer positions over a three-year period.

“Block by block – city by city, department by department, the administration is determined – absolutely determined – to help build capacity, to enable our law enforcement partners to make the most of precious resources and to encourage their most promising and effective public safety efforts,” said Attorney General Holder.

For the 2011 COPS Hiring Program, 2,712 applications were received requesting more than $2 billion and 8,999 positions. Funding decisions were based on an agency's commitment to community policing, crime rates, changes in law enforcement budgets and other local fiscal data (poverty, unemployment, foreclosure rates, etc.).

“Cities across the country are dealing with numerous challenges and we are pleased to be able to assist their public safety efforts,” said Director Melekian. “Creating and maintaining jobs is a key part of this program. This funding helps support local departments in their efforts to increase their ranks, enhance their relationship with the community and directly address their public safety concerns.”

The 2011 COPS Hiring Program awards will create or help preserve 1,021 sworn law enforcement positions. The jobs created, preserved, or refilled with COPS Hiring Program funds will advance community policing at the local level and contribute greatly to the quality of life of the citizens in each community.

The COPS Office is a federal agency responsible for advancing community policing nationwide. For additional information about the COPS Hiring Program, and to view a list of municipalities that received grants, visit the COPS website at www.cops.usdoj.gov.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/October/11-ag-1321.html

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